Recharge The Rain
Community Resilience through STEAM Education
A joint project of Watershed Management Group and Arizona Project WET
Sponsored by the NOAA Environmental Literacy Program and Tucson Water*
Recharge the Rain moves participants through a continuum from awareness to knowledge gain to conceptual understanding to action, inspiring teachers, students, and community members to adopt an ethic of environmental stewardship. Participants understand the relationships between local watershed health, the hydrologic cycle as well as the urban heat effect, and the repercussions of extreme weather events. They have invested in rainwater harvesting initiatives and employed their skills to mitigate environmental hazards for community resilience to increased temperatures, extreme storm events, and persistent drought.
Rtr2021.png
*NOAA Funding was completed in June 2021, but Tucson schools that are Tucson Water Customers can continue to participate in this project.
Recharge the Rain Teachers
Since 2017, Recharge the Rain has worked with 27 4th-12th grade Tucson teachers at 16 schools developing curricula in climate literacy and engineering design of rainwater harvesting systems, engaging students in citizen science monitoring projects, and implementing student-led designs of schoolyard rainwater harvesting systems.
In 2020 we have a cohort of new teachers and mentor teachers focusing in working groups on the topics of:
-
Science Investigations in Schoolyard Living Laboratories
-
Engineering Design of Rainwater Harvesting systems
-
Student Climate Action and Community Engagement through Artistic Expression
Recharge the Rain Students
Students are at the core of building community resilience learning about our watershed and the local climate threats of increased temperatures, extreme storm events, and persistent drought. Using the engineering design process they develop designs of rainwater harvesting systems employing rain basins to sink the rain and support native plants. Schoolyards are transformed into living laboratories for students to investigate the newly developed ecosystems using tools such as:
- CoCoRaHS
- Nature's Notebook
- ISeeChange
- Monitoring and sharing heat data.
Recharge the Rain Community
Community members can learn more about rainwater harvesting through:
- Watershed Management Group's Learning Center
- Pima County Cooperative Extension SmartScape
- Tucson Water Rainwater Harvesting Rebate
If you would like to participate in rainwater harvesting installations at schools contact Betsy Wilkening. Opportunities are available to participate in Watershed Management Group's (WMG) Green Living Co-op program. Learn more about WMG's School Program.
The Tucson office of the National Weather Service has information about monthly, daily normal and extreme weather and climate reports for learning more about our home.
Become a WMG Docent Visit WMG's Living Lab & Learning CenterBuild Your Own Basin-BYOB
When COVID-19 restrictions eliminated the ability to work with students and community members in person to bild schoolyard rain basins, the Build Your Own Basin (BYOB) project was created. In this project, teachers engage students in the engineering design of rain basins using the AquaSTEM rainwater harvesting curriculum (Office Version).
Check out our photo gallery:
