Kids Answer the Big Water Questions! 

As New Mexico legislators at the Roundhouse debated legislation for a State Water Plan for the future, students gathered for the first Santa Fe Water Festival at Sweeney Center to learn how to take action to conserve water now.  They will be the future decision makers and voters; perhaps some of them will be legislators and water managers.  They will be faced with even tougher decisions to ensure that the State Water Plan is implemented. 

More than 500 4th grade students from schools in the Santa Fe area attended the Santa Fe Water Festival.  As they arrived, students were greeted by the Water Wizard who "knows all there is to know about H2O."  Later they met a huge Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout, New Mexico's state fish, and a giant stone fly, Mr. Trout's favorite food. 

The Water Festival featured 12 activities that were presented 5 times each day for a different group of students.  They discovered how to determine the purity of a stream by identifying which "bugs" live there.  Teams of students worked together to puzzle out how to create the most perfect river while others learned how native vegetation along the river's edge keeps the water cleaner.  Using a watershed model students could see how sediment, pesticides and oils from parking lots can pollute our water. 

Following the Water Festival, Teachers Carmilla Martinez and Maria Bernardez from Kaune Elementary, invited us to come and talk with their students about what they had learned at the Water Festival.  Martinez and Brenardez had used the resources they had received at the Teacher Workshop held before the Water Festival to prepare students for the Big Day and to reinforce the lessons of the Water Festival activities afterwards. 

We talked with the students about the Big Water Questions: 

• Why is water so important to life? 
• What is the water cycle and why is it important? 
• What is a watershed and how does it function? 
• How do trees, plants, animals, people, soils, and water depend on each other? 
• How do our actions affect water quality? 
• How much water does my family use? 

They responded with a high level of understanding about water - its importance and function and its connection to everything else.  The students described ways they are taking actions to conserve water and protect water quality and promised to tell their families and friends, too!  Even the teachers were impressed by the students' knowledge!  "They know so much more than they knew a month ago." said Martinez proudly.

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