2020 Capisic Watershed Classroom Programs

We’re super excited for another great year of Greener Neighborhoods Cleaner Streams school programs! We’re partnering with educators at the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District (CCSWCD) once again to bring clean water service learning programs to students at King Middle School, Longfellow Elementary School, Riverton Elementary School, and Rowe Elementary School. Check out the exciting projects we have planned for each school:

• King Middle School – Students will take part in a Clean Water Stewards Service Learning Program. Students will receive classroom lessons, connect with their local water body through outdoor activities, and implement a service project to help protect Portland’s waterways.

King students conducting dissolved oxygen testing.

• Longfellow Elementary School – Fifth graders at Longfellow Elementary School will participate in the sixth year of the Youth YardScaping Program. Through the program, students will research healthy lawn care practices and their impact on our water resources, care for a section of the lawn in their school garden, and take a field trip to Capisic Pond Park. The program concludes at Longfellow’s annual science fair, where the students will present their research to the community.

Longfellow students help maintain the school's rain gardens which are designed to help filter out stormwater pollutants.

• Rowe Elementary School – Kindergartners at Rowe Elementary School will received classroom lessons to learn about the Brook Trout life cycle and habitat. They will raise and release the fry into Mill Brook this spring.

Rowe students learning about watersheds.

• Riverton Elementary School – Fifth graders at Riverton Elementary School will receive classroom lessons, participate in a Capisic Brook exploratory field trip, and implement a service learning project on school grounds to help protect Portland's waterways.

Riverton students identifying macroinvertebrates to help indicate the health of the stream.