Educational Tools Library

The right tool can make all the difference, and we'd like to share ours with you. Below are some of the displays, kits, and materials the watershed district uses to connect with its audiences. We invite you to borrow them to use in your work as a professional or volunteer. Some of the items require a watershed staff member to come along and help, and others you can download and start using today. Click on the items to learn more and fill out check-out request form.

An adult and a child at an informational booth with toys and safety helmets on a table.

AIS Jr Inspector

Learn how to help prevent the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS). Find out what these critters look like, why they are a problem for Minnesota waterbodies, and test your skills to earn a badge.

Educational materials on macroinvertebrates, hand lens, white trays, marker, and a mesh net for collecting specimens.

Aquatic Insects

Discover who is living in your lake, stream, or pond. The aquatic insect kit has everything you need to collect and study the macroinvertebrates in your favorite waterbody.

Plastic bags with various contents, including one with feathers and another with what looks like white yarn or fiber, in a container.

Build-a-Bug

Living underwater is hard work! Aquatic insects need special adaptations to live in their environments. From ways to breathe, to how to hold on in rushing water, learn about aquatic bugs by becoming one.

Button Maker

Color in a rain garden, native plants, or shorline buffer, or use your imagination to create your own design. Then transform it into a button you can wear or share. (Buttons are 2 inches).

Rusty metal drainage grate on concrete with dry grass and a blurry water background.

Down the Storm Drain

Storm drains carry water from our streets and houses down to lakes and creeks! They also carry anything else that is on the street-- including trash, leaves, and other pollutants. Let your students become water drops on a path down the drain, and explore how pollution can end up in waterways.

A colorful 3D landscape model with roads, vehicles, buildings, and a body of water.

EnviroScape

Hands-on, interactive demonstration of the sources and effects of water pollution. Show how stormwater runoff carries pollutants through the watershed to local waters, and how each of us can help.

A model demonstrating the water cycle and groundwater systems, with labeled parts such as lake, river, and aquifer.

Groundwater Model

Explore the hidden world of aquifers. See how groundwater and surface waters, like lakes and streams, can interact. Add dye to watch how contamination can spread through groundwater.

A smiling person sitting in a canoe indoors, holding a paddle, with a map in the background.

Pretend & Learn Canoe

All aboard for a canoe adventure on land. The pretend & learn canoe is a dress-up trunk that folds out to reveal all the gear you'd need for a day collecting water samples or exploring local waters.

Storage container with green lid, green fabric inside, a tray, spray bottle, two green cutouts, and an instruction sheet.

Seeing Watersheds

A hands-on activity to explore how water moves through a watershed, and how our human structures impacts the natural water cycle.

Sign up for updates from Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District

Website Accessibility Statement