About River Basins Institute

Since 1998, RBI's primary focus has been on summer programs conducted at Queen City High School for students ages 9-18. These students took field trips to local environmentally sensitive areas, learned testing for surface water quality, and investigated past environmental conditions through examination of cultural artifacts. In the afternoons, students used a computer lab in the library of Queen City High School to search the Internet for environmental data, used advanced water testing equipment in the science laboratory, and built web pages of their experiences. Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation has contributed significantly by funding teacher interns to conduct the camps and keeping the registration costs to a minimum. From these camps and other activities of RBI, the idea for the River Basins Environmental Technology Center (RBETC) was born. The center is a partnership that uses equipment, technology, and transportation resources of Queen City ISD, and materials and equipment, personnel, direction and coordination from RBI and its Board of Directors.

In May of 2006, RBI adopted a new Vision Statement to reflect the needs of society. The main focus of RBI will be to encourage students to enter science and technology careers. We will still encourage environmental stewardship and environmental education, but we will broaden our vision to include many more areas of science and technology.

River Basins Institute empowers science and technology teachers and fosters industry and community partnerships to stimulate student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers.

 

Resources

The Board of Directors of River Basins Institute represent many areas of expertise and experience. If you need information on any of the following programs, feel free to contact us:

Project Learning Tree
Project WET
GLOBE
Texas Watch Water Testing Program
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Using Remote Sensing Data in the Classroom
TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills)
Creating an Outdoor Classroom
Building an Environmental Web Page
Texas Parks and Wildlife Teacher Intern Program

If you would like to know more about RBI or contact us about a project idea, please contact David Sparks, President at (903) 796-8259 or (903) 799-6086 or by email at dsparks@qcisd.net.

River Basins Institute #12 Cedar Springs Rd. Atlanta, Texas 75551