RLCC Fifth Graders learn about watersheds

On April 15th, the fifth graders from Red Lake County Central joined the Riverwatch group from RLCC High School along with Andrew Ulven, who works for the International Water Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization based in the Red River Basin. Along with him were two others who work for the International Water Institute, Evelyn Ashiamah and Asher Kingery. They were working with the 5th grade students from Red Lake County Central on a project called River of Dreams, which is a comprehensive watershed education and exploration program. 

From their website: The River of Dreams (ROD) program gives children the opportunity to learn about rivers, watersheds, and how we are all connected through them. Inspired by the Caldecott Medal-winning children’s novel “Paddle-to-the-Sea” by Holling C. Holling, ROD takes elementary students on a journey through both their watershed and imagination. Much like the boy in the story, students will learn how all people are connected through watersheds. In the process, they will gain an understanding of new terms and ideas.

In addition to grasping new and exciting concepts, ROD students will be encouraged to use their creative genius to decorate a small cedar canoe and develop a “dream” for a voyage of their own. The boy in “Paddle-to-the-Sea” dreamed that his canoe would make it to the ocean after traveling through all of the great lakes from its origin in the Nipigon region of Ontario, Canada. Students are asked to think about what their canoe’s journey will be like. Will the canoe be rained on, frozen into a sheet of ice, or used in a beaver dam? Will the journey be scary, exciting, or fun (or all)? Perhaps the canoe will make it all the way from their town to Winnipeg, Manitoba - or beyond? The possibilities are endless, as is the variety of different designs and dreams which will emerge from the canoe decoration phase.

After displaying their canoes and dreams to members of the community, each participant releases their vessel in the river nearest their town, sending it on its journey to the sea. Student involvement does not end there, however. Each canoe is equipped with information to track its whereabouts, using our web application at riverofdreams.org. Citizens who find a canoe downstream will be encouraged to follow the instructions on the canoe to log the geographic location where it was found and then release it back into the water in a place where it has a good chance to continue its journey downriver.

Each student will be able to access a page online to keep tabs on their canoe’s progress, including a map showing locations where it was found and (if provided) a message from the discoverers. If they wish, students can continue tracking the canoe during the summer months at home. In addition, teachers will be able to access a page showing the progress of all canoes launched by the class. Communities downstream and along the Red River will be notified through news releases to look for the canoes and keep them moving down the river.

The Plummer students learned about their subwatershed (Clearwater River) and how it fits into the bigger picture of the Red River Basin and larger Hudson Bay drainage basin while also writing poems and designing and decorating a 14” cedar canoe to launch on a real journey down their local river. 

Inspired by the book Paddle to the Sea, students are able to follow the journey of their canoes thanks to a web application we created. Through this process, we enforce that the Red River flows north and that we are all connected through water. At the same time, we draw out the creative genius of these students. In the past, we have had canoes discovered in Selkirk, Manitoba!

The purpose of the April 15th gathering was to do a canoe launch in Plummer, the canoes decorated and tagged by the 5th graders and the teachers. 

There were 30+ 5th grade students taking part in the canoe launch, and though there were some difficulties with the wind that afternoon. The wind was strong enough to push some of the small canoes upstream if they hadn’t landed in the strongest part of the river current. Asher was in his kayak making sure that the canoes caught by the wind were directed back in the correct direction and as the children left for the school, all of the canoes did make it past the small rapids to the south of the bridge just west of Plummer on County Rd 1. 

The children will now be tracking their canoes and the Oklee Herald looks forward to hearing where the canoes end up along with the children.

Asher and Andrew located most of the canoes within the first mile or two of downstream kayaking after the children had left and logged the locations of several of these (online at https://riverofdreams.org/launches/16RLC/canoes). And hopes that people along the river will keep an eye out for them as well.