Five Concordia College professors gathered along with dozens of other educators and volunteers to get kids hooked on science, ecology, and conservation.
It’s all part of the six-day Red River Water Festival, which brings thousands of third- and fourth-graders from across the region together at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead to learn about water, the science behind it, and the Red River watershed they live in.
“I’m always trying to think of how to get them hooked, how to get them interested,” said Dr. Michael Bush, assistant professor of biology and environmental and sustainability studies at Concordia College. “Not even to be biologists or anything like that, but just — what can I say to make them care about the environment?”
Bush explained invasive species to the youngsters, starting with the grass beneath their feet and then proceeding with a bright image of a goldfish.
One of the students excitedly raised a hand and told the instructor about how his grandpa had caught a fish as big as he was. Bush smiled, listening, agreeing that fish could get pretty big. With a grin, he turned the conversation to the scourge of zebra mussels, an invasive species that kills or hedges out native animals, clings to boats, docks, and water intakes, and even cuts swimmers’ feet if stepped on.
He held up a preserved clump of the mussels and passed it around to the students, perched on their buckets.
Like many of the other educators at the event, Bush has been helping out at the Water Festival since 2016.
Dr. Graeme Wyllie, an assistant professor of chemistry and coordinator of the Concordia Science Academy, has participated for about 10 years.
“This is a chance to work with other organizations as well and teach the kids a wee bit of science,” Wyllie said. “The science is cool. Science is fun. And science is not scary.”
Wyllie presented students with “The Life Box,” showing them exactly what’s required for life to flourish — from a chemistry perspective.
Sweeping the students up into his enthusiasm for science with fun, interactive exchanges, encouragement, and illustrations, Wyllie provided students with a foundation for further learning and a tangible example, too. Every kid received a bag containing a seed and everything it needed to grow except the soil, which they could add later. And the water came in the form of ice cubes, joyfully tossed to each student to the sound of giggles and exclamations of “I’m ready, me next!”
After learning about the requirements for life, fourth-graders from Taylor Williams’ class at Fargo’s Ed Clapp Elementary School headed to Dr. Jennifer Sweatman’s presentation, where the associate professor of biology and program co-director of environmental and sustainability studies helped them create a “Web of Life.”
With each child representing a plant, animal, or environmental feature such as water or the sun, the students passed a ball of yarn around to show connections between mosquitos, willow trees, humans, and mallards. Then they saw what happens when a single element is removed from the web, as more and more yarn fell to the carpeted floor.
“We’re going to be talking more about this later on because it’s such a great introduction to what we’re going to be learning,” Williams said.
Her students were especially excited to learn about pollution, so she decided to offer her students garbage bags during recess, giving them a chance to tidy the playground as a project.
She also planned to help her students plant the seeds Wyllie had given them.
Sweatman, too, has been participating in the Water Festival for about seven years.
“I think that a lot of the change that’s made toward environmental progress and progressing toward a more sustainable environment is with children and educating them on the interconnectedness of nature,” she said.
While her students for the day were a bit younger than her usual crowd, they still showed great interest in the natural world, she added.
Dr. Mark Jensen, professor of chemistry, gave students a different perspective on the natural world, showing them models of water molecules and how they can stick to each other — cohesion — and to other things — adhesion.
Then students broke into groups for the “Water Olympics,” trying out different activities that each demonstrated a property of water. One group attempted to get paper clips to float in a glass of water, using a fork and water tension.
“And sometimes it floats and sometimes it doesn’t,” Jensen said, noting that the most he’d seen that day was seven floating paperclips in a single water-filled cup.
Lending a hand to other instructors at the event, Dr. Anne Walker, professor of education, helped distribute materials to kids testing water samples to identify what might be in the water — by tasting them. Onion juice and hazelnut coffee creamer were two of the trickiest ingredients, whereas the bright green water had clearly been doctored with a dollop of food coloring.
