The Huron River Watershed Council's effort to go into classrooms and teach kids about their environment has gotten a boost from the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation. A $250,000 grant will help fund an ongoing program that promotes hands-on learning of science, technology, engineering and math skills.
Jason Frenzel is volunteer and stewardship coordinator for the Huron River Watershed Council.
He says they'll visit schools in the watershed and enlist students in the effort to measure chemicals and insect life in the Huron River and its tributaries.
"We help the students test for those same parameters so the youth learn both the testing parameter itself and some jobs skills, and they learn the quality of their local waterway," Frenzel says. "So they get an environmental education, also."
Frenzel says kids remember what they've learned much better with a hands-on approach.
The grant from the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation will be used to reach out to K-12 students in a dozen schools in the Huron River Watershed over the next two years.