These resources are available for your school to recruit parents, faculty, and alumni to help win the Schools for Clean Water Contest. They include informational handouts, text for emails and newsletters, social media posts, extra credit activities, and classroom lesson plans. You can use these materials as is, or you can use them as inspiration to create something unique for your school. Good luck!
School Resources
Informational Handouts
Use these sample handouts at your school.
Flyer for Educators and PTA
Brief your principal, PTA chairs, or other school VIPs with this short and snappy handout.
Tips for Successful Outreach
Wondering how to get your school to the top of the leaderboard? Download this flyer for seven tips on how to run a successful outreach campaign.
Backpack Flyer
Print and send this home with your kids to their parents. Or, use this as inspiration to create something unique for your school!
Outreach Toolkit
Promote the contest in your print or electronic newsletter, or post something to your social media, website or Learning Management System. These samples include text and images to help you get started. Feel free to edit the text however you see fit!
Extra Credit Activities
Students have the chance to help their school earn extra credit pledges! Schools can earn extra credit by submitting a Student Pledge Poster (worth 50 pledges) and for holding a Blue Shirt Day (worth 100 pledges). Schools can only receive credit for each activity once, for a maximum of 150 pledges.
How to submit:
Any eligible school that participates in an extra credit activity and submits the name of the school and a photo of students participating before 9:00 AM ET on Wednesday October 21, 2026 can earn the equivalent of 50 pledges maximum for a “student pledge poster” activity and/or a 100 pledges maximum for a “blue shirt day” activity.
By submitting photos, the participating school grants the Alliance of Downriver Watersheds permission to use them for marketing and outreach purposes related to the Schools for Clean Water Contest and the ADW’s work.
Classroom Lessons
Help your class learn about stormwater and how it moves through our landscape and schools with these two engaging classroom lesson plans!
Take your class on a Stormwater Walk!
Students will practice their observation skills to study and grade their school’s stormwater infrastructure. In the first activity, Stormwater Tally, students will walk around their school, identifying and recording features that can affect the amount of stormwater runoff. In the second activity, Downspout Survey, students will take a closer look at how their school’s downspouts can affect the amount of stormwater runoff. A detailed lesson plan is provided.
Model a watershed with your class!
In this lesson, students will create a watershed model to observe how water runs through a landscape and how pollutants can get from our homes, streets, and schools into our rivers and lakes. A detailed lesson plan is provided.
More Classroom Activities
Find more classroom activities to learn about water and the environment from these organizations.
EGLE Environmental Lending Station
EGLE’s environmental lending station allows educators to borrow materials that engage students in real-life Great Lakes-based education with hands-on learning. The EnviroScapes®, Sand & Gravel Simulator models, and H2O Q Kits (water quality backpacks) are available for lending to your classroom or organization.
The lending items can support educators by relating their hands-on water quality lessons and allowing students to see how contamination impacts groundwater, surface water, watersheds and the Great Lakes. Students will also learn how to prevent problems at the sources and become informed on how water can be kept safe and clean.
Testing Stream Health Lessons and Activities
The Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC) has numerous activities for testing stream health, including worksheets, videos, and lesson plans. Some of the activities and videos are translated into other languages.
Resilient Waters 3E:Engage, Educate, Empower
A series of educational modules for Michigan high schools to build environmental literacy of flood risk and resilience, including the effects of climate change and land use. Lessons are targeted to Michigan high school educational standards, and use simulation and game-based learning and have student’s collect and analyze environmental data. These lessons follow a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) framework, where students investigate local environmental issues (both indoors and outdoors), connecting students with their local environment and empowering them to take action to improve their community’s resilience.