Hands-on Karst and Watershed Education in the Ozarks

In April and July of 2023 we held workshops and field trips for Public School Teachers (Grades 4 -12) in south-central Missouri.

April 29-30, 2023

Workshop: Saturday, April 29, 2023

Location: Mountain View Community Center,
125 East First Street, Mountain View, Missouri.

$300 dollar stipends were available to participating public school teachers who attended both the workshop and field trip.

Field Trip Destination: Grand Gulf and Mammoth Spring

Field Trip: Sunday, April 30, 2023

We traveled on a charter bus to Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, and Grand Gulf State Park.

July 25-26, 2023

Workshop: Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Location: Mountain View Community Center,
125 East First Street, Mountain View, Missouri.

$300 dollar stipends were available to participating public school teachers who attended both the workshop and field trip.

Field Trip Destination: Round Spring,
Devils Well, and
Alley Spring

Field Trip: Wednesday, July 26, 2023

We traveled on a charter bus to Ozark National Scenic Riverways Devils Well, Round Spring, and Alley Spring.

The Goal: These workshops and field trips aimed to offer public school teachers scientific information and teaching tools that they can use to educate youth in the Missouri Ozarks about watersheds, groundwater, water quality, water use, conservation, stewardship, karst features (like caves, sinkholes, springs, and losing streams), and how human actions and decisions (their own included) affect water.

Workshop/Teacher Field Trips...

Teachers were trained in effective, creative, and fun ways to help students and themselves become better environmental stewards and problem solvers in the Ozarks. Teachers were exposed to various place-based hands-on activities, on-line tools, assorted resources, and inquiry lessons that can be adjusted to various grade and subject levels. The teacher field trip portion of the two-day workshop included trips to outstanding karst features in the Ozarks. Emphasis was placed on effective field trip locations for students, whether they take place on the playground, within the surrounding community, or to some of the Ozarks’ great natural wonders.

School Field Trip Grants...

Teachers who participated in the two-day workshop/field trip were eligible to apply for their school district to receive grant funds. These funds are for districts to take their students on field trips to local Ozark Karst features such as springs, streams, losing streams, sink holes, and caves. Funds cover field trip travel expenses and related approved expenditures (such as school bus fuel, bus driver’s wages, lunch costs and drinking water for students, costs for substitute teachers, students' protective gear, supplies, and any entrance or guide fees). These funds are to be spent by end of July 2024.

Additional Teacher In-Classroom Support...

Workshop and Teacher Field Trip Facilitators...

Mary Ann Mutrux is a multiple award-winning Earth Science Educator (grades 5-12 and pre-service teachers) with extensive teaching experience in karst topography, watershed, water quality, and environmental education. She has extensive experience with field trips, both as a classroom teacher and as a conservation camps facilitator. In addition, she has written curriculum specific to karst, watershed, and groundwater quality.

Denise Vaughn, with the Ozarks Resource Center, is a renowned Ozark journalist and producer of karst publications and videos. She provided background information on the karst features we visited on the teacher field trips.

Tegan Vaughn, former Karst in the Ozarks Project Manager with SCOCOG, demonstrated how pollution enters surface and groundwater, using EnviroScape watershed models. These EnviroScape watershed models are available from SCOCOC for check out by teachers for classroom use.

Video of Workshops and Educator Field Trips...

Outcomes...

The aspired outcomes for this project are that students and teachers in the rural Ozarks have an enhanced understanding of local watersheds, water conservation, Ozarks karst systems, pollution and water quality, and an increased awareness of actions needed to conserve and protect local watersheds. Better understanding is likely to impact behavior and decisions about what is put on the ground—and particularly what is put into sinkholes. Children grow into adults, who, ideally, will have developed a life-long water conservation ethic, a greater connection to the outdoor environment, and an increased capacity for decision making about local water quality issues, which ultimately helps protect Ozark watersheds.