ON THE CURVE
Every year during Drinking Water Week, the Florida Section of American Water Works Association invites students from kindergarten through 12th grade to participate in its Drop Savers Water Conservation Poster Contest. Utilities across the state coordinate with schools to collect submissions in each division and sometimes provide an educational component like visiting a classroom to teach a lesson on water conservation or having a class visit a local treatment plant to learn about water supplies.
IMAGE 1: Division 4 (middle school) winning entry by Anni Zhu (Image courtesy of Florida Section of American Water Works Association)
Mount Garfield Middle School in Colorado has been working toward joining the ranks of International Baccalaureate schools. The Educational Foundation designs programs that allow students to take a hands-on role in their studies. This year, to meet the foundation’s criteria, Mount Garfield’s woodshop class became a place for brainstorming and trial and error focused on the Colorado River. Students had to identify a problem affecting the Colorado River Basin—drought impact on water supply, water flow, evaporation, irrigation, water reuse—and come up with engineering solutions. Students researched solutions that have already been attempted and were taught how to do root cause analyses. Guest speakers were also brought in as resources and to provide feedback. A former U.S. representative for the state spoke about the law of the river, farmers and ranchers talked about irrigation water issues, researchers covered the science of water management and architects explained the mechanics of their design processes so those could be incorporated in the classroom.
South Texas College (STC) in McAllen, Texas, is joining the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, the North American Development Bank and Trust for the Americas to address and meet the demands of the shrinking water and wastewater workforce through an initiative called Skills for Sustainability (S4S). STC is creating a Level 1 Wastewater Operator Training program set to begin in October, and the course will be accredited through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It will include 20 contact hours and offer classroom, lab and internship instruction. S4S has already proven successful with 431 graduates and 90% job placement across El Paso and Juarez, allowing El Paso Water to close its entry-level staffing gap and provide career advancement for senior staff. S4S is a 10-month project set to run through January 2027.
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