Watershed Explorers Program

The Watershed Explorers Program runs annually from January through May and includes a pre-trip presentation through our School Water Education Program and a field trip to a local park or outdoor space.

For more information on this program or to express interest in enrollment, please email . Click here to download the 2020-2021 program flyer.

A limited number of classes are welcome to participate in both a fall and a spring Watershed Explorers field trip as part of climate change study on local flora and fauna.

(Top/Bottom) Students learn through scientific exploration.
Program Goals

It is our hope that by participating in Watershed Explorers, students can:

• Describe the path water takes from source to sink;

• Understand the role drought plays and practice ways to conserve water;

• Recognize how stormwater influences our watersheds and the impacts of motor oil and trash;

• Understand how to mitigate the impacts of their own and their family's behaviors on the local watershed by becoming stewards of our county waterways, including how to implement the "Triple R" reduce, reuse, and recycle messaging.

As part of our fall and spring programs students also collect data about how plants and animals change across each season (phenology) as part of a global climate change study. 

Click here to learn more about the phenology data collected by Watershed Explorers. 

(Top/Bottom): Students record scientific observations.


Standards Connections

Guiding Question

What environmental solutions might help living things affected by drought and/or stormwater pollution?

What Students Do

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how drought and runoff pollution impacts living things in a watershed.

Next Generation Science Standards

• Disciplinary Core Ideas: (3-LS4.D) Populations live in a variety of habitats, and changes in those habitats affect the organisms living there.

• Cross Cutting Concepts: Cause and effect, patterns, systems and system models, stability and change.

• Scientific and Engineering Practices: Nearly all eight SEP’s are utilized in this program.

Watershed Explorers is funded by Solano County and all its City Jurisdictions, Solano County Water Agency, Vallejo Water Conservation Program, Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District, Vallejo Flood and Wastewater District, and the Potrero Hills Landfill. The fall component is paid through a partnership with the Greater Vallejo Recreation District with funding through the California State Parks Habitat Conservation Fund.