Major Rivers Youth Education
A Texas Specific Water Education Program
The Major Rivers program is an excellent way for Texas water providers to do cost-effective water education outreach in their communities with a program that has a proven track record of acceptance by Texas educators.
Major Rivers and his horse Aquifer will make learning all about water in Texas irresistibly fun. Major Rivers is a water education curriculum designed to teach students about Texas’ major water resources, how water is treated and delivered to their homes and schools, how to care for their water resources, and how to use them wisely. The program’s host, Major Rivers (named for the major rivers of Texas), and his horse Aquifer cover these topics in eight lessons that include a variety of activities in science, math, language arts, social studies and other subjects.
What is in the Major Rivers Program?
The Major Rivers educational program includes a teacher’s guide, an introductory DVD video, Teacher Resource CD-ROM, student worksheets, and full color student workbooks and home information leaflets. Major Rivers is correlated to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR).
History
Lower Colorado River Authority originally launched the Major Rivers program in 1989, and released an updated version in 2002 with a new look, more hands-on activities, and Internet resources. In the spring of 2003, the Texas Water Development Board (the state agency charged with water planning in Texas) and LCRA worked together to produce a new statewide version of Major Rivers that integrates water planning with the water supply lesson and includes historical stories about Texas river basins. In 2008, the Texas Water Development Board is offering an updated version of the Major Rivers program that includes the latest information from the 2007 State Water Plan, a DVD version of the introductory movie, a new water conservation exercise for saving water outdoors and for the first time, all student materials are available in both English and Spanish language versions. In 2011, Major Rivers was again revised to reflect the correlations to the latest Texas Learning Standards.
Lesson Objectives
The program contains seven main lessons and one review lesson. Each lesson has a corresponding section in the student workbook, and many lessons have corresponding workbook exercises. There are also optional extension and enrichment activities at the end of each lesson. The lesson objectives not only define important knowledge and skills related to water, but they also support many of the Texas Education Agency’s TEKS and STAAR objectives for social studies, science, language arts and math.
For additional information about the Major Rivers program please contact Todd Strait at our office.
