Putting WOW in Watershed Education
Since 2008, the Wyland Clean Water Mobile Learning Experience has brought the latest standards-based education about water quality, water resource availability, and conservation to hundreds of thousands of students, including many schools whose elementary school field trip, science and art budgets have been drastically cut.
To bring the mobile learning center is a science lab for any school, festival, or community event. To book an out of state tour, please email cleanwater@wylandfoundation.org or contact Marci Vahey at 949-643-7070.
Ready to roll into any school, festival, or community event, the Mobile Learning Experience, a state of the art 1,000 sq. ft. bio-diesel science museum on wheels, features a 40-person multi-sensory theater and seven interactive stations, with classroom lessons tied to state standards, including NGSS. This mobile learning science lab delivers a museum-quality elementary school field trip experience to explore the many ways the availability and quality of water affect our lives.
The mobile learning experience/ science lab provides a tremendous opportunity for students, teachers, administrators and the community to learn about conserving and valuing our precious water resources. If you’d like to learn more about this onsite elementary school field trip opportunity, please fill out the request form above to schedule a visit for your school or event! The schedule for the exhibit fills quickly, so reserve your space early.
The Mission Begins: 4-D Multi-sensory Theater
Upon entering the Mobile Learning Center, students become new recruits to the Clean Water Challenge Task Force. Their mission: to solve mysterious disturbances in the health of our nation’s water habitats. Inside our 40-person onboard theater, student embark on a training journey through a watershed. Their first mission: track a raindrop from the mountains all the way to the ocean. Taking them on this journey is humorous “Agent 13” and celebrity CWC agents like television host Sal Masekela, skateboarder Tony Hawk, and professional snowboarder Tara Dakides.
Wheel of (Mis)Fortune Exhibit
Agents spin the Wheel of (Mis) Fortune for their next mission. With each spin, agents receive a new set of instructions with actions that can either help or harm the wide range of life in a marine ecosystem’s food web. Through this exciting learning process students discover the connections between the organisms in the food web and the potential effects of human impacts on the entire ecosystem.
Understand Pollution in our Ocean (With Actual Falling Rain!)
Leaky motor oil. Flushed pharmaceuticals. Over fertilizing. Discarded cigarettes. This highly interactive exhibit simulates impacts from dumping pollution into our water systems. Agents place colored plastic balls representing pollution on the “watershed” model. Agents press a button to create rain over the urban landscape, sending the pollution down through the watershed, into our communities, and out into the ocean.
Solve the mysterious die-off in a coastal zone
Our newest exciting exhibit! Agents use photographs, water samples, and an interactive LED wall map to identify the source of nutrient pollution in a watershed. Together with our pre-visit classroom activities, this exhibit explores one of the emerging environmental issues of our time — nutrient pollution and how human activity contributes to it. Includes subject materials tied to Next Generation Science Standards.
Flowing River Exhibit
This actual running river is a great way for students to discover the many needs of our communities for water – and to get their hands wet along the way. Students are asked to divert water up and down the river to ensure it meets the needs of agriculture, industry, businesses, homes and tourism – and still have enough supply to reach its final destination. Just like government and business leaders must do today! This exhibit encourages students to work together to find which combinations work best.
Interactive Touch-Screen: Our Watersheds, Our Legacy
In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, this exhibit takes students on an interactive high-definition photographic journey through some of the nation’s most vibrant and important watersheds, utilizing the latest dual touch screen technology. Students shrink and expand high resolution images for close inspection of key features of the watershed, ranging from high altitude snowpack to tributaries to rivers and lakes, watershed divides, wetlands and aquifers.
Computer Modeling Exhibit: History of a Lake
A fascinating cultural and social look at water use. In this interactive, students discover how human settlement, farming and industry affect a lake region over a period of four centuries, starting with early colonials to modern industry. With all that use, is the lake sustainable? There are 200 frames representing this history starting at the 1600s. The task is for agents to spin the wheel and observe the changes caused by both humans and nature over time.
COMPLETE THE REQUEST FORM NOW TO SCHEDULE A VISIT FOR YOUR SCHOOL OR EVENT!
EACH VISIT INCLUDES:
- Exhibit set-up and break-down
- Six interactive exhibits and 4-D theater
- Pre-event classroom activities and lesson plans
- Teacher’s guide and introductory training video for * teachers/volunteers
- Event scheduling worksheet, guidelines and FAQ’s
BENEFITS:
- Cost effective alternative to off-campus field trip Easy event traffic flow
- Ties in with most school water units
- All-inclusive, fun, and educational for the whole family
- High visibility draw at events
- Discounted pricing available for schools, multiple booking dates, and educational events
- “School” or “public” video mode
- Proven to increase student knowledge
TRAILER SIZE:
- 56’ 2” Long
- 13’ 6” Tall
- 8’ 5” Wide (Expands to 22’ total)
- Total length with tractor: 83’ 2”
- Total Weight: 80,000 lbs.
- Parking lot allowance: 26 car spaces (2 rows of 13
ELECTRICAL:
- Ability to run on tractor generator
- Requirements for shore power hook-up
- Air Conditioned
- ADA Accessible
- Estimated 3 hour setup time
REQUEST A VISIT
Photo Gallery
Teachers! The clean water mobile exhibit highlights some of the most important water issues, as shown here by our partner the US EPA.
Cost-effective and Impactful
Thanks to the generous support of our donors, the Wyland Foundation underwrites 50% of the cost of delivering the clean water mobile learning experience directly to your school or event. Moreover, after participating in the MLE program, students have shown a significant increase in their understanding of marine conservation and a willingness to change behavior, making the exhibit one of the most effective, affordable mobile science and environmental education opportunities available today.
The mobile classroom provides a tremendous opportunity for students, teachers, administrators and the community to learn about conserving and valuing our precious water resources.
—William Habermehl, Former Superintendent of Schools, Orange County Department of Education