Student GREEN Congress is held every spring in partnership with South Sound GREEN. This is an awesome opportunity for students to present their own scientific data, explore a college campus, and learn from natural resource professionals in the community. This event is the culmination of two water quality monitoring days where students are able to compare data collected and brainstorm ways to improve their local rivers and streams. Student delegates range from 4th grade through high school and represent schools from the South Sound and Nisqually Watersheds. Since its inauguration, Student GREEN Congress has reached thousands of students and hundreds of teachers. From the students who are just learning about their local habitats, to the teachers and volunteers who have participated for decades, Congress is a day of learning, gaining new skills, and adopting conservation plans to better local watersheds and communities.
Preparing Your Students for Congress
Here are some materials you can use to prepare your students for their Congress presentations. These presentations should be 3-5 minutes long and should cover the information found in the Student Delegate Prep Sheet (see below). If you would like assistance getting your students ready, please just give us a call! We can help!
- Student Prep Sheet: This sheet helps students gather all the necessary info to create their presentation for their State of the Rivers Session. It corresponds slide-by-slide to the template they receive, but feel free to edit the presentation as desired!
- Map of water monitoring sites: This map shows all of our testing locations and data from previous years.
- October’s WQ Data (Note: at some of our sites, since we had multiple groups testing, we used an average. If your class’s data is slightly different, feel free to use whichever dataset you prefer!)
- February’s WQ Data (Note: at some of our sites, since we had multiple groups testing, we used an average. If your class’s data is slightly different, feel free to use whichever dataset you prefer!)
Past Congresses
Our 30th Annual Student GREEN Congress was back in person at The Evergreen State College’s campus! On March 23rd, 2023, over 400 students were treated to an incredible keynote show by Luz Gaxiola, featuring enormous handmade puppets in a water-quality-themed show! Students then attended their State of the River Sessions and attended one of 25 amazing workshops, ranging from fly fishing practice to medicinal salve making.
Our 29th Annual Student GREEN Congress was our first Congress to include a third watershed- the Chehalis Basin! Virtual events took place over the week of March 14th, and included a digital StoryMap and printable journal to analyze water quality data, and a keynote on March 17th featuring Emily McCartan and Jack McDermott from Long Live the Kings! (You can watch the recorded keynote here.) There were also plenty of virtual workshops, including an owl pellet dissection!
Our 28th Annual Student GREEN Congress was also our first Virtual Student GREEN Congress! This Virtual Student GREEN Congress took place during the week of March 15th-19th, 2021, and included a digital Story Map and printable journal to analyze water quality data, and a keynote presentation on March 18th featuring Carri LeRoy, ecologist from the Evergreen State College! (You can watch the recorded keynote here.)There were also multiple live and pre-recorded workshops to attend, ranging from dissecting an owl pellet to investigating the medicinal properties of local trees!
Our 27th annual Student GREEN Congress was held March 21st 2019 at The Evergreen State College. 387 students from 28 different schools participated! All students were part of State of the Rivers sessions, where they discussed their water quality data with peers from other schools. We had over 100 volunteers and local natural resource professional help make this a meaningful, fun event for students. Our keynote speaker was Billy B, the Natural Science Song and Dance Man, who uses catchy tunes and fun dances to teach about the natural world. Read more about this Congress in this blog post.
Student GREEN Congress 2018 was Thursday, March 22nd, 2018. This year’s keynote and closing will feature the work of Killer Whale Tales, a 501 (c) 3 environmental education program that uses storytelling and field based science to inspire students to take an active role in the conservation of Southern Resident Killer Whales and their habitat!
On March 23rd, 2017, the Nisqually River Education Project (NREP) and South Sound GREEN (SSG) hosted the 25th annual Student GREEN Congress at the Evergreen State College! This year, over 400 students represented their school in a morning “State of the Rivers” session, sharing water quality data and developing action plans to improve water quality in their communities. In the afternoon, they attended educational workshops: salmon carcass dissections, making bird boxes, getting up close with stream bugs, shellfish tasting, Native American storytelling, nature journaling, fly casting, live raptors, and much more. Our 25th Anniversary is a special opportunity to recognize those who work to keep the spirit of environmental stewardship alive and recognize the importance of hands-on, science-based learning. Students were welcomed to the event by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, who prepared a video address, and Maia Bellon, director of the Washington Department of Ecology. The keynote speaker was Gene Tagaban, a member of the Takdeintaan clan, who also known as “One Crazy Raven.”