With the 2026-2027 school year right around the corner, West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) is offering students in the service area, grades 3-12, lots of opportunities to learn about and participate in activities focusing on southern California water resources, conservation, water quality and environmental protection, and much more!
Up to 100 free field trips to the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (ECLWRF) in El Segundo are available to public and private schools located in the West Basin service area, with complimentary bus transportation provided by West Basin.
At ECLWRF, students will get a behind-the-scenes tour of West Basin’s industry-acclaimed water recycling facility where they will see the water recycling process up close. Following the tour, they will travel a couple miles over to the Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach to learn more about water conservation efforts that protect local marine animals.
West Basin also offers free Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-aligned water conservation assemblies to schools in the West Basin service area. Tailored for upper elementary students, these interactive assemblies empower students to protect watersheds and conserve resources. Each student also will receive a Water Star Conservation Kit with fun tools to apply their learning and reduce water waste at home.
To kick off the new calendar year, the annual West Basin Student Art Contest opens in January 2027. Student artists inspire their communities to support water conservation as a way of life by creating eye-catching artwork with smart water use slogans. Elementary, middle school and high school winners are selected from each of West Basin’s five divisions and will receive an iPad prize and a chance to move onto the Metropolitan Water District regional art competition. Teachers can request a free in-classroom water conservation-themed art lesson, with free art kits made available to teachers at Title I schools.
West Basin also sponsors the Surfrider Foundation South Bay chapter’s Teach and Test program. The program is an extension of the Blue Water Taskforce - Surfrider Foundation's volunteer-run water testing, education and advocacy team - that allows middle and high school students the opportunity to volunteer to monitor water quality in the Santa Monica Bay by collecting and processing water samples.
During the program students collect, prepare and analyze water samples bi-weekly from September through May. Water samples are gathered at 21 coastal and vernal wetland locations. The samples are transported, processed and analyzed under the guidance of an experienced laboratory technician. When the enterococci bacteria levels of each water sample are analyzed, the results are published to an online database run by the Blue Water Task Force to inform the community and protect public health.
Visit our education webpage to learn more about these free educational opportunities.