Teaching Students the Water-Energy Connection at 'Making a Difference Day'

On Friday, September 10th, 2010, River Network’s Saving Water, Saving Energy program was invited to “inform, inspire and motivate” over 100 sixth through eighth graders during Making a Difference Day at Rosemont Ridge Middle School, located just outside of Portland, OR. The day was packed with fun activities – including the opportunity to take political action and experience first-hand the energy it takes to move water – as the schoolchildren learned about the important connections between water, energy and climate change.

River Network’s Saving Water, Saving Energy program was invited to Making a Difference Day at Rosemont Ridge Middle School after the event’s organizers heard about our involvement at the 2009 Children’s Clean Water Festival, where we gave students the chance to write letters about water efficiency and river protection to Governor Ted Kulongowski. Many of the kids chose to draw pictures showing why they enjoy clean rivers and ways that they were going to save water. To check out the letters from the Children’s Clean Water Festival, click here (PDF).

This year’s Making a Difference Day at Rosemont Ridge Middle School consisted of four separate 45 minute sessions with about 30 students in each session. The lesson plan more or less consisted of the following:

• Establish a connection between the students and water resources
• Go over the science of global warming while emphasizing water impacts
• Discuss water-energy connection with a focus on energy required to pump, heat and treat water.
• Have students participate in activity to show the energy it takes to move water
• Review how much water we use and all the ways to use water more efficiently, emphasizing the energy savings and climate change benefits of individual actions around the home.
• Show students how much water and energy a family can save by switching to a more efficient showerhead
• Pass out template letters and give students the opportunity to draw or write a letter to their elected officials explaining why water is valuable and how they intend to make a difference.

Each session was kicked off by helping the students establish a personal connection with their water resources. Each class was asked if they had a favorite river, lake or stream, and why it was their favorite. Numerous hands would invariably shoot up and the children has some interesting answers that would lead into a discussion of why clean, healthy rivers with vibrant flows are so important to our enjoyment and use of water.

From there, River Network used the EPA’s wonderful Back to Basics (PDF) publication to describe the science of global warming in a way that kids could understand. We highlighted the impacts that climate change is expected to have on water supplies and then transitioned into a conversation about how using water more efficiently can keep more water in the rivers and lakes we love, and prevent the worst affects of climate change.

The main message of the day was that water use is very energy intensive, therefore saving water saves energy. In order to drive this point home – and give the kids a break from listening to people talk all day – students participated in an activity where 3 teams of about 10 students each raced to pass large, 6.5 gallon water jugs down the length of the classroom. Students were asked to imagine one side of the classroom was the river where their water came from, while the other side was their house. As the students struggled to pass the water down the line, we explained how each jug contained a volume of water equal to what most people use after just two or three minutes in the shower, or the amount of water flushed down the drain by old, inefficient toilets after just one or two flushes. Check out the YouTube video below:

After letting each group of students race a second time, the majority of them would be panting and tired, providing the perfect opportunity to emphasize just how much energy it takes to move water long distances from its source to their homes.

After the activity, students learned more about the magnitude of energy and greenhouse gas emissions embedded in water, and how using less water can help protect rivers and fight global warming. We passed out the Water-Energy fact sheets (PDF) that River Network put together with the National Environmental Education Foundation for EE Week 2010. The fact sheet has information on how people use water around the house, and a number of factoids about the water-energy nexus.

We also picked a student volunteer from each class to run through River Network’s Showerhead Comparison Calculator so that we could estimate how much the volunteer’s family can reduce their carbon footprint by switching to a more efficient showerhead. For instance, a family of four heating their water with an electric water heater can save over 8,000 gallons of water, 1200 kilowatt hours of electricity, 1,600 pounds of CO2 emissions and about $175 per year on water and energy bills simply by switching from a standard 2.5 gallons per minute showerhead to a 1.5 gallons per minute one (assuming each family member takes 5 showers per week for an average of 8 minutes each).

After going through the various ways that kids can do their part to save water and energy around the house, we explained that another way to get involved and help protect the planet is by taking political action and urging lawmakers to support water efficiency and river protection. We explained that this was an opportunity to voice their values to our elected officials, and to inspire our leaders to take their own actions by making policies that ensure abundant clean water resources.

We then passed out template letters addressed to Oregon’s U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and encouraged the children to write a note or draw a picture on the letter explaining why they care about Oregon’s rivers, lakes and streams, and what they’re doing as individuals to protect our water resources. In total, 79 students decided to write letters to Sens. Wyden and Merkley. A few samples are below or you can view all of the student's letters in a PDF:

By all accounts the day was a huge success and we had a lot of fun seeing the student’s reactions to our message about combating climate change by saving water and energy. Most of the students seemed genuinely interested in the subject matter and the activities proved to be a great way to further engage and empower the children as they learned about the complex and relatively abstract challenges we face with global warming. It was also exciting to see so many children choose to write something to their elected officials in order to let them know their feelings about saving water and protecting rivers.

Our goal for the day was to show schoolchildren how they can make a difference in the world. Judging by the letters we sent to Oregon’s Senators, most of the students are already well on their way to making the world a better place.