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Stormwater Education Coordinator Sierra Stickney (Resilience Corps NC AmeriCorps member) took stormwater education to a new venue, and audience, at Brinson Elementary School’s “Resource Adventure Night.”

Sierra was invited by Megan Davis (physical education teacher and resource team member) to share information about Sound Rivers and teach students about stormwater pollution. Thanks to a “game” called the Enviroscape, which shows exactly how pollution on land ends up as pollution in the water, Sierra’s display was highly popular.

“The students love this activity,” Sierra said. “It became so popular that I needed to have students come up one group at a time to check out the Enviroscape.”

On loan from the Craven County Soil and Water District, the hands-on learning tool lets students sprinkle “pollution” on the landscape: fertilizers (sprinkles), pesticides (red Kool-Aid), sediment (cocoa powder) and animal waste (chocolate sprinkles). Then they “made it rain” by pouring the water in the “rain cloud” bottle over the land.

“The students saw how everything in the landscape washed into the river part of the Enviroscape,” Sierra said. “We discussed how this is what happens in ‘real life’ when it rains — everything on the land ends up in our rivers.”

Sierra said it made an impact on these students, ages 5 to 11: Brinson Elementary School is located on the Neuse River, which they could see from the Enviroscape setup.

“Many students were insightful and understood the issue right away,” Sierra said.

Like the outreach Sound Rivers’ program staff is doing? We certainly do! Donate to support stormwater education today!

Resilience Corps NC AmeriCorps is a service program of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, funded by a grant through the North Carolina Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism.