scheduling with wen

Class presentations take a minimum of 45 minutes, and fieldtrips require a minimum of 2.5 hours, not including transportation. If you wish to include four stations in your field science experience, please schedule additional time.
After evaluating pre/post test results, we have noticed that students who had class presentations before their field trip learned a lot more from the field experience than those who didn’t.
The class presentation consists of vocabulary words, overview of river ecology, and preparation activities for the field trip.
WEN provides this big-picture experience so students are better prepared for their field science activities by the river.
WEN’s Groundwater/Aquifer Education Program is also a great way to introduce these key concepts that we will be exploring during our field trip along with providing students a day to explore the connection between surface and groundwater.
We ask that teachers please schedule one pre-class visit for our field based programs.
Groundwater programs can be scheduled weeks prior to the field trip day as well.
An optional post-field trip class presentation is available to bring the observations and data together to give students a more comprehensive analysis of their field day.
Currently, our interactive indoor classroom presentations are being offered.

Need to Reschedule?

We ask for at least 24 hrs notice. We will reciprocate this agreement and give you as much notice as we can if something comes up on our end. Our programs run rain or shine, but in the case of extreme cold weather or storms, we may also need to reschedule your field program.

Spring runoff & High Water

As you are all aware, with Montana’s spring run-off comes the high and fast creeks and rivers. WEN has created several alternative river bank and adjacent land activities to provide science experiences for your students. Some field lessons include: bird identification, plant identification and mapping, as well as journaling and visual arts.

Program Costs

We will continue to offer our high quality programming for a course fee of $150/class for all water education programs. A class is considered up to 30 students We thank you for your understanding that due to reduced funding and growing expenses, our programs need your support to continue. Class fees go towards transportation, equipment and program costs. This being said, WEN will not turn any class away for lack of funding. If the fee presents a problem, please don’t hesitate to contact us so we can work with you or discuss ideas for parent support, business sponsors and grants. Some teachers are approaching their school PTA, while others are asking for student contribution of $2-$4 in order to cover the fee. WEN is scouring the community for business sponsors and has scholarship opportunities for two or more classes to participate in our critical water education programs.

Teachers can be trained in School Stream Monitoring Programs (SSMP)

WEN offers of a $25 discount off the program fee for teachers/parents of participating schools joining a training session this spring. We encourage teachers to become more knowledgeable of WEN’s programs and have a solid feel for the field trip experience. Each season we offer School Stream Monitoring and Groundwater trainings to university students and community members alike, and these trained volunteers then join us in the field to assist with instruction of your students. We have found that when teachers attend at least one of these trainings, students and teachers get more out of our field programs. Our training dates are already scheduled and you can RSVP to attend any one of the trainings by emailing water@montanawatershed.org