chattahoochee riverkeeper [ga]
2018 giving while living grant: $1,800
Thanks to the Foundation’s $1,800 Giving While Living grant, seventy-two West Georgia students (who otherwise would not have been able to attend) participated in Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s West Point Lake Floating Classroom (WPLFC). Since launching in 2015, the floating classroom has served over 10,000 students, teachers and adults, providing easily accessible opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get to know their drinking water source first hand and develop an affinity for and sense of pride in their natural environment.
Thank you to Annette Miller, in the Woodard & Curran, Inc. Duluth, GA office, who nominated Chattahoochee River Keeper for a Foundation Giving While Living Regional grant!
Students engage in a variety of hands-on activities that incorporate STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), and which are tied to age-appropriate Georgia Standards for Excellence.
what is a floating classroom?
While aboard the Miss Sally, a custom-built 42-foot vessel that functions as a water-based learning center, students learn:
Water-quality testing
Identification of freshwater plankton and wildlife
How lake water ends up flowing from faucets in homes and schools
Ways they can protect these precious water resources
Supplemental land-based watershed activities, and…
Lake history lessons
“It’s an experience like this that opens doors for 21st-century problem solvers and scientists.”