K-12 | Water Sustainability Program

Educational benefits are as important as

water conservation.

Arizona Project Wet

Promoting responsible water stewardship through excellent and effective water education.


"While I was at the Water Festival, I felt like I was the luckiest kid in the world!" Encio, in Mrs.Rogers' class.

Thanks to the generosity of the sponsors and partners of Arizona Project WET (APW) is able to offer teacher-tested, water-related curriculum at no cost to teachers via hands-on, motivating workshops.

This curriculum is correlated to Arizona State Standards at all grade levels, K-12, and in all curricular areas including Science, Language Arts, Social Studies and Math.

Teachers who have attended Arizona Project WET workshops share high praise for the workshops, curriculum, and valuable contribution that APW makes to Arizona's educational excellence.

In addition to WET workshops, APW directs the Arizona Make A Splash with WET Water Festivals held around the state each year. These events bring 4th graders together in a standards-based, hands-on, learning experience to super-charge their understanding of water concepts. Students report that learning at festivals is fun and teachers report that this field-study is a valuable experience for their students!

After the workshop and Water Festival, APW continues to support teachers in the classroom by making interactive teaching tools and other resources available for checkout to WET program alumni.

School Water Audits

by Nancy Crocker

Nancy Crocker, WSP staff at the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension office in Phoenix, has completed a pilot project to bring water audits into the classroom in Phoenix schools.

Students Steven Mitchell (left) and Danitza Larrazolo (right) join teacher Stephanie Jones in assessing results from an audit of Cottonwood Middle School’s water use.

Emily Warner, a student at Cottonwood Middle School, evaluates a drinking fountain’s flow as part of a program that teaches kids about water conservation through audits and other lessons. Organizers, including the Arizona Department of Water Resources, say it’s important to teach lessons about responsible water use early.

Wilson, Andrea, School water audit teaches conservation, East Valley Tribune.com August 18, 2009 4:23PM

During Spring 2008, 366 students at Southwest Elementary School in Phoenix participated in a school water audit project. Students measured water use at their school, created posters and wrote proposals about how to conserve water. One proposal was selected for funding and implementation. The winning proposal noted that the school had a hand washing station with eight faucets that ran continuously during the school's lunch periods, for about two hours each day, whether or not children were present and washing their hands. The proposal suggested retrofitting the station with sensors or push buttons. After consultation with a plumbing distributor, metered valves (push buttons) were selected as the best fix and funding was made available for the retrofit by WSP. Before school closed for summer vacation, the plumber came and installed metered valves.

Before the retrofit, approximately 220,325 gallons of water flowed through the hand washing station during the school year! Assuming that each student washes his or her hands once per day using the new metered valves, it is anticipated that 54,087 gallons per year (25% of the pre-retrofit amount!) will now flow through the hand washing station. A City of Phoenix Water Services Department official estimates that the school will save nearly $1,000 per year in water and sewage fees. Actual usage and savings will be monitored during the coming year.

Know99 an educational TV channel in Phoenix produced a 99 second video on the audit.

Contact Nancy Crocker for more information.

Science Fair Awards

SOUTHERN ARIZONA SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR AWARDS 2009

The Water Sustainability Program provided awards for student science and engineering projects related to water resources in 2009 to help support the SciEnTeK-12 Foundation. The Foundation has worked since 1998 to excite young people about science and engineering. Both projects selected by WSP judges combined concepts of water and energy.

Awards were given out by Raina Maier, WSP Executive Committee member and Associate Director of the Superfund Research Program.

Lyda Harris from University High, Tucson, was awarded $250 for the best water-related project in Grades 9-12, for Runoff with Energy

Daniel Manjooran, from St. Joseph's Catholic School, Tucson, was awarded $250 for the best water-related project in Grades 6-8 for Solar Desalination.

Judges:

Lisa Jones, PhD candidate, Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering

Richard Rushforth, PhD candidate, Department of Soil, Water & Environmental Science

Sondra Teske, PhD candidate, Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering

Water Kits

The WATER project is an exciting, standards-based water education program to use in your 4th-12th grade classrooms in Tucson, Southern Arizona, Maricopa County and Flagstaff.

The goal is to facilitate classroom implementation of hands-on, minds-on water education programs aligned with state standards. We have integrated related components from several well-established water education programs, including Arizona Project WET, GLOBE, and Aquatic WILD to provide in-depth learning experiences for students.

Participating teachers receive:

on loan teaching kits with curricular materials, audio visual aids, and scientific water testing equipment
the opportunity to attend training workshops for professional development credit
and classroom support from water education specialists.

Materials from a variety of sources are integrated into four topical units of study and packaged into kits with classroom sets of materials.

Each kit provides multidisciplinary, inquiry-based activities that meet state standards in different subject areas.

For information on how to obtain kits, go to Teacher Programs and Resources on the SAHRA website.