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Sound Rivers Program Assistant Sierra Stickney Digan went back to school last week — to teach kindergarteners, first and second graders about water quality.

Sierra and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz joined PE teacher Megan Davis at Brinson Elementary School in New Bern for a special, end-of-year event for students.

For the occasion, Sierra brought in the Enviroscape to illustrate how pollution ends up in waterways; Emily led an art activity featuring watersheds; and Megan Davis organized a game of Sierra’s making. 

It was pure entertainment for approximately 85 students.

“We wanted to do something that was water-quality related and stormwater related, and because there were so many students, we divided them into three different groups that would rotate through each activity every 15 minutes,” Sierra said. “Each hour between 8:45 and 10:45 was a different grade.”

Emily’s groups would get an explanation about what watersheds are and how they work, then students were asked to draw the things they thought would be in their watershed.

“Each student’s idea of a watershed was very different,” Sierra said. “It was a good, creative outlet.”

The stormwater game Sierra came up with was much more active: students were given a lanyard with a symbol representing a raindrop or a type of pollution, such as fertilizers, pesticides, oil spill or plastic waste. The “raindrops” started on one side of the gym and had to run through the “pollution,” but if a “raindrop” was tagged by “pollution” the two had to link arms and run the rest of the way to the “river” — the other side of the gym.

“When they had to link arms and run together, that symbolized how pollution is transferred into the river by stormwater runoff,” Sierra said. “From what I was hearing from outside, they really seemed to be having fun.”

Sierra and the Enviroscape were set up on the sidewalk outside the gym due to the messy nature of the activity. The Enviroscape is a model of a landscape that students “pollute” with a variety of sources: sediment (cocoa powder), fertilizer (sprinkles), pesticides (Koolaid powder) and poop (chocolate sprinkles). When it rains, using a spray water bottle, the pollution is washed from the land into the Enviroscape’s waterways.

“They quickly understood why all those things running into the waterways was a problem, and they asked a lot of good questions,” Sierra said. “I explained that fertilizers are good for plants, pesticides are good to keep bugs off of corn and soil is not bad, but when it ends up in the waterways, it can be a problem.”

Sierra said the Enviroscape was the biggest hit.

“I think the kids really enjoyed getting messy,” she said. “They got so excited that it was hard to get them to move to the next activity.”

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