OCWA OneWater® Education Program

The OCWA OneWater® Education Program was born in 2014 out of a desire to strengthen and formalize our commitment to water literacy. Working with an enthusiastic team of educators and OCWA operators from several communities across Ontario, we developed materials for grade 8 students, where teachers were already focusing on water issues as part of the curriculum.

The program was piloted in nine Ontario communities throughout the 2014/2015 school year and – after positive feedback from teachers and students – was finalized and rolled out in eight additional communities throughout 2015/2016. With 10 new OCWA client communities already signing on to be OneWater communities for 2016/2017, the program will see more than 1,000 students taking part by the end of 2016. Schools in these communities will also be teaching an accompanying teaching module, The Changing Great Lakes, emphasizing the impact of climate change on the environment. This module, piloted during the 2015/2016 school year, helps students create action plans to mitigate the effects of climate change.