A week of great fun and learning in the river! This week-long exploration of Winooski Watershed starts in the verdant headwaters of the Winooski River in the Green Mountains, and works its way downstream, unpacking fundamental concepts in river science along the way. We’ll visit the old forests way up the Winooski’s North Branch to see where forest ecology and river health intersect. We’ll head downstream to meet a family of resident beavers to see how this species historically defined the flow of water across the Northeast. We’ll visit a brook catastrophically altered in 2023 to witness how streams are adjusting to our ever-increasing extreme rain events. And we’ll envision a path forward for our vulnerable towns and cities that have developed over the last three centuries right along our river channels and floodplains.

After a week in the watershed, teachers will be able to “read” a river, and interpret the pieces, patterns, and processes that comprise different parts of the stream system. This course is organized spatially—from upstream to downstream—as well as conceptually—the river “ABCs,” or Abiotic (fluvial geomorphology, geology, and hydrology), Biotic (aquatic and riparian ecology; fish and wildlife biology), and Cultural (human settlement history, stormwater management, and channel alterations). Teachers will finish the week prepared with ideas and activities to integrate these concepts in their own middle- and high-school classrooms.