Understanding Watersheds and Sewersheds: A Classroom Resource to Promote Climate Change Literacy in New Brunswick
Are you a teacher in the Petitcodiac Watershed region looking to bring local environmental lessons to your classroom? Our NB Holistic Curriculum-connected resource offers engaging lessons for grades 6 and 7 on topics such as the region’s unique ecosystem, stormwater management, green infrastructure, and more. If you are interested click here to learn more!
New Brunswick is expected to face significant challenges from climate change that will likely lead to increased flooding and stormwater runoff, posing risks to the region’s infrastructure and ecosystems. Based on our annual water quality monitoring, which follows 11 parameters across 21 sites in the watershed, stormwater runoff has consistently been one of the greatest negative ecological impacts on the watershed since 2012. Rising sea levels and the growing frequency of heavy rainstorms are putting pressure on the province’s aging infrastructure, particularly its stormwater and wastewater systems. In many older urban areas in New Brunswick, combined sewer systems (CSO) merge stormwater and sewage laterals and discharge untreated waste into nearby bodies of water during heavy storms, leading to further contamination of local streams and rivers. Addressing these challenges is crucial for building climate resilient communities. Enhancing community understanding of how human activities impact water quality is part of the solution.
To tackle the issue of public awareness, the PWA has developed an educational resource designed to support teachers in educating students about the impact of polluted runoff and its connections to storm systems by highlighting real local processes. This resource helps bridge the knowledge gap and promotes an understanding of how our actions and systems affect water quality and aquatic ecosystems.
What is a Watershed and Sewershed?
Before diving into the type of content offered in the resource, it’s important to understand the concept of watersheds and sewersheds. A watershed refers to a geographical area defined by how water flows within it. Within a watershed, all the water from rainfall, snowmelt, or streams drains into a common low point like a river. Since rain falls everywhere, all land is part of some watershed. As water flows downhill across the ecosystem, some of it is absorbed into the ground, but some will flow directly into the receiving water body, like the Petitcodiac River.
On the other hand, a sewershed is the specific area served by a human-made sewer system. When it rains, water flows across impermeable surfaces, like roads, which are sloped so that rainwater is directed towards a low point, like storm drains. The sewersheds that exist within a watershed interact with the ecosystem in ways that can be more or less beneficial.
Connecting the Classroom to Real-World Solutions
The PWA Watershed & Sewershed Resource was developed with the NB Holistic Curriculum for science outcomes in grades 6 and 7 in mind. It provides teachers and students with valuable tools to understand the impact of polluted stormwater runoff and local wastewater systems.
The resource includes a helpful glossary of definitions as well as detailed lesson plans supported by maps and graphics that visualize how water is transported throughout Greater Moncton. The outlined activities connect directly to real-world processes specific to NB. The resource includes various interactive activities designed to enhance the learning experience, such as:
- In-class PWA presentations: By using the resource, teachers have the opportunity to schedule an in-class presentation for their students from PWA staff, which could include lessons on green infrastructure and rain gardens, interactive watershed model demonstrations, general introduction to watersheds and sewersheds, disscussion about environmental careers, among other potential presentation topics.
- Field Trips to Local Facilities: Partnering with TransAqua (the local wastewater commission), students could tour wastewater treatment facilities to learn how stormwater and sewage are processed, providing insight into the challenges and solutions of wastewater management.
- Rain Garden Projects: Students can visit local rain gardens as field trips or participate in in-class activities to design their own rain gardens as a creative solution to mitigate runoff and stormwater pollution.
The resource lessons, activities, and presentations help students and teachers understand the connections between climate change, green infrastructure, urban development, ecosystems and stormwater management.
A Call to Action: Educating the Next Generation
The future of New Brunswick’s water quality depends on the actions we take today. By educating students, we empower them to become environmental stewards who understand how their actions—both big and small—affect the world around them. With climate change presenting new challenges, we must equip future generations with the knowledge and tools to build resilient communities by thinking critically about solutions.
The resource will soon be available on the PWA website, but in the meantime, to access the full resource or learn more, contact arabella.l@petitcodiacwatershed.org