Do your kids know how groundwater recharge works? Do they know how water gets to their house for drinking, bathing, laundry, dishes, watering the grass, and everything else we use it for? Do they know what an aquifer is? If your child attends a school that IRWA has visited recently, the answer is probably yes!
Idaho Rural Water Association visits schools all over Idaho to teach kids about the importance of water conservation and water quality. IRWA’s educational events are usually performed as part of an outreach strategy for a public water system’s Source Water Protection Plan. Source Water Protection Plans (SWPP’s) are voluntarily created by systems to address drinking water protection. The SWPP uses a variety of techniques to preserve clean drinking water, including public education. IRWA believes that educating children is a vital step in protecting Idaho’s drinking water for generations to come.
There are a number of activities that IRWA uses to teach kids about the importance of maintaining clean water in Idaho. IRWA’s website has a variety of resources available for teaching; these can be found under the “Helpful Links” tab. Some activities include a portable groundwater model, a demonstration called “Drop in a Bucket” that shows the real proportions of available fresh water on earth, and an elementary school favorite called the “Incredible Edible Aquifer.”
The Incredible Edible Aquifer is a fun, interactive teaching tool where kids “build” an aquifer in a see-through plastic cup. The aquifer is composed of completely edible materials. We use chocolate chips, marshmallows, and cereal to create the layers of strata in the subsurface. Soda is used for rain and groundwater. After a “rain event” kids can observe how groundwater fills the pore spaces in between the subsurface material. Then they use red Kool Aid to fertilize the “lawn” in their cup. The kids are instructed to drill a well by inserting a straw into the aquifer. After drawing groundwater through their well, they can observe the effects of drawdown and leaching from the fertilizer they applied. This is a great activity because it presents a variety of conservation topics in an interactive format.
If you are interested in educational activities for your community or your child’s school, please contact Barbi Burke, Melinda Harper, or Adrianna Hummer at Idaho Rural Water. Now is the time to start planning next school year’s events! IRWA can also present fun activities at environmental fairs, summer camps, and more. Idaho Rural Water is here to serve you; don’t hesitate to take advantage of this great teaching resource for your community!