EastMauiWaterfalls
Resource Title: Watershed Education Tools | East Maui Watershed
Organization: East Maui Watershed Partnership
Description:

Watershed Education Tools is a collection of East Maui Watershed Partnership learning resources that teaches students about watersheds, native species, environmental threats, and conservation in Hawaiʻi. It includes narrated presentations, demonstration videos, assessments, virtual field trip materials, and interactive games like Jeopardy and Kahoot, with resources geared to different grade levels. The collection is designed to support classroom and virtual environmental education while helping educators engage students with place-based, Maui-focused science content.

Target Audience: 3rd - 5th grade, 6th - 12th grade, 6th - 8th grade, 6th grade and above, 7th - 12th grade, Adult Education, Educators, Facilitators, High School, College
Instructional Roles: Assessment, Enrichment, Hook activity, Main lesson
Environment: Classroom, Online only (e.g. interactive map), Self-guided
Content Type: Documentary, Historical, Interactive (Online), STEM investigation
Type Of Engagement: Investigate, Observe, Play / Explore, Reflect, Respond / Submit
Format: Presentation, Video, Webpage
Activity:

   1. Watershed Formation & Function Viewing Session

  • Students watch the Functions of a Watershed presentation and the Watershed Model video to build understanding of how watersheds form, how species arrive and adapt, and why watershed management matters in Hawaiʻi.
  • Follow with the provided Google assessment or a class discussion on water flow, land use, and ecosystem health.

   2. Interactive Watershed Model Demonstration

  • Use the watershed model video as a guide for students to observe how water moves through landscapes and how human or natural changes affect streams, forests, and runoff.
  • Have students label parts of a watershed and predict how pollution, erosion, or development might change the system.

   3. Maui Conservation Awareness Seminar

  • Students engage with selected segments from the Maui Mauka Conservation Awareness Session to learn about Hawaiian environmental history, native plants, native birds, and present-day threats.
  • Pair the session with pre- and post-assessments and ask students to summarize one major conservation challenge facing Maui’s ecosystems.

   4. Virtual Huakaʻi & Native Forest Exploration

  • Students take a virtual field trip to Waikamoi Preserve and explore Maui’s watersheds and native forest birds through video, worksheets, and guided reflection.
  • Ask students to record observations about habitat, biodiversity, and the relationship between forests and water resources.

    5. Native or Not? Species Identification Game

  • Students play the interactive Jeopardy-style game to identify whether species are native, endemic, indigenous, or invasive in Hawaiʻi. Use the activity to build vocabulary and reinforce how species status connects to conservation and watershed protection.

   6. Watershed Review Kahoot! Challenge

  • Students complete the watershed-themed Kahoot! after viewing the instructional materials to review concepts such as groundwater, streams, watershed formation, and pollution.
Topics Covered:
  • Watershed formation, function, and management in Hawaiʻi
  • Native Hawaiian plants, forest birds, and species diversity
  • Species arrival, adaptation, and adaptive radiation
  • Environmental history of the Hawaiian Islands
  • Current environmental threats, including invasive species and pollution
  • Water systems, stream flow, groundwater, and watershed conservation

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