Lodi teachers: Earn a stipend for completing a California EEI unit focused on watershed issues
The California Education and the Environment Initiative is a statewide effort to make environmental literacy an integral part of K-12 instruction in California. CA EEI provides educators with professional learning and instructional materials that demonstrate how to blend the environment into the teaching of traditional academic subjects like science, history, and English language arts.
In the 2020/21 school year, City of Lodi is offering $200 stipends to Lodi teachers who complete an EEi unit focused on watershed related topics, including water conservation, or stormwater issues and concerns, and with an emphasis on helping students understand the importance of their changed behavior towards improved stewardship of California’s waterways.
To learn more, or to apply for the City of Lod’si Watershed Education/EEi Program, please email Kathy Grant, City of Lodi Watershed Program Coordinator, at kgrant@lodi.gov or calling 209-327-2063. This program is not sponsored or coordinated by the Lodi Unified School District.
Learn more about EEI
- California EEi: https://californiaeei.org/abouteei/
- New EEI training video: http://info.californiaeei.org/EEI-101.html
- California EEi YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CaEEI/videos
- Free Resources for Teachers and Students: https://californiaeei.org/curriculum/
- Select units available in Spanish: http://info.californiaeei.org/spanishtranslations.html
Students: Start an Earthkeepers Club at your school or join Storm Drain Detectives
Lodi students have the chance to join or start an Earthkeepers Club at their school. First started at Heritage Elementary School, Earthkeepers help keep their campus clean and teach their fellow students about recycling and conservation.
Older students may also join the City of Lodi’s Storm Drain Detectives program, and help monitor the water quality of Lodi Lake and the Mokelumne River.
Students in the Earthkeepers and Storm Drain Detectives programs have the opportunity to:
- Visit local water treatment plants, fish hatcheries, and dams to follow our water as it travels from the Sierra down the Mokelumne River and out into the Delta.
- Learn about the plants and animals that make their homes on the Mokelumne River and in Lodi Lake and the Delta.
- Find out local causes of water pollution, how water is cleaned, and how they can help.
- Learn how to test water quality and other benchmarks.
Past projects taken on by the Earthkeepers and Storm Drain Detectives include:
- Field trips with the Marine Science Institute.
- Growing a community garden.
- Raising young salmon.
- Writing, creating artwork and taking photos for the annual Mokelumne Current student newspaper.
- Creating community art projects, such as a tile mosaic trash receptacle at Heritage Elementary School.
- Organizing an environmental science conference.
Find out more by talking to your teacher or emailing Kathy Grant, City of Lodi Watershed Program Coordinator, at kgrant@lodi.gov.