Adopt-a-River Programs

School groups across the Island experience hands on field sampling, water chemistry, macro-invertebrate ID and electrofishing to analyse the health of Island streams.  Using the field data collected to  help develop Adopt site conservation and enhancement plans for landowners.

Teachers are provided curriculum matched and certified lesson plans, field and lab programs and protocols.

If your school group is interested in joining our monitoring team please contact the office.

Discover your River – targets ages 6-8 (grades 1-4) and initiates young children to the world of rivers and streams near their home and makes them aware of the importance of this ecosystem.  Through stories, in class activities, and a stream site discovery field trip, students learn about the importance of clean healthy waterways, biodiversity and the natural environment.  This is a general introductory program that prepares students for the more interactive Adopt-a-River.

Adopt-a-River– immerses young people in the subject of water.  Using basic scientific equipment and teaching materials, this program gives 10-15 year olds (grades 6-10) the chance to observe the natural environment of a river/stream, analyse some of the water’s parameters and discover the challenges associated with the conservation of a healthy waterway.  This environmental monitoring project has two main components: physical and chemical water analysis (pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nitrates, coliform bacteria) and the observation of macro-invertebrates.  Since they are particularly sensitive to physical and chemical changes in their environment, macro-invertebrates are excellent indicators, the data collected (overall variety and number of specimens from different groups) provides clues to the overall health and biodiversity of each river/stream study site.  

Fish Habitat Watch Out – targets ages 10-15 (grades 6-10) and gives students a chance to study fish habitat in their river near their school.  Designed for to expand upon the Adopt-a-River program, the project extends the students ecological learning and monitoring to include biological parameters important to fish habitat (shelter, current speed, erosion, and plant canopy).  Students use data obtained from the Adopt-a-River program in combination with new parameters; stability of riverbanks, shoreline vegetation to assess the quality of habitat for the section of river (stream) that they have adopted.  The students also take part in a scientific fishing activity, which gives them a chance to understand the fish that live in the habitat they are studying.  As with the Adopt-a-River program, the class activity concludes with the students taking some sort of concrete action to protect, conserve or restore fish habitat.  The student’s action is based in some way on data they gather.  The action can take the form of a clean-up, a tree planting day, the development of proposed management plan for the landowner, or an article in the local newspaper. When all the program steps have been carried out, the students write a report which is published to the CVRB Water Monitoring Youth Portal Website.