World Environmental Education Day: Inspiring Stewardship Through Learning

January 23, 2026| Education, Environment

By: Patrick Krudop

On Monday, January 26, we celebrate World Environmental Education Day, a day dedicated to recognizing the essential role education plays in protecting our planet. At the Lake Hopatcong Foundation, environmental education is a core focus of our work, because protecting New Jersey’s largest freshwater lake starts with understanding how our everyday actions, both near and far, affect its health. Helping people understand these connections is one of the most important steps in safeguarding the lake’s future.

Experiential Learning Opportunities

Environmental education can be incredibly powerful when it is hands-on, place-based, and relevant. That’s why we offer a variety of programs that connect learners of all ages directly to the lake and its watershed.

Our field trips bring students outdoors to explore Lake Hopatcong, investigate habitats, and conduct real water-quality testing. These experiences transform science from something students read about into something they explore firsthand.

Our in-class programming allows us to bring the lake into schools through interactive, standards-aligned lessons. Students learn about watersheds, pollution, aquatic ecosystems, and sustainability—while discovering how Lake Hopatcong connects to their own communities.

Our eco-cruises take education onto the water itself. Aboard our Floating Classroom, public participants learn about the lake’s ecology, history, and restoration efforts while seeing the watershed from an entirely new perspective.

Across all these programs, one concept consistently stands out: everything is connected and every action matters.

A Hands-On Lesson in Watershed Interconnectivity

One of my favorite classroom activities challenges students to think about how water—and pollution—moves through a watershed.

In this activity, students are given a 5×5 grid and asked to design a city built around a river. They decide where to place homes, schools, farms, factories, and other features. Almost instinctively, students place the heavy polluters, such as factories or large farms, downstream, believing this will protect their own community’s water supply.

At first, it feels like a smart solution. But then comes the turning point.

Each group’s city is connected to the next, revealing that what they thought was “downstream” is actually someone else’s upstream. The river doesn’t stop at the edge of their grid—it flows into another community, and eventually, into shared water bodies like Lake Hopatcong.

Suddenly, students see the full picture: Even when we think we are protecting our own neighborhoods, our choices can still harm others downstream.

This moment often sparks powerful conversations about responsibility, equity, and the reality that watersheds don’t follow town borders or property lines. What happens upstream matters to everyone.

It’s a lesson that resonates well beyond the classroom and helps students understand their role in protecting shared water resources.

Students explore how waterways—and our choices—flow beyond borders.

Education Is the First Step Toward Protection

On World Environmental Education Day, we’re reminded that environmental protection begins with awareness. When people understand how watersheds work and how their actions ripple outward, they are better equipped to make informed, responsible choices.

Here, at the Lake Hopatcong Foundation, education is one of our strongest tools for ensuring a healthy lake for generations to come. Whether we’re in a classroom, on the shoreline, or out on the water, our goal is to spark curiosity, deepen understanding, and inspire a sense of shared stewardship.