Arlington Water Utilities and TRWD Partner to Offer Water Conservation Lessons to Students
Thirteen Arlington schools and 778 fifth-grade students took part in a water conservation-themed program co-sponsored by Arlington Water Utilities during the 2023-2024 school year.
Conservation Captains is a curriculum offered to Arlington teachers through a partnership between the City of Arlington’s Water Utilities Department and the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD), Arlington’s raw water provider. The program is in its third year.
A recent report compiled by Tinker LLC, the company that distributes the program, stated that 97% of teachers who participated in the program felt more motivated to conserve water after completing the lessons. In addition, 85% of students said they enjoyed Conservation Captains.
Students learned about water in the community, the importance of water conservation, and how to use water responsibly. The lessons are conducted by classroom teachers and features a curriculum designed to seamlessly integrate into the current classroom setting, aligning with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards.
A fifth-grade teacher from Arlington ISD’s Wimbish World Language Academy says: "I was a fan of how organized the overview of the lesson was and how I was able to compare it to some TEKS that students would benefit from appropriate to the grade level. Additionally, having the students work at home using their technology was an easy way to maintain and manage their work.”
TWRD and Tinker LLC developed a curriculum that includes five locally based lessons, classroom STEM activities, digital slides and resources for teachers, online homework lessons and assessments, student contests, teacher grants, and a water conservation kit containing water-saving devices for each student. The kit includes a shower bucket, digital shower timer, pan scraper, water flow rate bag, toilet leak detector tablets, and water conservation brochures.
“I liked doing the homework exercise because I got to test stuff like my toilet and how long it takes me to shower,” a fifth-grade student from Newman International Academy shared in the report.
Recognizing the popularity of the Conservation Captains program, Arlington Water Utilities included an additional $6,000 in the fiscal year 2024 budget to help fund school requests. TRWD provides a one-to-one match for the funds provided by Arlington. The Conservation Captains educational outreach program was first introduced in 2022 and will be offered again in the 2024-2025 school year.
This program is available to all cities that, like Arlington, purchase raw water from Tarrant Regional Water District. A total of 4,481 students in Tarrant County participated in one or more Conservation Captains lessons led by their classroom teacher.
Arlington Water Utilities invites all fifth-grade teachers who are interested in participating in this free program to contact [email protected] for more information.
Conservation, Support Youth and Families, Arlington ISD
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