CWN ProjectWET Final Report

• Water Efficiency Grant Type: Public Education & Outreach Grant
• Applicant: Colorado Watershed Network
• Project Name: Project WET
• Title: Final Project WET Grant Report
• Date: 12/5/2008
• County: Statewide
• Water Efficiency - Doc Type: Final Report

Water Efficiency Grant Program Final Project WET Grant Report (CWN)
Preliminary analysis of Project DIET surveys indicate that 97.3% of responding participants
positively rated Project DIET workshops over the grant term. 60.9% indicated that they plan to use
Project ~XIET materials weekly or monthly with their students, These numbers reflect the high
quality and value of our volunteer facilitators and the Project ~XIET curriculum materials.
The Colorado `Xlatershed Network strategy involved reengaging previously trained facilitators
for all the Projects (Project's ~XIET, ~XIILD and Learning Tree) in Project ~XIET. ~XIe did this by
developing and recruiting facilitators who are adept at water education. The successes are
immediately observable. ~XIe more than doubled the number of New Facilitators that were trained
to lead Project ~XIET workshops, training a total of 72 new facilitators during the grant term. (See
Table 1 for a description of the results.) These numbers are expected to compound over the long
term. Three New Facilitator Trainings, one more than anticipated in the initial grant request, were
used to build this corps of skilled volunteers who are passionate about training educators. One of
the New Facilitator Trainings targeted teachers in the Aurora Public School District, which is fully
integrating Projects ~XIET, ~XIILD, and Learning Tree into their K-12 science curriculum.
The Colorado Project ~XIET Coordinator focused on partnership building in addition to
facilitator training and support to increase the number of educators trained and to ensure that
water education is making a difference across the state. According to the recent ~Xlater Education
Task Force survey, 40% of youth water educators in the state use Project ~XIET materials as part of
their programs. The addition of sponsored and specialized workshops further indicates significant
qualitative gains. The specialized workshops add additional components that make them uniquely
successful. These components include multiple day trainings focused on local water topics.
Curriculum is presented that meets the local community needs and expert resources and local field
trips are used to connect educators with resources in their community. These trainings take
significantly more planning and coordination that the typical 6.8 hour Project ~XIET training and
are extremely well received by participating educators and the partnering community members and
organizations. This aspect of Colorado Project ~XIET has grown the program, especially in depth.
Table 1.
Workshop T pe Number of
Participants Number of
Workshops
SpecializedlSponsored 303 17
Basic Project WET 125 9
Pre-Service Teacher 190 7
New Facilitator Training 72 3
Facilitator Leadership 201 2
Tota I 891 38
The geographic breadth of Project ~XIET workshops offered during the grant period was also
above and beyond expectations. C~XIN is excited by the significant increase in workshops and
trainings offered beyond the South Platte Front Range region. ~Iorkshops and trainings in the
South Platte Front Range made up just over half of all the Project DIET educational events (55%)
and total number trained (51 %), with nearly 200 trained on the ~Xlest Slope (see Table 2).
Additional efforts in the Arkansas and Rio Grande basins are also helping spread Project ~XIET
across the state. Forty-nine percent of educators were trained outside the South Platte Front Range
region. Achieving geographical diversity is critical to a statewide program and provides an
opportunity for increased understanding of Colorado's water resources across the state.
Compared to Fiscal Year 2006, the number of workshops, the geographical diversity, and the
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