After presenting to and receiving feedback from Dr. Hildebrandt about our work thus far on the water fair, we are starting to develop a game plan. Dr. Hildebrandt mentioned a “Read Me” file that would encapsulate our work into one document, in one place, for the public to look into to see what kinds of work we are doing. This will be our first project uploaded to our new site, Emplace. Our audience for this writing will be the general public; maybe seeking community partners, students interested in the CODES program, or perhaps communities facing similar water equity crises. This is especially important to take into consideration because Emplace is a public platform that will hopefully reach thousands of people. We need to make sure our writing is professional and impactful. This will impact our revision process because we want to make sure our information is credible and we put SIUE on the map!
Regarding revising my work, specifically on the water fair toolkit, I am looking to receive feedback from my peers and Dr. Hildebrandt to finalize these lessons. Dr. Hildebrandt mentioned our targeted audience for the water fair and that our compiled lesson plans could potentially be a part of primary curriculum instead of activities for after school curriculum. Two semesters ago, we sent out a survey to educators. One question on the survey asked if these educators implemented water conservation education in their classroom and, if not, why? Over 200 educators responded no, and that it simply wasn’t in their curriculum. I may need to look into the curriculum guidelines for Illinois public schools to see if there is a way to mandate this water conservation education into schools.