Our Education Mission

To provide education opportunities that develop fundamental skillsets targeted at Colorado’s in-demand water professions.

Our Education Goals

1. To encourage, inspire, and equip the next generation of water leaders, engineers, and technicians to help solve, protect, and manage our water.

2. To have the students participate with real projects where the real data they collect is for a real purpose.

Our Program - River Science

Our program is a vehicle for STEM education and is approved for Industry-Recognized Credentials (IRCs) via Colorado Department of Education’s “Big Three,” which replaced Colorado CDIP in the summer of 2025. Our approach is to utilize our rivers and water resources to provide hands-on experiences in a high-demand field to Colorado Youth. Understanding water in the west is an asset that plays a significant role in diverse career paths. For example, understanding the basics of hydrology, water law, and river functions is fundamental for realtors, local government leaders, and natural resource technicians. Water is essential for everything; its management therefore requires individuals with unique skillsets in ecology, engineering, geography, law, policy, management, construction, and many more disciplines.

We recently began developing our pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs with the help of Colorado Department of Labor’s (CDLE) Youth Engagement Grant. These programs aim to provide real-life work experience to Colorado Youth via education, job shadowing, internships, and on-the-job training in a variety of water-centric fields in Colorado.

Our Curriculum

We currently offer the following two (2) courses in water resources (click the images below for more information). River Science built this curriculum with flexibility in mind. Each course provides a complete set of curriculum and lesson planning. Schools can choose to utilize the curriculum as a standalone course in a semester, combined for an entire year, or added as a supplemental curriculum to existing programs (such as biology, environmental sciences, etc.).