Methodology

Participants share personal water stories and engage in movement-based practices that foster sensory and emotional awareness of their surroundings. Through pre- and post-session surveys, we assess shifts in perceptions of river health and personal well-being, exploring how artistic engagement may shape environmental attitudes. By examining the relationship between self-reported health and ecological awareness, Watershed Movements highlights the potential of creative practices as transformative tools for environmental education, conservation, and community resilience.

Two large wooden canoes stand upright on either side of a green-striped storytelling booth, with a banner in the middle reading “What is your water story?”.
A student walks across the grass toward the green-striped storytelling booth set up near the Genesee River.

Storytelling Booth

Storytelling is a central methodology in Watershed Movements because it communicates the lived, embodied dimensions of environmental change—perspectives often missing from scientific data alone.

  • During each session, participants share a memory, story, or reflection connected to water—Genesee, Raquette, or other waters.
  • Stories are open-ended, spontaneous, and participant-led, allowing space for emotion, memory, and meaning.
  • Recordings are analyzed to understand themes of connection, identity, and environmental awareness.

By integrating storytelling in this way, the project deepens public engagement, supports collective meaning-making, and cultivates resilience across watershed communities.

Embodied Movement Choirs

Watershed Movements explores embodied dimensions of ecological knowledge and place-based connection. Through somatic engagement with landscape, participants explore alternative ways of knowing that complement scientific data. Embodiment grounds abstract environmental concepts in lived experience, allowing for more nuanced understandings of how human and ecological systems are intertwined.

Participants indoors engage in a movement activity, one dancer leaning back dramatically while others observe and prepare to move.
Participants indoors stand in a row with arms extended forward, moving together as part of a dance-like movement choir activity.
A male participant with raised arms joins others in a movement choir session by the Raquette River, with blurred participants’ arms in the foreground.
Books, maps, test tubes, and water testing kits are arranged on a table as part of an educational station about river health.
Participants stand in a large outdoor circle with eyes closed, looking upward, engaging in a movement choir activity by the Genesee River.

Before & After Reflection Surveys

Following the experience, participants reported significant increases in their perception of the river’s health (+40 pp), their own well-being (+25.7 pp), and the connection between the river and personal well- being (+31.5 pp). However, there was a slight decline (−8.6 pp) in the number of participants who rated their personal connection to the river as high. These findings suggest that while the study enhanced understanding of the river’s health and its relevance to human well-being, it may have complicated or reframed individuals’ sense of personal connection to the river.

Inclusive & Respectful Research Design

This study centers participants’ own perceptions and lived experiences, using storytelling and self- assessment to value diverse ways of knowing. By inviting individuals to reflect on their well-being and connection to the river, it fosters respectful, place-based engagement that honors personal and cultural relationships to water.