Youth Education

Originating in 1989 with 100 students from the City of Flint, the Flint River GREEN program now reaches more than 1,750 students in 20 school districts from Genesee, Lapeer, Oakland, Shiawassee, and Saginaw Counties. In this program, teachers connect with environmental experts and learn how to facilitate the streamside monitoring program with students. Students and their teachers then collaborate with expert mentors to perform water quality tests on nearby streams to learn more about the status of the Flint River. Teachers and students alike often exclaim how surprised they are that the Flint River is much healthier than they originally thought. Students share this information with their peers and community officials at school and at the annual Student Summit.

“How healthy is our stream for aquatic organisms and how do human actions on land impact the health of the stream?” This teacher training and coaching program provides a curriculum that investigates this driving question. It is aligned with current Michigan Science Standards and provides additional support for use across disciplines. Middle school students conduct investigations over the course of 10 or more weeks as they work to bridge their communities, classrooms, curriculum, and careers exploration. Students take a deep dive into each of the water quality parameters measured through Flint River GREEN Core and then use their data to explore human impacts on water quality in their community. They develop claims using evidence and reasoning to then work with stakeholders to develop action plans that improve local human impacts on water quality. 

We’ve taken the most fun and exciting lessons that exist in the GREEN and Bridges programs and adapted them for out-of-school settings. After school programs, summer programs, scouting groups, youth leadership groups, and faith-based organizations can attend training to gain access to a variety of outdoor learning activities and materials or work alongside one of our partner organizations to bring in an expert to deliver programming for youth. Additional activity trunks are currently being developed and are expected to be available spring 2023. 

For youth and adults who care! New in 2022, we are forming our first youth council to help lift up youth voice in our communities. We will accept 14 youth (ages 10-18) and 15 educators who work with youth in these age ranges to work alongside community partners to help with existing stewardship action projects and develop new ideas for partnering to protect, promote, and improve the Flint River and its watershed. This pilot program will begin in August 2022 and extend through summer 2023.