WaterWise tours of the following facilities are available to schools (teachers and students) as well as residents and community groups in the Toowoomba region.

• Cooby Dam (note: currently closed for safety reasons)
• Mt Kynoch Water Treatment Plant.
• Wetalla Water Reclamation Facility.

Our WaterWise educators are available to appear as guest speakers for presentations to community groups, staff meetings and student classes,on various topics related to our WaterWise program. They only need your invitation to visit.

These services are provided free of charge; however, bookings are essential for all tours and visits. Bookings for a tour or visit can be made by contacting us. Please refer to booking guidelines (in related documents below) before booking your tour or visit.

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Council's WaterWise team have developed, produced and released news updates, DVDs, brochures and factsheets, and identified useful website links.  The following resources for use in schools and the general community. New ones related to waste and recycling are currently being developed.

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• Helpful websites - for both students and teachers. Refer to the articles below
• At the turn of a tap - - This is council's WaterWise teaching resource that has been developed to assist teachers to better inform students on local water issues. This resource includes integrated work units (p-3, yrs 4-5, yrs 6-8), curriculum based lessons, to match lessons,water related and useful references for all work units. A copy of the full resource is available online.

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  Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 15:01

If you are looking for some interesting educational websites try some of these. They include some very informative and creative interactive sites suitable for classroom work or individual extension work.

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There are some really useful resources being produced around Australia to support and complement high school syllabi. The web links menu provides access to some of these sites.  Our WaterWise education unit can assist teachers with local information from Toowoomba Regional Council, and are happy to visit your classroom to speak with your students.

• For some really helpful weblinks for senior science classes, click here. 
• Check current dam levels for Toowoomba bulk water supply and the related documents found on that page for details of daily and weekly rainfall, evaporation and consumption data
• Are there any students out there who might have a project worthy of the  Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize? Check out the Australian Water Assocation (opens in a new window) website

Variety in presentation and out of the ordinary learning experiences can enhance classroom learning.

For information on people that can assist with classroom activities and provide other water-related resources please contact us - the WaterWise Education team.

For assistance with outdoor activities such as creek walks and water quality monitoring of local creeks, it is best to contact either:

• Amaroo Environmental Education Centre  (Highfields) (opens in new window) or
• Landcare Discovery Centre QMDC (Campbell St) (opens in a new window)

For a helpful booklet on catchment studies -

• Qld Museum Learning - current exhibition "Toowoomba never floods"

School participation

Monitoring of Gowrie or any other creek within the region is a good hands-on exercise for students and provides relevance and value to their studies about catchments and water quality issues.

If your school is interested in, or has been, measuring water quality along your local creek, you can:
• Adopt creek sections to remove weeds and rubbish
• Participate in bio-monitoring of macro-invertebrates and water quality;
• Post data on the World Water Monitoring Day website;
• Celebrate achievements made along your local creek through the World Water Monitoring Day activities and awards;
• Hire water quality monitoring equipment from the Landcare Discovery Centre, QMDC, at corner of Campbell and Bellevue streets, Toowoomba.

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When designing our teachers' resource, "At the Turn of a Tap", we discovered some wonderful books to assist teachers plan their work units and use in water studies with their young students. These books are found at the Toowoomba Library Catalogue (opens in a new window) and are recommended for this age group. They are useful when using our integrated water unit "Water for Life" for junior students.

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Students from Years 6 and 7 at Drayton State School recently produced two pieces of drama which focused on the importance of healthy catchments.

The first piece by Year 6 students featured the evil ‘Algae Man’ who, with his pet crocodile, spread algae wherever he went.  Superhero ‘Super Catchment Man’ saved the dam because he remembered the words about algae from his teacher Mrs Marshall.

Year 7 students focused on a camping group, a family and a builder who were all damaging the environment by pouring things down the drain or into the local catchment.

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When designing our teachers' resource, "At the Turn of a Tap", the following books were found to provide excellent support for our water unit, "Wise about Water" asking students 'So what's so serious about a dripping tap?' These books answer some of the questions students have about where water comes from, how it is used, and where it goes.

These books are found at the Toowoomba Library Catalogue.

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Our education resource provides work units and lesson outlines written to support senior primary and middle school students studying sustainability and water resource issues.

Below is a list of some excellent books that relate to local water issues, as well as Australian and global water topics. They link well with our integrated unit "Water for our Future" and can be sourced from Toowoomba Library Catalogue.

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