Educational Program: Grades K - Five

ACTIVITY-BASED PROGRAMS – These experiential learning programs incorporate classroom-based simulations and activities that reinforce educational topics. Staff will guide students to experience scientific concepts in an exciting and easy-to-understand way.

The Way The Water Flows
This program demonstrates the powerful effect of rainwater and how it interacts with a variety of surfaces. Students will experience how ecosystems play a role in water filtration and the department’s role in protecting those ecosystems. Then, they will experiment with varying designs to minimize stormwater runoff.

Land Use In Your Watershed
Using an Enviroscape model to provide observation and simulation, discussions will focus on the interactions of precipitation with various land use practices and the impacts they have on streams, lakes, wetlands and groundwater. Students will work through multiple scenarios and  pollution controls, testing their solutions’ hypothesis by demonstrating them on the model.

How Cool Is Your School?
In this investigative activity, students will first use infrared thermometers to explore how surface and air temperatures are influenced by materials in their environment. Second, students will work to design a sustainable city based on what they learned in their investigation.

Recycling: From Bin To Product
In this exciting relay race, students will practice the art of recycling products, as they learn about the benefits of recycling, the items that can be recycled, and the process that creates new products from old products.

Salt Marsh Estuaries In Your Backyard
Students will have a blast with this lesson about vital ecosystems present all along the Northeast coast: salt marsh estuaries! After discussing the value these habitats provide, students will create a live action food web and visualize the outcome if these ecosystems were to vanish.

Aquifer On the Go
This simple and effective program demonstrates the concept of an aquifer and how it functions through the hands-on creation of groundwater. Students will be able to recognize the importance of aquifers as a critical source of drinking water and explain the department’s role in protecting and conserving this valuable resource.

PRESENTATION-BASED PROGRAMS – Department staff can provide topic-based presentations to larger audiences. The About DEP Regulatory presentation takes a deep dive into DEP’s regulatory programs, which safeguard natural resources by overseeing permitting and compliance activities that protect air and water quality and by managing waste cleanups. This program is great for a Career Day or STEM Science Night, and leaves time for a Q&A session at the end.

If you are interested in requesting DEP staff to provide a program please click here.