Austin Youth River Watch Student Activities

2005- 2006 School Year

Date	Number of Student Participants	Activity
8/22-26/05	all	Students got to ride in the new van for the first time.
8/23/05	6	Met with LCRA Colorado River Watch Network (CRWN) staff for a demo of the colorimetric pH test.
8/22-29/05	29	Students set River Watch, Academic and Personal Goals for the Semester
9/27/05	7	Students attended the fundraiser for the funeral of their friend, Woody Briseno, who was shot and killed getting off the school bus the previous week.
9/29/05	6	Students get to use new high speed internet connection for the first time at the AYRW EcoHouse.
10/1-2/05	5	Young Women’s Retreat
10/15/05	9	Colorado River Watch Network Student Symposium – AYRW students met with other student groups who test water upstream and downstream. The Symposium was held at McKinney Roughs. The students presented, listened to other presentations and interacted with AYRW Board Member Jason Pinchback in his presentation. Afterwards the students took and interpretive nature hike and had fun in rafts in Lake Bastrop.
10/18/05	6	Students Celebrated World Water Monitoring Day.
10/19/05	Community event	Approximately 45 people attended a Lunchtime Learning Lecture given by AYRW Program Coordinator, Elisabeth Welsh. Nature and Place / Life on Austin’s Creeks
11/1/05	5	AYRW students were invited to participate in the UN Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, US National Youth Initiatives, Sustainable Development Education Exchange: River Watch Cultural and Environmental Exchange with World Partners. Seven additional international student delegates came from Algeria, two locations in Malaysia and Vietnam. AYRW students were sponsored by the City of Austin and hosted by Schlumberger Excellence in Education Development (SEED Program). The LCRA’s Colorado River Watch Network also sponsored the exchange through contributing the time of their Director, Jacob Daniel Apodaca as an adult sponsor for the AYRW group. Students traveled to Houston to meet the international students and begin the week’s adventures. We went to Galveston to the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Research Center and heard about the associated sustainability issues and solutions like turtle friendly fish nets. Then we went to a museum that demonstrated various means of recycling the materials used in oil rigs – primarily as habitat for corals and other sea creatures.
11/2/05	5	Students toured Western Geco. Program Coordinator, Elisabeth Welsh, spoke to the students about becoming a leader in Global Sustainability. Then, Western Geco employees helped host a model UN for the students. The students listed the world’s greatest issues and then narrowed them down to the six biggest issues. Students worked in small teams to strategize about how to work on two of the problems and then presented the ideas to the larger group.
11/3/05	5	Visited students at Marshall High School Technology lab. Marshall students taught AYRW and international students how to build and program robots. Then all of the students (about 50 total) introduced themselves and they worked on building robots that simulated the different issues experienced by seas turtles. In the evening students went to Project Row House – an urban renewal project and community center. They toured the art house, visited the childcare house and then participated in African Dance and then disco dance at the main community center. Then all of the students gave presentations about their home countries and the environmental issues that they face (while wearing traditional dress) and the AYRW students presented their hometown and talked about AYRW.
11/4/05	5	All 12 students toured the Armond Bayou Nature Conservancy and then reconvened their UN meeting regarding the world’s largest problem. They chose as the world’s greatest issue: deforestation – both rural and urban/suburban. Then they created a plan to work on it in each community.
11/5/05	5	Students met one last time to delineate a schedule for achieving their goals. They also shared gifts and postcards from their homelands with each other. Then they toured NASA and we all headed home.
11/16/05	Television Audience	AYRW Program Coordinator Presented to the Environmental Board of the City of Austin at the request of David Anderson, the chairman. They were very inspired and asked if there was something they could do to show their support. Program Coordinator suggested that they pass a resolution supporting the expansion of the AYRW program so that more young people especially in North and Northeast Austin could benefit from our services.
12/2/05	7	Students took recyclable materials to the recycling facility.
12/3/05	13	Students and many adult volunteers helped with the AYRW EcoHouse by painting one room with ecological non-toxic paint, building a birdhouse, vacuuming, and helping in the yard.
12/1-9/05	36	Students evaluated themselves on their semester goals.
1/9-24/06	43	Students set AYRW, personal and academic goals for the semester.
1/12-24/06	16	Older students, especially Seniors encouraged to go online and sign up for Scholarship notifications at Fastweb.com and to make appointments with their counselors to get info on schools and scholarships.
1/16/05	2	Students met with a volunteer from the Capitol Area Master Naturalists and a representative of the National Wildlife Federation and learned about and identified three different species of native freshwater clams while conducting a Texas Nature Trackers Mussel Watch monitoring event.
1/17/06	8	1^st Day for Prescott College and Capitol Area Master Naturalist Volunteer Intern Melissa MacDougall with the Austin High group.
1/19/06	7	1^st Day for UT Geography Intern Tierra Westcott with the Travis / American Youth Works group.
2/1/06	Community Event	Austin Environmental Board passed a Resolution supporting the expansion of the Austin Youth River Watch to provide service to students in North and Northeast Austin.
2/3-4/06	11	Students toured the nature trails at Hornsby Bend side by side with bird lovers on an Owl Prowl. Students spotted several owls and heard even more calling. Then the students slept overnight at the AYRW EcoHouse at Hornsby Bend.
2/4/06	13	Students planted trees in the forest at Hornsby Bend both as part of Tree2006 – the annual TreeFolks Tree Planting event and the AYRW effort following up on our commitment to the UN Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, US National Youth Initiatives, and Sustainable Development Education Exchange: River Watch Cultural and Environmental Exchange with World Partners. It was really cool to know that the other people we met in Houston in November were planting trees with groups all around the world too.
2/13-23/06	25	Students watched video about Austin’s Natural Resources.
2/20-22/06	19	Students discussed financial decision making
3/11/06	6	Students traveled to Stillwell Ranch near Big Bend National Park
3/12/06	6	Toured the Basin and hiked the Window Trail to look out from the mountains to the Desert in Big Bend.
3/13/06	6	In Big Bend National Park visited Castolon and Terlingua Abaja and hiked Santa Elena Canyon.
3/14/06	6	Saw the Gambusia gageii the animal with the smallest range known in the world – at the ponds in Big Bend National Park. Hiked Boquillas Canyon and soaked in the Hot Springs. Went on to Balmorhea State Park at the San Solomon Springs for the night.
3/15/06	6	Swam in the San Solomon Springs for a couple of hours. Everyone helped cook a good meal. Attended the Star Party at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory.
3/20, 28	16	Students toured the dams in Austin and looked at creeks in areas with limestone and areas with deep soils and saw the muddy runoff in the areas with deep soils.
3/20/06	9	Students also looked at the migratory birds on the ponds at Hornsby Bend.
3/21/06	A few dozen	Program Coordinator helped with Environmental Education Field Trip with Red Rock Elementary.
3/27,28/06	17	Students planted the Spring Garden in the backyard at the AYRW EcoHouse.
4/3-7/06	31	Students reviewed goals for the mid-semester review.
4/10-20/06	31	Students used local job finder guides, apartment and home buyers guides, the internet and local newspapers to find jobs that pay for the type of lifestyle they want to lead, created a budget, found living accommodations and found out what level of education and experience are necessary for the jobs.
4/21/06	5	Students picked mulberries near the AYRW EcoHouse.
4/18/06	11	Students conducted a pre-Earth Day biological monitoring event with two community volunteers from Capitol Area Master Naturalists and National Wildlife Federation and three staff from the Lower Colorado River Authority’s Colorado River Watch Network.
4/22/06	3 + community event	Earth Day / It’s My Park Day - Students tested the water and talked with passers by on the Hike and Bike Trail about Water Quality and nature at the site.
4/22/06	2	Students, volunteers and several family members gathered at the AYRW EcoHouse for a Picture Party from the 2006 Spring Break Ecological Learning Adventure to Big Bend and West Texas.
4/23/06	12	Seniors Attended the Senior Dinner.
4/24/06	20	Class of students from LBJ High School came to Hornsby Bend and one student in the class, an AYRW Mentor, helped lead the Biological Monitoring Event.
4/25/06	A few dozen	Program Coordinator helped with Environmental Education Field Trip with Del Valle Junior High.
4/29/06	3	Students attended the National Wildlife Federation Showing of HOOT Film, a story about young people finding the power within themselves to stand up in defense of wildlife.
5/23-27/06	Seniors	Graduations
6/12,13/06	11	Summer Leadership program Begins - Students in Summer Leadership Program set goals for the summer and discuss safety strategies.
6/14/06	6	Students swam at Bartholomew Park.
6/15/06	5	Students viewed the IMAX film Ride Around the World a film about horse cultures through history at the Texas State History Museum.
6/22/06	6	University of Texas volunteer, Ben Rhodes visited the students.
6/26/06	5	Volunteer Carlos Machado from University of Portland joined students on an adventure to Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve. Geologist Joe Beach discussed his career and gave students interpretive materials and an overview of the endangered species habitat management projects at Wild Basin. Then we went to Bee Creek and tested the water. After testing the water we walked downstream to a beautiful deep pool where we saw large sunfish.
6/27,28/06	13	Students and volunteers canoed to Cold Springs and Redbud Isle.
6/29/06	6	Students met Habitat Steward, Brandon Crawford, of the Nature Conservancy of Texas Barton Creek Habitat Preserve. Students asked him about his job and his education background and other career-related questions.
7/10,11/06	16	Students visited the horse farm of Doug and Beverly Elliot and learned about caring for horses.
7/13/06	7	Students interviews Geologist, Joe Beach, at Wild Basin. Then Joe talked about the habitat restoration efforts there. We tested water and identified dragonflies and plants.
7/17/06	8	Students toured Cave Without a Name and learned about how the cave was formed and about its history.
7/18/06	8	Students toured Inner Space Caverns and learned about local geology and the historic creatures who once lived in Central Texas.
7/19,20/06	18	Last days of Summer Leadership Program – students had a pizza party and evaluated how they did on the semester goals.