Sammamish students learn to protect the watershed
June 8, 2010
By Christopher Huber
About 800 students from the Issaquah and Lake Washington school districts got to experience one last field trip for the year June 3 and 4. Many of them came from Challenger, Discovery and Cascade Ridge elementary schools.
The Sammamish students, along with fourth-graders from Redmond and Kirkland participated in the 16th annual Sammamish Watershed Festival.
Matt Maynard, of Parametrix, demonstrates water filtration to Discovery Elementary students June 3 at Beaver Lake Park. Photo by Christopher Huber
The festival ran for two days and each school’s fourth-grade classes spent one day learning about being stewards of their watershed through numerous interactive activities and instruction.
“It’s a real strong message for kids … that they can make conscious decisions,” said Janet Sailer, conservation and public information specialist for the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District. “Teachers love this festival because it meets their educational standards.”
Each day, the Watershed Festival opened with a Pacific Northwest native dance and drumming ceremony in the Lodge at Beaver Lake with Tlingit performer Elizabeth Baty.
“It’s a great place to teach kids about the watershed because you have it right in front of you,” Sailer said. “This is such a great facility.”
Throughout the more than three-hour festival, groups of students traveled to various interactive stations, where representatives from area environmental companies and groups taught them about testing water quality, the effects of pollution and taking care of their surroundings.
“I think it’s very interesting,” said Jihae Choi, a fourth-grader at Discovery. “It’s a chance to become better, eco-friendly people.”
At the Enviroscape presentation, students observed the pollution of surface and ground waters through the application of oil, pesticides and fertilizers, which were actually cocoa and green and red Kool-Aid.
At another station, students pretended to be wild salmon and performed tasks to make it through the “Run Salmon Run” exercise, which simulated the salmon lifecycle. Parents helped direct them. The salmon activity exposes students to the types of threats salmon face in the wild, Sailer said.
Physical activity was a key ingredient to the festival’s impact, Sailer said. In addition to teaching local youth the value of water conservation and to appreciate easy access to quality water, it was interactive.
“We want to get them physically outside into their environments,” Sailer said.
To stress the point, the students and teachers from Discovery walked the nearly 1.5 miles from the school, along Southeast 24th Street to Beaver Lake Park to attend the event June 3.
“What a great way to reduce your impact on the environment,” Sailer said to Discovery students during the opening ceremony.
Other students took water samples from Beaver Lake and observed the critters and organisms up close through portable microscopes.
At another station, the Water Wizard offered explanations for anything the students wanted to know about living in a watershed.
For the first time, the city of Sammamish had a booth, which helped educate students about storm water runoff.
New booths in 2010 included a poop-finding relay race, in which students marked fake piles of dog poop with orange flags.
The activity emphasized the importance of cleaning up after pets.
Students also participated in water filtration exercises and pH testing. The festival also drew connections between a watershed’s health and wildlife populations.
“They (animals) can’t take care of themselves without ourselves,” Jihae said.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.
Other Stories of Interest: Beaver Lake, Cascade Ridge Elementary, Challenger Elementary, Discovery Elementary School, environ
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