Grades TK – 8
Presented By: East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)

This webinar provided teachers with tools and information to talk to their students about drought and climate change as it relates to water conservation. The state of California is in its third year of drought, and the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) is asking its customers for a ten percent reduction in water use District-wide. Alice Towey, Manager of Water Conservation at EBMUD, provided an overview of EBMUD’s water supply and drought response. She then presented a slide deck developed by EBMUD with engaging activities that meet the NGSS requirements that teachers can use in the classroom setting to help students think about water and drought.

The slide deck describes the natural human-built water cycle, EBMUD’s source water, what a drought is, and why it’s important for everyone, including students, to do their part to save water. We discussed several in-class activities that teachers can do to help students think about how their water use affects the environment and identify ways that they can use water more efficiently that can be shared with their communities. We closed with some additional learning resources that teachers can use from organizations like the EPA and the State Department of Water Resources.

Resources from this Workshop

• Slides from presentation
• EBMUD Educational Resources
• Watershed lesson from Project WET
• Find more ideas and resources on how to Build Climate Literacy with your class.
• Find out about additional workshops in CRS’s climate change and environmental education professional development series.