Virtual Field Trip with the West Basin Municipal Water District
Summary
Join EarthEcho International on a virtual field trip to the West Basin Municipal Water District water recycling facility. Participants will receive an introduction to the agency’s water conservation and water recycling programs and delve deeper into the agency’s ocean water desalination research effort as a possible future drinking water supply.
Darryl Ramos-Young, Public Information Specialist, will lead us on an investigation of the state of freshwater resources in Southern California. After 7 years of severe drought, the West Basin Municipal Water District continues to develop innovative solutions to manage the local water resources. Essential to implementing those solutions is educating people on water conservation and evidence-based solutions water resource management for the citizens Southern California. EarthEcho traveled to SoCal this past October for our EarthEcho Expedition: Water By Design. This virtual field trip celebrates the launch of our classroom materials and digital resources that teachers can download from the EarthEcho website to support their students developing lasting solutions to water conservation and protection.
Panelists
Darryl Ramos-Young
Darryl Ramos-Young is the Public Information Specialist for the West Basin Municipal Water District, a local government agency providing water to over one million people in the coastal Los Angeles area. He earned his BS degree in Environmental Education from Humboldt State University and has over 30 years
of education program development and fundraising experience with local, state and national organizations. He helped create the Hawaii Environmental Education Association, served as a steering committee member for the Golden State Environmental Education Consortium is a board member of the California Environmental Education Foundation, and is the current Diversity Advisory Committee chairperson for the North American Association for Environmental Education. Darryl’s passion is strengthening the communication networks and available resources for civic ecology efforts to empower more urban community members to create positive social and environmental changes in their neighborhoods. His efforts have included expanding the community outreach for an environmental education grants program to diverse populations for Save-the-Redwoods League, building the first Los Angeles urban nature center for the National Audubon Society, and creating an environmental education job training program for urban young adults for the West Basin Municipal Water District.
Classroom Resources
Make A Splash: A Kid's Guide to Protecting Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers & Wetlands provides a closer look at our oceans and waterways and our role in protecting this water planet.
EarthEcho: Urbanized Water Cycle Lesson Plan: helps students describe the natural movement of water in the hydrologic cycle, identify the state of water as it moves through this cycle and the energy inputs that drive that movement, and understand how increased urbanization impacts the hydrosphere and adjoining biosphere.
EarthEcho: How-To-Reduce Your Personal Water Usage: Students will also determine how much water they use through a personal water usage inventory guide in addition to identifying ways they can help reduce their personal water footprint.
Hidden Water: Video on how water is "hidden" all around us.
West Basin Water District: West Basin Municipal Water District's Education Page
Science Standards
Potential Next Generation Science Standards Included in this Virtual Field Trip:
- ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems: Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species. But changes to Earth’s environments can have different impacts (negative and positive) for different living things. (MS-ESS3-3)
- ESS2-3.Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
- ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts of saltwater and freshwater in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
- ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
- MS-ESS3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.