High School Education Program: River KATS: Kid Activism Together with Science

Inland Empire Waterkeeper would like to thank Bank of America for providing us with a grant of $15,000 to help fund our 2008-2009 River KATS Program. This generous grant will help us continue this valuable, free educational program for high school students in the Inland Empire.

Our education program is mostly funded through donations.  Please consider donating to help our children learn and experience their watershed!

Designed to introduce high school students to watershed concepts with in-class presentations and field trips at NO cost to schools. We believe that getting kids "to the field" enriches the curriculum for AP environmental science, environmental science, general science, life science, biology and chemistry classes.

For your class, Inland Empire Waterkeeper will work with you to select the location of the trip, provide buses, coordinate with the facility for appropriate tour/presentation, and provide any necessary field equipment. We are flexible and desire to build this experience around the instructors' needs.

Possible Trip Ideas:

• Prado Wetlands [weeding, planting, water sampling]
• Riverside wastewater treatment plant [facility tour, lab tour]
• Santa Ana River water sampling
• Sampling other water bodies
• Eastern Municipal Water District's San Jacinto wetlands facility [tour]
• Corona wastewater treatment plant
• soon to open! Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) Chino Creek Wetlands and Education Park
• UCR Botanic Gardens
• Western Municipal Water District's water conservation garden
• Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

2008 Planned Field Trips

Val Verde High School, Norco High School, Corona High School, Patriot High School, Rubidoux High School, Summit High School, Ramona High School

2008 Field Trip Photos
Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version.

Ramona High School, Prado Wetlands
Feb. 6, 2008
Ms. Withey-Smith


Ramona High students at the Prado Wetlands sign.


A Ramona High student gathers water for sampling.


Students record their water quality sampling results.



Summit High School, Prado Wetlands
Jan. 30, 2008
Mr. Viencek
To see a video created at this field trip, click here.


Students learn water sampling with Mt. Baldy in the background.

Biologists supervise Summit High students in planting mulefat.


Birding was one of the activities of the day for Summit High.


Summit High students gather water for sampling.

Patriot High School, Prado Wetlands
Feb. 20, 2008
Ms. Williams


Programs Director Autumn DeWoody teaches water sampling techniques.


Patriot High students test for phosphates.


Part of Prado Wetlands, where we conducted the Patriot High field trip.


Corona High School, Prado Wetlands
Feb. 27, 2008
Ms. Anguiano

Students looking for endemic fish in pilot recovery project.

Students make cuttings of mule fat to plant elsewhere and support the least Bell's vireo.

Students are shown nest and empty eggs of the endangered least Bell's vireo.

Past Field Trips

February 2006 & 2007: Corona High School AP Environmental Science class planted natives, weeded invasives and sampled water quality at Prado Wetlands.

All donations for field trips in 2008 have been spent, however we are willing to help science teachers apply for their own grants.  A great Web site for science education grants for teachers is www.creec.org. For more information, please contact Programs Director, Autumn DeWoody at (951) 689-6842.