The
City of Bellingham Public Works Department offers a watershed,
water-treatment and wastewater-treatment experience for fifth-grade classes.
The goal of this program is to empower 5th graders with the knowledge of how
the city’s water system works, how the waterways are involved in the water
system and how they can help protect our watersheds.
Public Works educators visit classrooms to teach about the water cycle and prepare students for a closer look at their city’s water system. Students are then introduced to watersheds and build a paper model to learn how water moves through our environment from the highest point to the lowest point. They then learn about two different surfaces that water moves across: pervious and impervious. Students are then led through the “Cookies and Catchbasins” activity, which models a neighborhood with pervious and impervious surfaces and teaches the importance of keeping pollution out of storm drains that lead to lakes and streams.
Public Works educators return to the classrooms to introduce students to components of Bellingham’s Water System. Students work as a team of engineers to design their own cities that provide water treatment and wastewater services to their city’s residents. Students then start investigating about Lake Whatcom to learn more about the source of their drinking water.
Before
coming on their fieldtrip to tour the water-treatment plant, students watch
the Go with the Flow video with their teacher and complete classroom
activities that introduce them to the concept of water treatment.
Students begin the water treatment fieldtrip in Whatcom Falls Park where they participate in an “Each Pair, Teach a Pair” activity. Students then tour the water plant to discover the steps involved in the water-treatment process. After a break for lunch, they build their own water treatment plant and learn the importance of pH testing.
Before
visiting the waste water plant, students view the pre-trip video Down the
Drain to introduce them to the wastewater-treatment concept. The program
begins with a tour of the Post Point treatment facility where students see
first hand how wastewater is cleaned. After the tour, students
discover the challenges faced in cleaning wastewater by participating in a
“Pollution Soup” activity and by visiting the laboratory to meet the
microorganisms that help clean the wastewater.
During
on optional post-trip visit, students review the key components of
Bellingham’s water system and make their own hexaflexagon as an award for
participating in the Sharing Our Watershed Program.
To schedule a program, please call the Environmental Resources Education Team at the Public Works Department.
