Getting WET in Arizona Blog

Ask any fourth grader at Soutwest Elementary in Phoenix, "where is water being wasted?" They will scurry to the girls bathroom on the west end of the school building and flush the right-most toilet. Then they will proudly stand back, demonstrating the waterfall that regularly runs down the supply pipe. Next they will tell you about a myriad of other faucets and toilets that behave similarly around the campus. Any one can instruct you in the nuances of the system. This one you have to flush twice to make the water flow. That one only does it sometimes. This faucet turns off quickly. That one runs for a long time.

This revelation, that the children know, came as a result of the Water Audit pilot project taking place at Southwest Elementary School. This project is based on the Water Audit lesson in the Arizona Conserve Water Curriculum Guide. It involves at least one classroom from each grade group, K-8. The participating students are all to observe water use around the campus. Next they measure the amount of water expended at each observed use. Then they chart and graph the data and write proposals for how to save water on campus. Maricopa County's Water Sustainability Office and an administrator from the school form the Water Audit Advisory Board and will select the most feasible proposal(s) to implement before the end of the school year.

It's a great plan. We even thought we knew where the greatest water waste and most feasible fix would be. (The project is only half-way through as of Monday 4/28, so the results are yet to be seen.) But like any other open-ended project on its pilot run, the students have more to teach us than we have to teach them. So far, in working with the fourth grade, I've been reminded that the children are great natural observers who respond well to a little guidance regarding reporting the obvious. They know more than we realize, see more than we do, and have greater ideas than we might expect. And, I'm suspicious that there's a sweet spot for sharing all of these right in that upper-elementary range - fourth, fifth, sixth grades - when they are given a voice and credibility.

The Arizona Project WET Web Page Virtual Release Party is underway!

A VIRTUAL Release Party? Well, we would love to invite everyone over to view the new website and for punch and cake, but there are just too many on the guest list to fit into Kerry Schwartz's office. So, we're partying virtually.

This is how it works. Grab a soda and a couple cookies. Surf over to http://www.cals.arizona.edu/arizonawet. And take a self-guided tour. While you're there, play a few party games. Gather a small group of friends around the computer monitor and play Trivia. (If you play Family Feud- or Jorpardy-style, then send us some fun photos to post.) Sign up for a workshop (don't you always sign up for things at parties?). Comment on the BLOG (commentors enter a drawing for a neat prize).

And come back again as the party should be building over the next two weeks!

It's all fun.