Arizona Project WET Launches New Interactive Website

Nov. 7, 2013

TUCSON, Ariz. (Nov. 7, 2013) – Arizona Project WET (APW) announced the launch of its new website today at https://arizonawet.arizona.edu. The new site highlights the many different programs and services APW offers, and focuses on its mission of developing water stewardship and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) literacy in three ways:

  1. Providing teacher professional development focused on 21st century skills,
  2. Offering direct student outreach that delivers or extends classroom learning, and
  3. Directly engaging the community in K-12 education.

“We hope this new resource will help people understand the programs and opportunities available to them through Arizona Project WET,” said Kerry Schwartz, APW Director. “Our new website is informative and easy to navigate, and clarifies the many programs that we deliver to meet our mission.”

APW accomplishes its goals through business and community partnerships, and the development of programs that help achieve targeted objectives. On its new website, redesigned APW program logos identify each established program and are themed to match the Arizona Project WET logo. Each individual program page informs readers about objectives, delivery methods, tools, supplemental materials, opportunities, partners and sponsors, while connecting back to the parent APW program.

  • The Arizona Water Festival Program has grown annually since 2000 and engaged more than 65,000 students, 2,500 teachers and 2,000 community volunteers to date. 
  • APW Teacher Academies continue to evolve to meet instructional practice needs and student learning objectives of partnering districts. More than 9,000 teachers and educators have participated in APW professional development, reaching more than 500,000 students annually.
  • The Water Investigations Program (WIP), initiated through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy, combines teacher professional development, direct student outreach and community involvement into a yearlong study of water for middle and high school students. The WIP has engaged 77 teachers and 7,470 students from schools in 13 cities across metro Phoenix in understanding their connection to the Verde and Salt Rivers.
  • The School Water Audit Program (SWAP), a STEM integration program that achieves water savings, was pilot tested in 2009 and the SWAP curriculum was published online in 2011. An adaptation to SWAP, the Water Scene Investigation Program (WSI) incentivizes students to bring water savings home through home audits and aerator installations. Through Arizona Project WET’s SWAP and WSI programs, students have saved more than 50 million gallons of water through data collection and analysis, installation of water efficient devices and application of their knowledge beyond school grounds.

Arizona Project WET is housed at the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center, a unit within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. For more information about Arizona Project WET, or to become involved in its programs, visit the new website at https://arizonawet.arizona.edu.

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