Session 1: Choose Your Path and the Good Red Road - Eagle Ridge Singers and Friends, Jimmy Lakota, Jo Lakota

(45 minutes) What are your choices?  Whatever you choose, travel the Native American Way of conscious living on the earth.  Learn through Native American song, dance, and stories of this thoughtful way of living and gain a new perspective on your impact, your conscious choices. CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: NGSS ESS3,SSG2

Session 2: The History of Science as told by Mark Twain - Warren Brown

(45 minutes) Mark Twain said "Inventors are the creators of the world—after God." This presentation is a first-person Chautauqua-style program by Warren Brown as Mark Twain. You will journey on water, land, and air, sharing insights from the Diaries of Adam and Eve to friendships with inventors and thoughts about Galileo and Newton. CCSS: ELA SL

Session 3:  River Stories - Brian FOX Ellis 

(45 minutes) Join storyteller and author Brian “Fox” Ellis. Travel the river that connects us all through stories, songs and poetry, with riverboat captains & French voyageurs, we will travel the Illinois River Road. CCSS: ELA SL, ILS: NGSS ESS2-4 / SS.G.2 

Session 4 : Creating River Music, Songwriting with a purpose - Barry Cloyd

(45 minutes) Create a brand new song focusing on the beauty of our watershed and absolute necessity of clean water for our very survival. CCSS: ELA SL, W / ILS: NGSS ESS2 / SS.G.2 / FA-MU:Cr1-2-3

Session 5: Lichens! - Zan Tomko

(45 minutes) With over 20,000 lichen species and 8% of the Earth’s surface, you would think lichens would have a larger presence in our awareness, but they don’t. If they are everywhere, why don’t we know them? They are not always easy to see; then when we see them, they can look like mold, algae, or even dried paint. Once you start looking for lichens you will see what a curious world they inhabit even as they remain in the same space indefinitely.Learn what a lichen is. What makes them so different? What is an extremophile? CCSS: ELA SL / ILS:NGSS LS4

Session 6: Zoo Conservation, Making a Splash! – Peoria Zoo

(45 minutes) Meet several zoo animals while learning about ways we can save water and habitat. CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: NGSS LS2

Session 7: Backyard Habitats - Wildlife Prairie Park

(30–40 minutes) Backyard Habitats: Here is your opportunity to meet 5 different animal ambassadors (a mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, etc). Get an overview of each of these animals and then talk about what each requires in order to thrive in their habitats. Learn how the public can get their own backyards certified as wildlife habitats!  CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: NGSS LS2

Session 8: Water Cycle Adventures - Susie Grana Ingram, Forest Park Nature Center

(45 minutes) Water covers most of the earth and is always moving. Discover the role water plays in every stage of its cycle. You will also meet a native animal that depends on clean water for survival! CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: NGSS ESS2 / SS.G.2

Session 9: Clean Water It’s for the Birds - Dr. Travis Wilcoxen

(30 minutes) It’s easy to see how polluted water has an impact on animals that live in the water, like fish and frogs. The truth is, clean water is extremely important for animals that spend much of their time in the air, like birds. In this session, students will learn about how pollutants in water such as lead, mercury, and pesticides can cause problems for many kinds of birds, from ducks to eagles. CCSS: ELA SL / ILS NGSS LS2 / PD&H 22 C

Session 10: Amphibians as Indicator Species - Douglas Holmes, resident herpetologist Peoria Zoo

(30-45 minutes) Find out what amphibians can tell us about the health of our environment while learning about the effects of chemicals on amphibians, the importance of amphibians, and how we are all connected, CCSS: ELA SL / ILS NGSS ESS2, LS2, SSG2

Session 11: Native Plants - Make and Take a Seed Ball - Rachel Mitchell

Native Seed Ball Make and Take - Rachel Mitchell, Master Naturalist                                             (20 minutes) Discover the many benefits that native plants can bring to your community, your yard, and beyond. The students will make a seed ball using air dry clay, soil, and native wildflower seeds. CSS: ELA SL / ILS NGSS LS1, LS2 https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd1035133.pdf

Session 12: The Diversity of Life in Illinois Waters - John Marino, Aquatic Ecologist

(30 minutes) Explore the variety of living things in our freshwater systems and how we interact with them.  Learn about how biodiversity is important for supporting the benefits provided to people by rivers, lakes and wetlands.Learn how monitoring diversity is valuable for tracking how people are affecting these systems. Learn how research like that in Bradley University’s lab is useful to improve understanding of diversity. Examine a variety of organisms, including aquatic snails, insects, tadpoles, and others! 

Session 13: Nicolina’s Turtle Co

Session 14: Getting Involved in Conservation: Giving Back to the Land - Shae Birkey     (60 minutes) There are so many positive ways to connect to the outdoors. Whether it is through active or passive recreation, the end result is fostering a love for the outdoors. Through experiencing the outdoors, especially at a young age, advocacy for its many wise uses can be established resulting in the betterment of society and the long term sustainability of our long-standing American outdoors heritage. CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: SS G.2 / PD&H 22 •https://www.naem.org/our-community/profiles/shae-birkey

Session 15: Food’s Connection to Water and More!  - Tim Magner, Nature’s Farm Camp (45 minutes) Food shapes us, and everything around us.  We’ll take you on a journey from your dinner plate to different types of farm fields and then to the laws which help decide farmer and eater choices.  Students will draw their favorite meal, discuss food’s connections to water and more, then both vision what’s possible and research advocacy options, including contacting your elected representatives. CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: SS.G.2,3 / FA- VA:Cr1.1 •http://naturesfarmcamp.org

Session 16: Diggin' Archaeology! - Dr. Dale F Simpson, NIU                                               (30 minutes) Dr. Simpsonwill have your students work through four stations: Introduction, Field Gear, Raw Materials, and Lithics (stone tools) to talk about 13,000 years of Illinois Archaeology and solve archaeological puzzles.  CCSS: ELA SL / NGSS: ESS1 ESS3 / SSH5 ARCHAEOLOGICAL OUTREACH IN ACTION!

Session 17: Students Taking Action: P2D2 and more! - Pontiac Township High School Environmental Science (40 minutes) Hey! If you have a passion for the environment and clean water, come check us out P2D2! The International Prescription Pill and Drug Disposal Program (P2D2) was started as a way to prevent misuse and abuse of prescription drugs while keeping them out of our water supply. But that's not all...learn about the other action projects we have taken on. Come check us out!  CCSS: ELA SL / ILS: NGSS LS2 •https://p2d2program.wordpress.com

Session 18: It’s NOT Magic, It’s Science!!! - Dr. Dean Campbell & Bradley University Chemistry Club Demo Crew

(45 minutes) The event will feature a series of chemistry-related demonstrations that are science (not magic) in focus. Emphasis will be placed on physical and chemical properties of water and the environment.  CCSS: ELA SL/ ILS: NGSS PS1  https://www.bradley.edu/academic/departments/chm/faculty/profile.dot?id=169366

Session 19: Drinking Water - From Source to Tap - Trip Barton , Illinois American Water                  

(30 minutes) A high level overview of how drinking water gets to your tap. The session will include discussion of the sources of water, water treatment processes, and how the water gets to your house.  CCSS: ELA SL/ ILS: NGSS ESS2 / PDH 22C https://amwater.com/ilaw/water-information/water-learning-center

Session 20: Tips to Ensure Safe Drinking Water from a Private Well - Cindy Brookes, Great Lakes Community Action Partnership/RCAP

(30 minutes) A display of a Submersible Well Pump, Suction Well Pump, Pressure Tank, Pressure Gauge, Switch, Proper Wellhead Construction Model, and GroundWater Model will be used to demonstrate and share with attendees tips and tricks to protecting their well water. Additional information about testing annually, 5-year testing and setbacks will be shared. CCSS: ELA SL/ ILS: NGSS ESS2-4 / LS2 / ETSI1-1/ PDH 22C

https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/groundwater-wells