Leaping into Watershed Communications
The 29th Annual River Watch Forum was held on February 28th at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, ND. With 240 students and teachers in attendance from 20 different schools, this event continues to connect students from around the Red River Basin.
This year’s theme “Leaping into Watershed Communications” had students dropping their scientific equipment and reaching for a camera instead! Each team created content by designing a calendar and producing a podcast about their local river or watershed. They also added a binder to catalog information and a poster display for live judging.
Cayla Bendel’s keynote address covered everything from hunting, fishing, and the outdoors, to writing a blog and producing a podcast.
Breakout sessions included hands-on field science and outdoor recreation, river artwork, and live judging.
1
River Artwork
Students looked at aerial photographs of rivers to inspire an art piece created with the use of water color paints and paints made from soils collected from throughout different parts of the United States!
2
Professional Career Demonstrations
Students were able to check out stations led by local experts in the Environmental Science field. Stations included: a virtual sand table from UND; mammal furs, skulls, and track imprints from UMC; forestry equipment from the ND Forest Service; macroinvertebrate investigations with VCSU; prescribed fire and praire plant ID with TNC; canoe trip presentations with Wilderness Inquiry; Aquatic Nuisance Species with ND Gam and Fish; drone work with NDSU; and GIS research projects with IWI.
3
Live Judging
A live judging room where students present posters to a panel of judges and judge other schools’ posters.
2024 Forum Project Awards
For the first time in the history of the River Watch forum, People’s Choice and Judges Choice awards were given to the same schools for Gold, Silver, and Bronze!
Other Project Submissions
Shout out to all other River Watch teams that participated in this year’s forum project! Check out their submissions below.
Other River Watch Teams
It is not required to complete the assignment in order to be able to come to the River Watch forum! These are the other teams that joined us this year.
Larimore
Sacred Heart EGF
Winger-Erskine-McIntosh
