Students Exercise Their Minds at the Children’s Water Festival

“Let’s look in the tray with the rocks!”

“OK, and then let’s see who lives in the algae.”

These 4th grade students were enjoying the exhilaration of discovery as they met water bugs up close. They found stoneflys snuggled up together under the rocks and other aquatic bugs sheltering in the algae.

Next door, students filled cups from a jug of water representing our water supply to demonstrate that water is shared among Cities and Towns, Nature, Farmers, Downstream Users and Evaporation. In a normal year, there is enough water to fill all the cups. In a dry year, some of the cups are empty. The students must negotiate water sharing just like we must do.

In every room of Santa Fe’s Sweeney Convention Center, more students were discovering real water facts and concepts and exercising their critical thinking skills through fun, hands-on activities. A different activity was presented in each room, 12 in all, about water science, history, geography, and our water future. The students, more than 500 4th graders from schools in the Santa Fe area, were participating in the second Santa Fe Children’s Water Festival that was held on February 18 and 19.

A highlight of the Santa Fe Water Festival was a visit from New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman. He visited students as they played Water Jeopardy and urged them to really concentrate on learning about our water because it is essential to our future. He toured several activities, observing the students as they engaged in water sharing, discovered who lives in the algae, and played “Swimmin’ in the Rio Grande”, a board game about the perilous life of a Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout. We are grateful for Senator Bingaman’s deep interest in the Water Festival!

This was the seventh Children’s Water Festival we have organized for students in the Middle Rio Grande and Santa Fe areas. In the years since we began holding Water Festivals, water has been in the news with increasing frequency. In the last two years, we have faced the reality of drought. On New Mexico’s hillsides we see hundreds of dead pinons - killed by lack of water and voracious beetles. During the summer and fall the great Rio Grande looked like a collection of small brown islands with trickles of water meandering around them. The reservoirs that provide the water for us to use have been dangerously low for 2 years. Still, people are reluctant to acknowledge that water is a limited resource in our arid homeland and we have so much to learn about living sustainably in this place. So, the importance of water education has become increasingly clear to all of us.

Over 6000 students have participated in the Water Festivals held since 1999. That means the students who participated in the first Water Festival are now in high school! Before long, they will be making lifestyle decisions and, we hope, voting!  Will they remember the lessons of the Water Festival way back when they were 10?  We hope the answer is YES!

Over the years, we have expanded the methods we use to evaluate the effectiveness of the Festivals from questionnaires and teacher interviews to visits with the students after the Water Festival. We have identified the six Big Water Questions that encompass the “Big Picture” of water:

S       Why is water so important to life?

S       What is the water cycle and why is it important?

S       What is a watershed and how does it function?

S       How do trees, plants, animals, people, soils, and water depend on each other?

S       How do our actions affect water quality?

S       How much water does my family use?

We are convinced that if students learn about water in all of it’s many aspects while their minds are open and their curiosity is boundless, they will understand the connections and interactions more clearly. As adults, we tend to separate water conservation from water pollution and surface water from ground water. The kids haven’t put things in boxes yet and so when we ask how trees, plants, animals, people, soils, and water depend on each other, students understand the connections!

In the next few weeks we’ll be visiting kids in the classroom to better understand what they learned at the Festival. We will also be starting the planning for the sixth Middle Rio Grande Water Festival coming up in October. We’ll be looking for great activities and presenters for this next Festival and we invite you to consider being a presenter! It is a wonderful way to revive your faith that our future is in good hands!

For more information, contact Festival Manager Susan Gorman, at (505) 259-7190, or at H2ofest@aol.com. To learn more about future Children’s Water Festivals log onto www.pioneerwest.net.