“Water is everywhere. In fact it covers nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, which makes you wonder why we call our planet Earth!” And so begins the narration for the hour-long television documentary that is the centerpiece for NOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary’s Rivers to Reefs Education Module.

The education module documents the Altamaha River Watershed and how it influences the land it drains, the coastal waters into which it empties, and the offshore waters with which it eventually mingles including the waters that bathe NOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. The module contains the documentary in DVD format, a CD of short radio reports and still images, a poster and an educator’s manual.

The DVD documentary is divided into 10 video segments, and each segment provides the basis for a lesson: Making the Connection; Headwaters; Altamaha River; Estuaries and Marsh; Barrier Islands and Maritime Forests; Beach, Dunes and Sandbars; Cultural History; Coastal Waters; Gray’s Reef; Technology; and Savannah Scarp and Charleston Bump. A segment of the video can be shown at the beginning of the lesson as a means of providing background information for an activity.

On the CD, each radio report contributes information on the lesson topic. The radio reports were first broadcast on WSVH, Savannah’s local Georgia Public Radio affiliate, during the spring of 1999.

The poster provides visual overviews of the watershed and the area from its beginnings in the heart of Atlanta and Athens through the Piedmont, Plateau and coastal plains into the coastal and offshore waters and throughout the continental shelf to the continental slope. This watershed is the seventh largest on the Eastern seaboard, draining nearly one-quarter of the total landmass of Georgia, the largest state east of the Mississippi River and provides one-sixth of the total volume of freshwater for the South Atlantic Bight (SAB). The SAB is the area of Atlantic Ocean that is bounded by Cape Canaveral to the south and Cape Hatteras to the north.

The educator’s manual provides written background information as well as activities. The education module will be available on request from NOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. To request a copy, email graysreef@noaa.gov.