Objective

Demonstrate your ability to communicate wastewater surveillance concepts to a high school audience by creating a classroom-ready lesson.

Instructions

Develop a 15–30 minute lesson plan intended for students in grades 9–12. Your lesson should accurately explain a wastewater surveillance concept while actively engaging students in the learning process. If you need an example lesson plan, there are two on the additional learning resources page of this course.

Your lesson plan should include the following components:

Lesson Title
Learning Objectives: Include 2–4 learning objectives. For example, the learning objectives for this course are:
- Explain why engaging with the public is important for a wastewater surveillance program.
- Engage K–12 students in age-appropriate lessons about wastewater surveillance.
Lesson Activities: Include an engaging introduction to the lesson and activities that appeal to a variety of learning styles (e.g., hands-on activities, discussions, demonstrations, or slide presentations).
Materials Needed: List all materials required to teach the lesson.
Assessment of Student Learning: Describe how you will evaluate whether students have successfully met the learning objectives.

Requirements

Your lesson should:

Accurately explain the wastewater surveillance concept(s).
Be appropriate for students in grades 9–12.
Be practical enough that another educator could implement it with minimal preparation.

Evaluation Criteria

The NWSS CoE team will evaluate your lesson plan using the following criteria. This is a pass/fail assessment; no numerical grade will be assigned.

Scientific accuracy
Alignment with learning objectives
Organization and clarity
Age appropriateness
Creativity and real-world relevance

How to Submit

Create your lesson plan in Microsoft Word or Google Docs and email it to cdphe_dcphr_nwss_coe@state.co.us.

After your lesson plan has been reviewed and successfully meets the assessment criteria, you will receive your K–12 Wastewater Surveillance Outreach micro-credential via email.

Access Additional Learning Resources (downloads)

Finish Learning