News
Enviroscape Presentation at Barrow Elementary
Nov 14, 2006 by Natalie White
Environmental Legislation Begins in Third Grade
Two third grade classes at Barrow Elementary participated in an Enviroscape presentation that we (Athens-Clarke County Stormwater) gave this past week. The Enviroscape is a relief model of an area of land that represents land use in a watershed, including a residential area, a farm, a factory, etc. We sprinkle Kool-Aid and cocoa powder on the appropriate zones to simulate fertilizers, pesticides, soil, and animal waste, which can act as pollutants when over-applied or left on impervious surfaces. A spray bottle of water makes it “rain” on the town. Through this simple demonstration, students learn about non-point source pollution as they see how pollutants from the farthest area of the model run into streams and then flow down river, all ending up in the same lake. Models like this are important because while point source pollution (like illegal dumping) is easy to conceptualize, the sum of all the small contributions that create non-point source pollution can be more difficult to understand.
Students then discussed what someone working or living in each area of the map could do to reduce his contribution to the polluted waters. Educational programs in the United States have succeeded in teaching students about the harm that pollution does to an environment. We’ve found that the kind hearts of children make them naturally responsive to information about how plants and animals can be harmed or helped. On the agenda for this decade is to modify educational programs to incorporate environmental concepts that are new enough for many adults to never have heard of them, and to present them to this young audience in a way that is neither too difficult or boring.
Due to it being election season, Barrow was letting its students mock-campaign for political offices, from mayor all the way to President of the United States. Excited about their campaigns, and now excited about the model landscape that had just been mucked up with Kool-Aid and cocoa, some students decided to incorporate anti-pollution legislation into their campaigns. I doubt there was ever a more important result from 20 minutes of playing with toy cows and Kool-Aid.
Tagged: environmental legislation, barrow elementary, enviroscape, relief model, land use in a watershed
