COUNCIL GROVE — For schoolchildren from six Kansas counties, Thursday was all about the environment at the Twin Lakes Water Festival in Council Grove.
The Twin Lakes Water Festival was started in 2004 with 633 students from five counties. This year, more than 1,100 students attended from six counties — Lyon, Chase, Dickinson, Geary, Morris and Wabaunsee.
The festival, funded through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment through an EPA Section 319 Nonprofit Source Pollution Control Grant, is aimed at educating area students with hands-on interactive learning that focuses on natural resources and environmental education emphasizing water quality and education, said Katie Miller, of the water festival. The Twin Lakes WRAPS (Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy) Project administers the grant through KDHE.
On Thursday, the area in Canning Creek Cove at Council Grove Lake was divided into color-coded mini-parks and each school stayed within their assigned park. They took turns at each of the stations in their zones, rotating every 25 minutes. The activities were based on the Project WET Curriculum and a majority of the projects were tied to Kansas Core Curricular Standards.
In Lyon County’s park, Verlyn Richards and Jeremy Thornbrugh from Sunset Zoo in Manhattan ran a station on Kansas animals.
During the presentation, students had the chance to pet a few animals including a box turtle, a non-venmous snake and an opposum. As Thornbrugh interacted with fourth-grade students from Logan Avenue Elementary School, they listened intently, eagerly raising their hands when they had questions.
Lucas Aleman said the animal station was his favorite station.
“But I liked all of it,” Lucas said.
Tania Plazola said she learned what animals eat, how to catch animals and to not kill animals.
“I also learned that clams are here,” she said. “They live under the water and under sand.”
Letisa Madrigal also enjoyed the animals.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of species,” she said.
Letisa said she liked learning about how snakes help keep cereal in good supply. During the presentation, Thornbrugh told the students that mice and other small animals eat ingredients in cereal such as wheat and corn. The snakes eat the mice, leaving fewer to destroy the crops.
“Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford my cereal in the morning,” Thornbrugh said. “I don’t know what kind of riches you all have going on at home...”
Morgan Bolen, fourth grader from Timmerman Elementary School, took away some information about the box turtle in the zoo’s presentation.
“I learned that the box turtle isn’t really a turtle,” Morgan said.
In addition to the hundreds of students at the event, more than 120 presenters led students during the event. The Northern Heights High School Science Club led several stations at the event.
Junior Allison Siler and senior Jasmine King led the station on migration. During the station, students were asked to stand on a piece of carpet and “migrate” to the next piece of carpet. After each migration, the number of “birds” allowed on a carpet square decreased and birds — students — who couldn’t fit on the carpet square “died.”
The number of students allowed on a square decreased due to drought, floods and oil spills. When a tree was planted, a student or two was allowed to come back, symbolizing rebirth. The idea of the activity was to teach students how human and nonhuman related events affect the migrating bird population.
Allison and Jasmine said they enjoyed doing the activities with the students and they learned from the kids as well.
“I love the kids,” Jasmine said.
The water festival is just one of many activities the Northern Heights Science Club participates in throughout the school year. The students also participate in an Environthon later in the year and hold fundraisers throughout the year. The activities make the science club experience enjoyable for the students.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Allison said. “It’s really fun to learn about the environment...”
Jasmine agreed.
“It’s good to be involved in science and not get a grade,” she said.
For the kids, the day was all about a wealth of information. And each student learned something new during the daylong event. Ethan Garcia, fourth grader from Timmerman, said he learned about mussels in Kansas.
“Zebra mussels are bad,” he said. “They can clog up water pipes and stop fresh water mussels from filtering the water.”
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