Water Center Staff Carolina Ruiz, Jessie Curl, and Sydney Zinner demonstrated watersheds and water pollution with the Enviroscape Model for the BraveHeart Center for Place and Purpose (BCPP), also known as BraveHearts. BraveHearts is a collaborative community program within the AU Social Work Program.
We kicked off the session at the Auburn Arboretum with the Globe Toss icebreaker activity for BraveHeart participants and staff to introduce themselves and learn about global water distribution. Participants shared their names, where they are from, and an interesting fact about themselves. It was a great activity to get to know everyone a little bit better, and we learned some fascinating things about the group!
Everyone gathered around the Enviroscape to point out the various land uses in the watershed, like farms, residential areas, industry and construction, and to discuss what types of pollution could come from those places.
Participants enjoyed distributing sprinkles, Kool-Aid, and cocoa powder on the Enviroscape to demonstrate various non-point source pollutants that may plague a watershed. The group identified several sources of pollution in the watershed model, and ways that pollution could be prevented.
The biggest surprise was that a big source of pollution is dog poop (represented by chocolate sprinkles)! But thankfully, most of the participants pick up after their pets, so they are already off to a great start preventing pollution in their communities.
To conclude the activity, participants made it rain! As they sprayed the Enviroscape, they witnessed the pollutants get picked up by the “rainwater” and flow down to the lake at the bottom of the watershed.
It’s safe to say no-one wanted to swim in or drink water that looked like that… (even if it did smell like Kool aid).
Many thanks to BCPP Program Coordinator Angela Powell and her staff for hosting the WRC Staff and stay tuned for more AUWRC and BCPP collaborations!