Stormwater as a tool for Experience-

based learning

Rain Garden Curriculum

Developed by Rector, P. and I. Witty

Photo by: Pat Rector, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Environmental and Resource Management Agent Morris and Somerset

Counties

Location: Van Derveer Elementary School Yard Rain Garden

Larger Grant

Heather Desko, NJWSA and Rutgers

Cooperative Extension conducting

biological sampling Ross’ Brook,

2010.

ArcGIS developed for WinSLAMM

modeling utilized in the Peters Brook

Rain Barrel disconnection model by

Obropta and Pearson, Rutgers Water

Resources Program. Published 2013.

Rector, Obropta, and Pearson,

Larger Grant

NJWSA engineers/field crew

assist Rutgers Cooperative

Extension Water Resource

Program, & Environmental County

Agent install Stingray flow meter

Rutgers Cooperative Extension

and NJWSA conducting a Rain

Barrel Workshop, Somerville 2010.

Experience-based learning

Rain Garden Curriculum 1. An Introduction to Watersheds

2. Stormwater Runoff and Nonpoint Source Pollution in

Watersheds

3. Van Derveer School Rain Gardens

4. Van Derveer School Rain Gardens Soil Identification

5. Rain Garden Native Plant Considerations

6. Rain Gardens Maintenance

7. Rain Gardens Insects In and Out

8. Rain Barrels

As you Like it

• Expand and contract to suit the situation

Module 3: Intro to Rain Gardens

Objectives: Students will be able to:

Understand what a rain garden is

Understand how the Van Derveer rain

garden helps improve water quality for the

Peters Brook watershed by forming a

natural water filtration system

Understand how to identify sections of a

rain garden

Rain Garden Manual

Example page Rain Garden

Manual

Rain Garden Plan

Build and plant

Van Derveer Elementary School Rain Garden

Project

Lowest Zone Ponding Area –

plants like wet or moist soil

Middle Zone Depression Area

- plants like a little dryer, or

wet to dry soil

Highest Zone Upland

Area - Plants prefer

drier soil

Worksheet

A B

C

‘A’ Plants Like:

‘B’ Plants Like:

‘C’ Plants Like:

Vocabulary

Rain garden

Nonpoint source pollution

Stormwater runoff

Filtration

Upland area

Depression

Soil texture

Rain Garden #1

Pre-installation

What is happening?

Storm Drain

Down Spout

Roof Runoff

Part of Power Point included with

Curriculum

Rain Garden #1

After planting

Rain Garden captures storm water from the

downspout through an underground pipe that

directs the water to the garden

Downspout

Underground pipe

Part of Power Point included with

Curriculum

How do we know where in the rain

garden a plant will have the right home?

Part of Power Point included with Curriculum

(16 scripted slides in total)

The modules feed off one another

and reinforce previous lectures Watersheds helped them learn about the role of water in the

larger sense

Nonpoint source pollution provided the reason for the rain garden and the stormwater component

Soils provided the understanding of the soils they were building in

Insects taught them the importance of native pollinators and also why the garden must drain in 24-48 hours

Native plants taught them about the plants they are putting in and why

Maintenance teaches them about how important it is to maintain after they have done all this work

Rain barrels is a complimentary lesson showing them another way to conserve water and help stop stormwater runoff.

Finding your watershed • http://www.state.nj.us/dep/gis/ On the left side of the page will be a button for Interactive

mapping

• iMap NJ DEP (Turn off Pop up Blocker on your computers Tool Bar under Tools)

• Launch iMap NJ DEP (a map of the State will open up)

• On the right side of the page is Query Find Location of Interest Click

• Put in the county and municipality the school where the school is located

• The map will zoom to the municipality with it outlined in yellow

• On the left you will see Data Layers

• Hit Auto Refresh

• On the Top of the map are Orange Buttons. You will see a Zoom in button. You will want to zoom in. If a Data Layer is grayed out it is because you are not zoomed in sufficiently.

• The data layers have squares and circles that can be clicked on to activate. The squares will add a layer, and you can add as many as you would like. The circles are the active layer and you can only have one at a time.

• The first task is to find your school. Scroll down on the Data Layers side until you see the Roads layer. Click the square and circle. Roads should appear on your map. If they do not, check if you are Zoomed in sufficiently so that the Roads layer will appear. You should also check that you have clicked the Auto Refresh button or that you clicked Refresh Map. From the roads and other landmarks you will need to find the school. If a road does not have a name on it you can click the orange Identify button along the top row and then click on the road and the name will come up in a separate window. If it does not check that you have the circle checked in the Data Layers list. If you try this and you are taken back to the large extent state map this means that the pop up blocker is not taken off on your tools bar.

• When you have found the school you should unclick the circle on the roads and check the circle on Sub-watersheds by name HUC-14 {located further down on the Data Layers list). When you click the school with the Sub-watershed active a window will come up that identifies the watershed and stream that the watershed drains to.

Mt. Arlington School Rain Garden

Plan

Elementary School Rain Garden Curriculum

Developed by Rector, P. and I. Witty

Location: Mt. Arlington Elementary School Rain Garden

Cover by: Pat Rector

Rutgers Environmental and Resource Management Agent

County Agent III

Maintenance

Ingrid Witty, Rain Garden

Specialist and Rutgers

Cooperative Extension

Environmental Agent, Pat Rector

return to Mt. Arlington School to

teach about maintenance.

Maintenance- the class and

teacher after weeding and

mulching

Middlesex County 4-H Eco-

Ventures Camp works on

watershed concepts

Much Ado about Nothing • Why is elementary school education

important topic at this Raritan

Conference? Educate the youth plus+

We all know about preaching to the choir but we also know that from smoking to

seat belts to recycling, when we want to reach that other audience we need an “in”

to reach larger audiences. Since the days of 4-H Rutgers Cooperative Extension

has known that Youth can be that way “in” to communicate to that other audience.

Questions

Pat Rector

County Agent III

Environmental and Resource Management Agent

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris/Somerset Counties

P.O. Box 900, Morristown, NJ 07963-0900

973-285-8300, ext. 225

rector@njaes.rutgers.edu

Acknowledgements

New Jersey Water Resources Research

Institute

Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water

Resources Program

New Jersey Water Supply Authority

Watershed Protection Unit