WATER EXPLORER engages 8-15 year olds across 11 different countries to learn and act on global water issues.

It is an enjoyable, interactive online educational resource.

Students navigate a custom platform to complete a series of WATER CHALLENGES, and benchmark their progress interactively with their national and international peers.

Free for schools/ youth groups

This highly competitive programme is FREE for schools/youth groups who can register to win prizes, workshops and a place at National and International Water Explorer Finals!

So far, 3,115 Water Explorer teams have registered across the 11 participating countries, with 463 of them coming from Ireland! In the 2016-2017 academic year, Irish Water Explorers saved 13.5 million litres of water; that’s enough to supply over 2,600 with enough water to cook, clean, eat and drink.

In the 2016-2017 academic year, Irish Water Explorers saved 13.5 million litres of water, enough to supply over 2,600.

When asked what it means to be a Water Explorer, students answered:
“Being a Water Explorer means you are responsible for your school’s water.”
“Being a water explorer means that I can help to stop water pollution.”
“I can help save the world.”

Four Mission Areas

Water Explorer challenges are divided into four Mission Areas, each containing 4 challenges, including the chance to create your own challenge:

• Fresher Water: Here students learn the importance of clean water sources in the environment and what they can do to help keep them fresh!
• Secret Water: Here students learn how water is used in everything we consume, from food, to clothes, to every day items. They learn the impact of food miles and how to reduce one’s watery footprint with every day actions.
• Global Water: While everyone in Ireland has easy access to clean water in his or her homes, this is not the case throughout the world. Global Water challenges allow students to understand the water situation around the world.
• Precious Water: This is all about the water in our homes. Precious Water challenges walk students through the simple yet effective steps they can take at home to reduce how much water they user.

Active Learning

Students learn from Water Explorers from the very outset. At a Kickstart Workshop in Naul National School, when asked what a reservoir was, a 1st class student answered:

“A big open thing that has pipes that deliver water to houses. You can have fish in reservoirs. It can have a hole to put water in the ocean too.”

Tullyallen National School tackled the Global Water mission area in their workshop and their first Water Explorer challenge was ‘Map it!’. They looked at access to water and sanitation around the world and came up with a slogan that really hits home: “Save water so you don’t slaughter!”

Skills Development

Students also leave the workshop with information and skills about what they can do from home in order to save water, including tricks to make turning the tap off fun for siblings. Throughout these interactive and peer-led workshops, students themselves come up with ideas such as: playing a song while brushing your teeth and turning it off whenever the tap is running.

Teachers love it too

But it’s not just students that love Water Explorer; teachers also appreciate the programme for its curriculum links!

“From the very outset Water Explorer has been a most engaging and exciting project for the children. It has dovetailed readily into the teaching objectives of the rest of the curriculum and supplemented so many areas to great effect. The children have also learned to express their concerns and not only to modify their attitudes and behaviors, but to encourage others to do the same.”
– Helen Oxley, Kiltegan National School, Co. Wicklow

Click here to register your team and be a part of the Water Explorer revolution #EveryDropCounts

For more information contact Julia@globalactionplan.ie or phone (01) 883 2185