20190322 Astronaut Ricky Arnold at Brookside Gardens for World Water Day

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Maryland Park Service Ranger Jessica Conley was on hand at Brookside Gardens with the bald-eagle Buchanan for . Buchanan was found injured in Pennsylvania and is no longer able to fly, "Buck", as he is affectionately know, is now a permanent resident of the Tuckahoe aviary and helps rangers to educate the public on the human impact to wildlife. See https://www.chesapeakebay.net/news/blog/unseen_danger_leads_to_eagle_deaths

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Students from Glenallan Elementary School participate in a learning station at Brookside Gardens lead by Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Sarah Hilderbrand.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Project WET - Water Education for Teachers - Celebrating Solutions Through Water Education - Sustaining the Blue Planet

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Students from Glenallan Elementary School participate in a learning station at Brookside Gardens for World Water Day, an international observance advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel A student uses dirt, blocks, and gravel to do an experiment on erosion control.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Brookside Gardens Director Stephanie Oberle joins the iconic Brookside frog in reading about Project WET. "WET" stands for "Water Education for Teachers".

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Brookside Gardens Director Stephanie Oberle joins the iconic Brookside frog in reading about Project WET. "WET" stands for "Water Education for Teachers".

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Teachers from Glenallan Elementary School confer on the next activity as part of World Water Day at Brookside Gardens.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Glenallan Elementary School teacher Mary DeFrehn shares topics with students (and the frog) at Brookside Gardens during Wold Water Day.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Ricky Arnold gets into the spirit of the day reading about water with the iconic Brookside Gardens frog. Arnold is a Bowie native and has degrees from Frostburg and the University of Maryland. See http://spaceflight101.com/iss/ricky-arnold/

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Ricky Arnold gets into the spirit of the day reading about water with the iconic Brookside Gardens frog. Arnold is a Bowie native and has degrees from Frostburg and the University of Maryland. See http://spaceflight101.com/iss/ricky-arnold/

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Richard Robert Arnold, III. Ricky Arnold served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for 197 days (almost 6 months) returning to Earth in October of 2018. He has lived and worked not only on the ISS but also in the world's only undersea laboratory and on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He has conducted 5 spacewalks and has totaled 209 days in space. Before joining NASA in 2006, Astronaut Arnold taught science and mathematics around the world, working in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. A proud Maryland native, Astronaut Arnold earned a Bachelor's degree and teacher's certification at Frostburg State University and a Master's degree in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland. On the ISS, he co-led the Year of Education on Station, sharing his love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and passion for teaching. Astronaut Arnold joined the Project WET Foundation Board of Directors in 2011 because of his belief in the importance of water education in addressing critical challenges.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Richard Robert Arnold, III. Ricky Arnold served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for 197 days (almost 6 months) returning to Earth in October of 2018. He has lived and worked not only on the ISS but also in the world's only undersea laboratory and on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He has conducted 5 spacewalks and has totaled 209 days in space. Before joining NASA in 2006, Astronaut Arnold taught science and mathematics around the world, working in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. A proud Maryland native, Astronaut Arnold earned a Bachelor's degree and teacher's certification at Frostburg State University and a Master's degree in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland. On the ISS, he co-led the Year of Education on Station, sharing his love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and passion for teaching. Astronaut Arnold joined the Project WET Foundation Board of Directors in 2011 because of his belief in the importance of water education in addressing critical challenges.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Richard Robert Arnold, III. Ricky Arnold served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for 197 days (almost 6 months) returning to Earth in October of 2018. He has lived and worked not only on the ISS but also in the world's only undersea laboratory and on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He has conducted 5 spacewalks and has totaled 209 days in space. Before joining NASA in 2006, Astronaut Arnold taught science and mathematics around the world, working in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. A proud Maryland native, Astronaut Arnold earned a Bachelor's degree and teacher's certification at Frostburg State University and a Master's degree in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland. On the ISS, he co-led the Year of Education on Station, sharing his love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and passion for teaching. Astronaut Arnold joined the Project WET Foundation Board of Directors in 2011 because of his belief in the importance of water education in addressing critical challenges.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Richard Robert Arnold, III. Ricky Arnold served as flight engineer on the International Space Station for 197 days (almost 6 months) returning to Earth in October of 2018. He has lived and worked not only on the ISS but also in the world's only undersea laboratory and on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He has conducted 5 spacewalks and has totaled 209 days in space. Before joining NASA in 2006, Astronaut Arnold taught science and mathematics around the world, working in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. A proud Maryland native, Astronaut Arnold earned a Bachelor's degree and teacher's certification at Frostburg State University and a Master's degree in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland. On the ISS, he co-led the Year of Education on Station, sharing his love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and passion for teaching. Astronaut Arnold joined the Project WET Foundation Board of Directors in 2011 because of his belief in the importance of water education in addressing critical challenges.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel One kid keeps his fingers crossed, another prays that their erosion control efforts work in this experiment at Brookside Gardens as part of World Water Day activities.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Chris Horne, and environmental educator from Frederick County Public Schools, shows the kids an experiment about erosion and erosion control.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Chris Horne, and environmental educator from Frederick County Public Schools, shows the kids an experiment about erosion and erosion control.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Chris Horne, from FCPS, shows the kids an experiment about erosion and erosion control.

George P. Smith/The Montgomery Sentinel Astronaut and teacher Ricky Arnold joins third graders from Glenallen Elementary School in a lesson in progress on "Stormwater: Friend or Foe" taught by Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Sarah Hilderbrand at Brookside Gardens. Project WET Foundation Senior Vice President John Etgen can be seen in the background. As part of World Water Day, an international observance advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater, NASA Astronaut and former science teacher Ricky Arnold visited Glenallan Elementary School and talked to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders about how his time in space has impacted how he thinks about water on the “Blue Planet,” and how space exploration can inspire students to tackle science, technology engineering and math (STEM) subjects. Students then walked to Montgomery Parks’ Brookside Gardens to take part in a water festival — a hands-on, interactive morning of activity stations that taught them about all aspects of water. The event was organized by the Project WET Foundation, an international water education nonprofit, along with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Montgomery Parks, which is a department of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), a bi-county agency established in 1927 to steward public land. M-NCPPC has been nationally recognized for its high-quality parks and recreation services and is regarded as a national model by other parks systems. www.MontgomeryParks.org. Since 1984, the Project WET Foundation has been dedicated to solving critical water challenges by teaching the world about water. Project WET ("WET" stands for "Water Education for Teachers") is active in all 50 U.S. states and more than 70 countries worldwide. Learn more at www.projectwet.org.