You can work with the teacher to identify ways in which the monitoring program can fit into the established curriculum. Teachers are more likely to stay with a monitoring project when they have support from other involved teachers at the same school or in the same watershed. Your group can create opportunities for teachers to meet, plan, and network by encouraging more than one teacher in each school to become involved, training teachers in groups, and bringing teachers together at the end of each school year to evaluate the program and lay the groundwork for the coming year. Remember that you can recruit more than just the science teachers. Water monitoring lends itself to interdisciplinary study, including math, language, and social studies - and don't overlook the potential for involving the guidance counselor, the physical education teacher, or the special education teacher.
Teachers are hungry for resources.
Much of what they want to teach about water quality and community action is hard to find in a textbook. Providing audiovisual aids, lists of books, and a listing of resource people and agencies in your area can be a big help. A manual with clear written procedures for performing all the tests, as well as background information and equipment lists with ordering information, is essential. Helping teachers obtain equipment or funding. A citizen monitoring group can lend monitoring equipment to the school program.