Children's Water Festival

On Thursday, the 3rd and 4th graders went to McPherson College for the Children's Water Festival.  HES goes every other year and, as usual, the field trip was very well organized and taught the kids a lot about the water cycle, water pollution and conservation, and aquifers.    Just as impressive, this field trip is entirely free!  The kids (and adults) get free backpacks, shirts, snacks, lunch, pencils, and souvenirs.

Our class went to 6 different classes throughout the day.

The first class that we went to was "Water Off a Duck's Back."  The students learned about oil spills in oceans and how those spills affect the wildlife in the area.  They got to see the affects that oil has on feathers, as well as how much work it is to clean those feathers using soap, water, and a toothbrush.

The second class we went to had to do with goose migration.  They played a game and learned about the affects that weather, deforestation, hurricanes, hunters, etc. have on Canada goose migration.

Another class we went to allowed the kids to pretend they were a droplet of water in the water cycle. They learned how some water goes through the water cycle hundreds of times, while other water gets stuck in places (such as the bottom of the ocean or in an Antarctic glacier) and never moves to a new stage of the water cycle.

Of course, we needed some time to run around.  Give them a field of green grass and beautiful weather and they will come up with something to play!

After a whole group assembly and lunch, we went to a session called "Enviroscapes," where we got to see the affect of herbicides, pesticides, and oil spills on our underwater aquifer.

The second to last session was "Gooey Garbage." The students made a miniature landfill with a partner.  First, they lined their landfill (to protect the aquifer) and then added trash to the landfill- yard clippings, paper, paint, fuel, batteries, etc.  They discussed the smell of the landfill and then covered it with soil.  Finally, they poked a hole in their landfill lining and watched what happened to the aquifer below the landfill.

I did not get a picture of the last session. In this one, the students made "Edible Aquifers."  They used gummy bears as the rocks and pebbles that are underground.  Sprite was used as the water and those were both covered with ice cream to form the covering layer.  Pollution (some red syrup stuff) was added as well as sprinkles that represented leaves and ground covering.  Then, they used a straw to drill through all of the layers to make a pump in a well.  They then "pumped" all the water out of the aquifer to work as a well would.