By Kira Zalis Waldman
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Teaching hydrology means teaching in a world where climate awareness, and inherently climate grief, often walk into the classroom before I do. Our lectures revisit now familiar concerns: shrinking snowpack, overdrafted aquifers, and the uneven and unjust burdens so many California communities carry. The weight of that knowledge is real. As land subsides and floods deluge, young people at pivotal moments in their early adulthood are asked to absorb the unsettling truths of a human-altered water cycle. It can feel overwhelming, for them and for me, especially as they begin imagining their place in the water world. (It’s Time to Talk about Climate Anxiety, “This Book Is the Cure for Climate Anxiety”)
This fall, while serving as a teaching assistant for the Intro to Water Science (ESM 100), taught by Dr. Helen E. Dahlke, I observed how curiosity repeatedly broke through climate grief in the classroom and on field visits. The heaviness of the daily lessons (increased evapotranspiration, water-quality degradation, soil moisture decline, etc.) was met with voices and questions that inspired me – that recharged my resilience. On field visits to the climate station, the groundwater pump facility, and the arboretum waterway, students asked sharp, joyful questions: How does this sensor work? Why is that pump humming? Where does our campus water actually come from? What happens to our resources after floods? During droughts? Standing there in the sun or the rain, surrounded by the tools and people who keep water systems functioning, something softened. The problems felt big, yes – but the solutions felt tangible.
These moments reminded me that purpose grows where grief and curiosity meet. Students and instructors who show up with openness, humor, and wonder tend to thrive. Field-based learning helps all of us reconnect to what is still possible. It turns abstract worry into grounded understanding, and at least in our class this fall, it turns that understanding into resilience.
About the Author
Kira Zalis Waldman (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Hydrologic Sciences Graduate Group at UC Davis, where she studies how geogenic contaminants like arsenic and uranium respond to managed aquifer recharge. She’s passionate about teaching hydrology through place-based, field-centered learning and helping students navigate curiosity and purpose in the water world. When she’s not thinking about groundwater, you can usually find her rafting rivers, backpacking in the mountains, or plotting her next living laboratory in an outside classroom.
Further Reading
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