UA News

Arizona Project WET will show fourth-graders how water behaves in the local environment and why it's important for them to know.

Some 1,000 Tucson fourth-graders are about to get their feet wet – both literally and figuratively – on water sustainability issues.

The Water Resources Research Center at The University of Arizona will take its Make a Splash with Arizona Project WET water festival to Jacobs Park on Friday, Oct. 3. The morning session runs from 9 to 11 a.m. The second session is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Arizona Project WET, or Water Education for Teachers, is part of the Water Resources Research Center at the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and manages a series of water festivals held around the state. The events are coordinated with community partners from water conservation offices, county UA Cooperative Extension offices and others.

The festival at Jacobs Park will incorporate several interactive, science-focused activities that teach students about watersheds, ground water, conservation and the water cycle.

Students will actively participate in four 30-minute lessons that are both kinesthetic and visual, said Kerry Schwartz who coordinates Arizona Project WET at the UA. Presenters at the festival are there to guide the students and ask them questions, but not to lecture to them, Schwartz said.

The activities also are correlated to Arizona academic standards and address crucial topics in water stewardship statewide. Local coordinators who help put the festivals together also help make the lessons relevant to their individual communities.

Schwartz said surveys given to students at previous festivals clearly show they are absorbing the lessons. After a water festival, two-thirds of the students – who are 9 to 10 years of age – can correctly identify a watershed, compared to only about 41 percent of adults. She said teachers also receive training before and after festivals to prepare students for the event and to help them retain the lessons once the festival is over.

The goal is to give these young people an appreciation of water issues and sustainability that will continue into their adult lives. Exposure to water education instills an awareness of and respect for water resources and encourages a lifelong commitment to thoughtful regard for these issues.

Two measures of the overall success of the festivals are that teachers are incorporating these lessons as a regular part of their curricula, and communities around the state keep asking for the festivals to return each year.

Generous statewide sponsorship for the water festivals comes from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Salt River Project and Central Arizona Project, as well as corporate, water utilities and educational partners.

Local support for the festival at Jacob's Park comes from Tucson Water, Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation, Southern Arizona Water Users Association and Metro Water.

For more information about Arizona Project WET visit http://cals.arizona.edu/arizonawet/.