Orange County Municipal Water District expands its “What About Water” high school program

The Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) has launched its second year of its high school water education program, “What About Water,” in a partnership with the Orange County Department of Education’s (OCDE) Inside the Outdoors (ITO) and various Orange County water agencies. The program began with 14 participating high schools and will expand to 23 high schools this year.

Since its inception in 1973, MWDOC’s Water Education School Program has evolved into what has become the standard for all water-education curriculum. To date, millions of Orange County students have benefited from the assembly-based program. For nearly 40 years, the elementary school program mascot’s “Ricki the Rambunctious Raindrop” has been educating students in grades K-5 about the water cycle, the importance and value of water, and the personal responsibility we all have as environmental stewards. The lessons learned in the elementary program are now carried into the high school effort.

MWDOC initiated the high school program to build on the success of its long-running elementary education program. The ITO program sends instructors into classrooms to teach students key water concepts and then guides them as the students organize a school-wide Expo to teach other students about the value of water.

For 2016-17, MWDOC is continuing a partnership with Discovery Cube Orange County (DCOC), that began in 2004, that has allowed both organizations to reach an increasing number of Orange County students each year and provide them with even greater educational experiences in water and science. The combination of the elementary school program, the MWDOC partnership with DCOC and this year’s expansion of the high school program provides Orange County youth with multiple opportunities for age-appropriate water education.

In addition, OCDE is working with MWDOC and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET) to host a teacher training for a water-quality curriculum and software package MET has developed with Caltech. MWDOC and OCDE are working with MET to ensure the MET program is introduced for possible use in Orange County, offering another avenue for water education.