“WATER ON THE MOVE”: A MOBILE HYDROLOGY EDUCATION PROGRAM TO BRING GEOSCIENCE TO RURAL APPALACHIAN SCHOOLS

Science education and public outreach programs are important strategies for reaching groups of young people who are underrepresented in the geosciences and inspiring them to pursue a degree in related STEM fields. Often however, due to geography or lack of resources, school groups from low income areas are not able to access these programs. In the Appalachian region, for example, counties are spread out over large geographic areas of mountainous terrain. K12 schools in rural communities often lack the funding or logistics to take their students to science museums, nature centers, or university campuses to expose them to scientists and research. With this in mind, we developed a mobile hydrology outreach program to bring hands-on science activities and awareness of geoscience career paths to these rural schools in Western North Carolina. Understanding the science and management of water resources is a topic that is woven through the K12 science curriculum of all states and one that is critical to local communities everywhere, so it’s a great fit for mobile science education. We developed a program called “Water On the Move” (WOTM) that uses a converted RV to serve as an extension of our department’s on-campus outreach programming and allows us to reach school communities that might not be able to bring their classes to our facilities. The focus of the WOTM project is to address students and teachers’ preconceptions about water science and regional water issues, while providing a “lab like” experience in the mobile classroom. The learning modules are aligned with science education standards and foster development of science practices such as using models, analyzing data and creating scientific explanations. Project outcomes will be shared with the audience to provide university geoscience departments, community colleges and K12 teachers ideas for engaging underserved school communities in science research and careers through the universal topic of water.