Benefits The River Mile Network Offers

Whether you are a teacher, school administrator, education official, resource manager, or scientist, The River Mile has several benefits that can help you meet your objectives.

Students and teachers engage in science education outdoors and explore scientific practices through real-world resource projects. By spending time in the field investigating and researching their section of the watershed, groups become intimately familiar with their outdoor classroom.

The River Mile Network encourages connections between STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) professionals and students around the watershed exploring the essential question: “How do relationships among components of an ecosystem affect watershed health?” The purpose of The River Mile is to connect students, teachers, and STEM professionals and promote collaborations, data sharing, best practices, lessons learned, examples, links to resources, and real-world scientific data.

Other Benefits Include

Benefits for Teachers and Informal Educators

  • A variety of age-appropriate FieldSTEM lessons and investigations, which integrate into your curriculum
  • Engage students in collaborative, community-based research and activities that help them learn about the local environment as well as how it connects to the entire watershed
  • The teacher training program prepares teachers to conduct fieldwork activities and apply those lessons inside the classroom. Teacher training is overseen by the Pacific Education Institute
  • Training opportunities that help teachers heighten their passion for science and network with their peers around the world
  • Opportunity to become a STEM Champion

Benefits for Resource Managers, Scientists, and Other Professionals

Resource managers, agency personnel, and informal educators interested in The River Mile can participate in all training. Training is available to help you work meaningfully with teachers and students in your area. It is very important to understand how you and your agency/organization can support schools in meeting the education standards.

There are many ways you can provide additional help, such as serve as a Watershed Facilitator for your area, provide additional training, work with the groups in your area on their river mile projects, write articles for the newsletters, and do presentations for webinars are all great examples.

  • TRM provides you with the opportunity to contribute to STEM education in schools and other learning centers. Professionals can propose projects or get involved with educators’ and students’ projects.
  • Database contains data obtained by students.
  • TRM sparks students’ interest in STEM careers by exposing them to the practices of science and helping them learn about the environment around them.
  • Watershed Facilitators – informal educators – facilitate the implementation of The River Mile in their local area. Facilitators recruit teachers and schools, provide training opportunities and mentoring activities for teachers to promote the teaching and learning of science, enhance environmental literacy and stewardship, and promote scientific discovery.
  • Become a Point of Contact or Resource in the digital library.