RESOURCES

SSI School Resources on freshwater and stewardship

Last Updated: 2023/10/12

SSI FWC & freshwater school teaching resources for, and courtesy of, our island's school teachers and students.

SSI FWC School Field Kit Available!

Part of a SSI Foundation 2020-2021 grant spend was used to acquire freshwater field measurement kit suitable for FWC educational (and science!) school use.  The Water Rangers freshwater quality kits (with our local, FWC adaptations), are a great way to get school students and after-school groups involved in our WPS, FWC island watershed stewardship project.

Interested in knowing more, please contact the SSI FWC project lead.

Teacher Resources

As a starting point please have a look at our updated (2023) SSIFWC volunteer onboarding presentation.  And there are now some cool Transition Salt Spring  (TSS) Island freshwater and forest educational infographics and video resources available on the TSS Forest and Freshwater webpages.

 Freshwater related resources for school teachers - background reading, FWC Misc. Freshwater Charts, Tables, Notes , FWC Our field work, charts field data - surface and FWC FreshWater Model & Islands  provides some useful background diagrams and information, with data and models relevant to SSI freshwater discussions. 

Our SSI "Watershed Notes" and the island area based "images and videos" (FWC volunteers, field work, equipment and homeoffice) provide information on the island's watersheds and our FWC stewardship project, and show how the FreshWater Catalogue work can be used to steer class, or field, conversations.

There are a number of UVIC managed School Based Weather Stations collecting weather data on the island(s).  These are typically installed on the roofs of our SSI schools,  with these automated stations collecting (and charting) 24/7 a variety of island weather cf. the UVIC weather station teacher resources.

Together with their "Teacher Resources" the UVIC SSI weather datasets, can drive classroom discussions around the "hydrological cycle" and "watersheds".  Weather data (and its variability) are a great conversation starter to prompt island-oriented discussions and "Q & A" around: our numerous island watersheds; the impact of rainfall (precipitation) on our island's creeks, wetlands, lakes; freshwater "resources" (aka our water supply); rainwater vs groundwater; etc!  

Watershed Walks?

We now do "watershed walks" in several island areas, for schools and for the general public.  To find out more about these walks and when the next one might be please register your interest with the SSIFWC Project Lead.

SD64 SSI "Spheres" modules teaching resources?

We now have a WPS "Freshwater Salt Spring" film short that can be used, as an entry point?, and as an educational resource in the classroom.  To support this video there is a teacher information and resources document for teachers.

We are currently finalising some locally developed, tailored school modules that will be available for the SSI school community , with a draft of these "Teacher Hydrosphere/Biosphere School modules" now available for perusal!

And we are working on developing funding for a Shaped By Water educational documentary (or docu-series) showing what island freshwater stewardship is about, using a modular docu-series approach to make this accessible to the public and schools!

Want to know more please contact the SSIFWC project lead.

SSI Teachers, some possible island freshwater Q & A primers?

For starter conversations on island freshwater, here are some example Q & A:
Q. Where is the nearest watershed boundary to our school(!)

A. It depends - have a look at the CRD island watersheds map as a starting point for where your school is, which watershed it is in, and which watersheds the students live in!

Q. Is a creek response to rainfall always instantaneous (if not, why not)? 

A. Creek flow is influenced by surface (runoff) and ground (infiltration) conditions, cf Teacher Resources

Q. Why does a creek flow if it has not been raining, for some time...?

A. Through year perennial flow is a usually influenced by groundwater contributions (baseflow), most significant in the summer but present year round (particularly after 5 months of drought...),
Interested in additional question primers?  please drop the SSI FWC project lead a note.

Q. Where do Salt Spring Islanders get their freshwater?

A. While some 45% of the island community obtain their freshwater from the island's water districts something like 55% of the island obtains water from wells, ponds, lakes and creeks!  These surface water abstractions (sometimes known as those "black pipes") depend on our islands, rainfall, groundwater and natural ecosystem (services) to supply and maintain our drinking water (both quantity and quality).

Q. How much do we know about Salt Spring Island's freshwater?

A. Locally on the island, via the various island water districts and stewardship groups quite alot, island-wide not alot..., though work is ongoing to improve this situation, the FreshWater Catalogue being a part of it!

Q. How many watersheds are there on Salt Spring Island?

A. We don't know... but counting all of them would be great if someone wants to volunteer!

Q. How much of the (95cm) rainfall that lands on Saltspring stays on the island?

A. Good question and the short answer is we don't know but it is likely a low percentage  (<10% or perhaps even < 5%).

Classroom Resources

There are a range of online resources some are highlighted in this resources for classroom modules - notional grades indicated link the Water Rangers "key tests" gives some useful summaries of how to interpret the various field chemistry measurements we make in our FreshWater Catalogue project.  

For more advanced school resources have a look at:

Student Resources

Interested in knowing more about what we/you do in the field?   Background reading, resources, field notes and homeoffice webpages on this site have lots of useful material.  And our FWC images give an idea of some of the places we get to and what fieldwork looks like.

Field musings?

It's always fun to think about things while in the field, so please do and encourage students to do the same.  Capturing it (and thinking about it) in your journal or in your field notebook is a key part of the learning process.  Waterproof field note books are available on request!

Note - if you see something missing on these SSI school resources pages that might be useful for students, or for teachers, please drop a note to the SSIFWC Project Lead, and we will slot it in!

Other Resources 

Locally Generated Educational Materials

The following Coastal Douglas Fir (CDF) ecosystems, and their natural ecosystems services relationship to freshwater/watersheds, infographics and video, are the result of cooperation between the Transition Salt Spring (TSS) Ecological Research Network (ERN) and the Islands Trust (IT):

SSI Watershed/Area Maps

A variety of local watershed field area are available as FWC field area watershed maps.  For our available local watershed school maps:

And Watersheds on SSI Island (CRD) - a large scale (high resolution) map suitable for printing, and an animated 3D view of the island and it's watersheds. 

Cf. the SSIFWC webmap for an overview of where FWC field data collection is/has been active, and for additional SSI water oriented map contents (eg watersheds, geology, water wells, licensed  springs etc) - available via the webmap drop-down menu (on the left).

Other Island Organisations/Stewardship Groups

Information on other island groups and their additional resources are available here.

Other useful resources

Courtesy of: