https:\/\/www.canva.com\/design\/DAHC1ZqXh_U\/mviycOFk8YMoDonuTqbJHA\/edit?utm_content=DAHC1ZqXh_U&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis presentation will be used as a resource for teachers that would like to implement our water fair into their school curriculum or after school program. This presentation will help guide teachers in using each lesson plan to the best of its ability for students. Our ultimate goal is to implement more water infrastructure education for youth in East St. Louis, influencing a new generation to become further aware of issues regarding all-around water infrastructure. The purpose of this presentation will be to go over each lesson in the water fair tool kit and explain what went well, and things we can work on to make the lesson plan better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our 2025 Water Fair project was an event cultivated to expose K-8 students with water conservation practices. The goal was to ensure that students could go home with an idea on how to perform these practices. More specifically, my part in this research was to investigate the methods that organizations use to inform the public about water conservation. This process took about approximately a month to interview and decode them. With that being said, I was able to interview 3 staff members in the education department about the methods that they use. They began to explain their relationship between local school districts as it regards teaching science curriculum. Furthermore, staff members shared that they supply teachers with materials such as soil to help immerse students into the learning experience. Through this process, I was able to create a thematic analysis based off the words that were repeated the most. This allowed for me to understand the importance in\u00a0 Just like the National Great River Center, we were able to apply these same engaging techniques to our 2025 Water Fair. We had four stations where students were able to take different things from. Ultimately, the experience allowed for students to take away positive water conservation practice that can be applied to daily life.\u00a0
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All in all, us six sophomores are feeling bittersweet wrapping up our final CODES Project. We have all played an important role in this research and implementation, but we couldn\u2019t do it without our research team professor, Dr. Adriana Martinez. She has been an incredible mentor, guiding us every step of the way. We are beyond grateful to have had her support, guidance, and all-willingness to collaborate with us, starting when we were six baby freshmen away from their homes for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our next step for this water education is to distribute our work to other communities. We are still working with Kurly, the Strategic Partnership Manager at JJK, who is interested in continuing this education. We want to reach other communities in different areas who are experiencing the same wicked problem we are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Introduction goals: Interesting fact\/observation, describing a problem What kinds of media do we want to include? Where do we want to include them? Do we want to use media that doesn\u2019t belong to us? Pop quiz! True or False? Environmental education is not required in most public schools in the United States. Many schools do not have the funding for hands-on activities. There are communities in the United States that don\u2019t have clean water. Think about it for a second. Well, if you said they\u2019re all true, you\u2019d be correct! Our vision is to educate the youth about good water conservation practices so that they implement these habits in their home. Looking at the bigger picture, we want to influence this new generation to be knowledgeable about water and combat climate change. We have orchestrated our own water fair at JJK Academy with students aged 8-10. We had 4 stations that focused on water conservation vocabulary, soil, water runoff, and water filtration. By participating in water fairs, children are exposed to water conservation exercises and will want to take pride in conserving their Earth. This is important to the St. Louis area because it is located on a flood plain. Not only is this area on a flood plain, it also has a heavily industrial background. The pipes that are underground are deteriorating over time and are not sustainable during heavy rains. Areas in Illinois like Cahokia Heights (formerly Cahokia, Centreville, and Alorton) and East St. Louis face sewage flooding into their yards. The Community-Oriented Digital Engagement Scholars (CODES) at SIUE partnered with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Innovation Center to look deeper into this issue. We are six students from this program that work with after-school kids at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee (JJK) Academy in East St. Louis. We have conducted two years of research about this wicked water equity issue. We have interviewed local educators and organizations, surveyed nearly 200 educators regarding their part in water conservation education, and learned from SIUE\u2019s own STEM Center faculty about what it takes to develop lesson plans. Soaking in all this information and seeking a game plan, we visited the Illinois State Capitol where we spoke with legislators about our findings. We decided to tackle after school programming which has less regulations. Read further to learn about the steps we took to, ultimately, orchestrate our very own water fair! Our first semester in CODES was spent defining our \u201cwicked\u201d problem. They call it a wicked problem because it is so deep and multifaceted. We asked ourselves questions like, \u201cWhat are stakeholders and who are they in this situation?\u201d and \u201cWhat does this flooding issue look like along the Southern American Bottom?\u201d. Not too long after our first introduction, we were itching to find out more. During just our second semester in CODES, we immersed ourselves in research, gathering data, and overall familiarizing ourselves with our wicked problem. In doing this, we created a survey aimed toward educators. We titled this \u201cTeachers\u2019 Perspectives on Water Conservation Education\u201d. We wanted to see what educators were or weren\u2019t doing about this crisis, but also get a feel for their classroom environment. Our survey questions were mostly multiple choice, but ended with a few free responses. We received 196 total responses. The majority of our responses came from those who interacted with sixth through eighth grade students. Across the board, educators agreed that hands-on labs and experiments work best for engaging students. However, when asked if they implement water conservation topics into their classes, the majority said no. If they responded no, the next question asked why not. The emerging themes were lack of awareness, lack of funding, and outstanding curriculum requirements, all preventing educators from implementing water conservation into their classrooms. This was eye-opening, and arguably the most important takeaways. We took this information and presented it at SIU System Day at the Illinois State Capitol. We spoke with legislators about the curriculum requirements as well as the sparse funding and will be following up with another visit in March 2026. On top of constructing a survey, we also interviewed a local educator, Zach, who also works with after school kiddos at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Academy. Here you can find the full transcription of the interview. We asked questions regarding how the kids at the academy learn and what changes are feasible to their after-school program. There were many themes that emerged, but a few outshone the others. For example, technological advancement was one recurring theme. Zach said on multiple occasions that he\u2019d like to utilize technology and potentially drones to help kids visualize these water conservation issues, \u201cDrones! That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to get right now. We have a good drone program, it\u2019s probably one of my favorite ones. And I\u2019ve been trying, begging and begging for a thermal imaging drone. And just no luck, no funding\u2026 I think stuff like that, that’s easy for kids to understand, where they can automatically pull up a chart, I think is great.\u201d Another theme is activity characteristics for the after-school program. He wants these activities to be hands-on and science-forward. Zach said, \u201cI think water conservation hits a lot, and science. They’re not the focus kind of test scores. It’s really math and reading, right?\u201d which explains his frustration with the lack of science education requirements in the state. The last theme is what is important to these kids and what they take away when they go home. He wants to influence these kids to tie what they learn in his space to their homes, hoping they make a difference in their community. One of our last steps in our research semester was visiting SIUE\u2019s STEM Center. We met with the head of the center, Andrea Dexheimer, who is a research biologist at SIUE. She talked to us about all the things that go into finding and\/or creating lesson plans such as Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy. This was especially helpful for both those who constructed water fair activities as well as plans for the water fair toolkit.\u00a0After a year of researching and brainstorming, we decided to host a water fair at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Academy. There were 4 stations: \u201cThe Magic of Water Filtration\u201d, \u201cThe Dirt Detective\u201d, \u201cRunoff with Water Knowledge\u201d, and \u201cWater Word Wonders\u201d.This project was created by Justin Richerson, and he created \u201cThe Magic of Water Filtration.\u201d It started when he wanted to make a simple inexpensive project that portrayed an aspect of Water Filtration, when the idea was floated that I should make it about water filtration, after confirming this as a good idea with his peers and the community partners, he had set the research into motion and found several sources detailing the process, using materials such as a soda bottle, sand, pebbles of varying sizes, and cottonballs, it was also preferable that all these items were very inexpensive and easy to find\/be supplied with. After the construction of the Simple water filter, it was ready for presentation. His part of the Water Fair was essentially about water filtration and its effects on the environment. It had been constructed using a simple model of the water filter, using a bottle and some other relatively inexpensive materials. Then, he decided to make an activity out of it using a large notepad and drew an example of the water filter, and had the kids describe each layer of the simple water filter. It was meant for the students to comprehend what they had previously taught and bring their own ideas into it. While there were some hiccups, Zach and Kurly loved the idea and the execution of it, so I would deem this project a rousing success. Even during some trials and tribulations, including when the actual bottle fell over, and I had been worried about my project, Zach had reassured me that these kinds of mishaps happen, especially when lesson planning, even more especially given I had only two prior teaching simulations with the children of JJK, who I am now realizing were likely fresh out of a school day and had been letting off loose energy and that is likely why they werent listening as well. This had comforted me because I had originally been worried myself till I was sick if something would have gone wrong, but the way My station at the water fair was the Dirt detective. During this station students were tasked with identifying different types of soils and writing down descriptors of these soils. This lesson was made after a culmination of different lesson plans that were interactive and kept kids engaged. The purpose of this was to educate kids on basic water knowledge and promote more involvement in gardens. Specifically, the garden around my students at JJK because they have a greenhouse. With more soil knowledge kids will be more inclined to grow their own food or understand how the plants around them are grown. This lesson also serves as an interactive lesson plan that could be replicated at different schools and after school programs.\u00a0 My name is Sonia Sheryr and I created my lesson plan called Runoff with Water Knowledge.\u00a0 I plan on researching secondary sources regarding rain gardens, pollutants and other obstructions, and runoff water. I will include more evidence in my lesson plan and tailor it efficiently for my specific target audience to help convey the importance of runoff water in water conservation.\u00a0 It is also important to put into perspective how this one lesson plan can help picture the water cycle and runoff while understanding its functions and roles. Water Words Wonders is a game that I, Alexandra created inspired by a fun and interactive approach to learning terms related to water conservation. When I started my research on water conservation education for young kids, I couldn\u2019t find many fun activities to teach them about water sustainability, taking care of water, and key terms related to this topic. So, the idea of making a game that was both fun and low-cost came to mind. After looking into different possible games, I decided on a matching game where kids match a definition to a card that includes a word and a picture. The picture helps kids better understand the words. Another thing I considered is that the game can be easily modified for older or younger kids, but for my version, it was made specifically for 5 to 12 year olds. After our water fair concluded, we were able to dissect what went well and what areas could use improvement. One of our group members, Payton Plummer, constructed a water fair toolkit. This is a guide for other communities to implement similar events. She wanted to analyze the CODES water fair on a bigger scale. She began by brainstorming topics that would encompass our goals but also that would be age appropriate and easily digestible. She created a google doc with different tabs, starting with a \u201cRead Me\u201d file\u2013 consisting of an overview and instructions for navigation. Another tab is labeled \u201cLogistics\u201d which covers the planning details it takes to create a water fair. The next tab is \u201cCODES Water Fair\u201d where there is a detailed description of all things that went into constructing the water fair that inspired it all. The remaining tabs are the topics covered: Water Equity, Water Conservation, Water Filtration, Community Gardens, and Flooding. Within each topic, there are four more tabs: Overview, Photos, Instructions, and Materials. Each topic has hands-on activities that would have a lasting impact on the participants and lead them to think more about water. We have been working alongside the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Innovation Center in East St. Louis, especially with local educators, Zach and Kurly. Zach and Kurly were able to attend our water fair and give us good feedback, which was incorporated into the toolkit also. Payton hopes that this toolkit can be distributed to other communities to raise a new generation of students to make good decisions regarding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-595","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":613,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/595\/revisions\/613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolio.siue.edu\/marques-rutlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}