Over the summer, Agua Viva supported a local non-profit, Green Works in Kansas City, by bringing our water filtration demo board to their ECO Career Camp. In the post-camp survey, the water filtration board was a unanimous top favorite hands-on activity!
Led by one of our own Agua Viva International members, Desiree Smith, the educational camp focused on exploring green careers related to Water Quality and Climate Resiliency. For one full week, 14 middle schoolers made invaluable connections and dove deep into climate conversations, while exploring and recognizing their own passions and interests, and how they can be a part of the solution.
The students traveled to the Missouri River to learn where KC gets our drinking water, performed their own water testing, and got to see behind the scenes at KC Water’s Sante Fe Pump Site. Other field trips included seeing energy efficiency in action at Metropolitan Energy Center, the solar fields at Evergy’s mixed source energy plant, water catchment at a local community garden, and many many more insightful and inspiring guest speakers.
Transporting the filtration board is no small feat and this was made possible with the help of the dedicated, big-hearted volunteers, Daryl Taylor and Jerry Johnson. The opportunity to see water filtration in action was key in helping these concepts really sink in for students. Being able to take pressure and flow readings, actually holding valves and different piping components, while sprinkling in water conversations made for a fun, impactful activity. For example, after identifying the size of our 1” pipe on the board, the students stretched a tape measure 10 feet across the room to represent the size of one of the city water pipes that they had learned about the day before at the KC Water Pump Site.
A BIG THANK YOU to Agua Viva for helping instill the importance of water quality and how water connects us all!
