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Spotlight - The Link To Your Drink At 2011 PA Children's Water Festival
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“Wherever you are, you are standing in a watershed and your actions have an impact on the water you drink.” This was the take-home message at the "Link to Your Drink" activity presented at the 2011 PA Children’s Water Festival. The festival, a national event was held on May 24 at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa.
Master Well Owner Network Coordinator, Misha Cleveland; MWON volunteer Julie Brooks; and Extension Educators Thomas McCarty, Jennifer Fetter and Diane Oleson used models convey the message that our drinking water comes from ground and surface water sources that have recharge areas in need of protection from pollution.
Students used an Enviroscape model to observe the connection between activity on the watershed and contaminants entering the surface water. Cocoa powder, and red and green gelatin became pollutants that were washed into the surface water with squirt bottle rain.
A groundwater model, with help from a carrot, toy bunny and M&Ms was employed to visualize the movement of water through the soil and its connection to drinking water. Students came to realize that their drinking water comes from a recharge area around a well and that the soil acted as a filter between the surface water and their drinking water.
At the 2011 PA Children’s Water Festival, over 300 volunteers and presenters hosted activities for approximately sixteen hundred fourth and fifth grade students, their teachers, and chaperons from York and Adams counties. The Festival is held annually, in different states.
Activities are designed to allow students to: explore water through interactive and dynamic activities, learn about drinking water, groundwater, watersheds, surface water, and water quality, and gain a better understanding of their water supply and a better understanding of what a truly precious resource water is.
The Water Systems Council holds a Children's Water Festival in a different state every year, the intent being to educate students about the importance of their water resources.
(Reprinted from Penn State Cooperative Extension Watershed Winds Newsletter.) |
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6/13/2011 |
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