USM Hosts Children’s Water Festival
In Maine, there are annual festivals held to honor many of the state’s unique resources. Lobsters and clams each have their own festival, as do potato blossoms and lupine.
And next week, another important Maine resource—a major constituent of all living matter—is getting its moment in the spotlight with the 7th Annual Southern Maine Children’s Water Festival. The festival, organized by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and sponsored in part by USM, will be held Friday, May 17, on USM’s Gorham campus.
More than 800 fifth- and sixth-graders and teachers from 15 area schools are expected to take part in the festivities, which will include presentations and hands-on exhibits staffed by experts from public and private organizations, governments, and businesses, teaching about water use and how to protect water quality.
Events range from donning hazardous materials suits in the “Suits Me!” exhibit to “Getting Buggy!” with a host of insects that give clues to water quality. Students will discover exotic aquatic species described as “Alien Invaders!” and learn how “BayScaping” keeps lawns green and Casco Bay blue. Musician and songwriter Hugh Blumenfeld will perform in Russell Hall and help students write songs about water, and Rob Sanford, an assistant professor of environmental science and policy at USM, will host “Dribble Pursuit,” a game show on water-related topics.
Sanford says that studies have shown that children often start to turn off to science in the fifth or sixth grade, the age of festival participants. “So, this is a really good time to reignite their enthusiasm for science,” he says. Children at this age also tend to be concrete learners and water is something that they can see, hold, and examine, which can help them understand concepts that may be abstract to them, he notes. And then there is the fact that when measuring environmental quality, water is a key factor, if not the key factor, to consider, Sanford says.
And in Maine there is a lot of water to examine, along the state’s coastline and in its many lakes, rivers, and streams. “We really like water,” he says.
The festival is slated to run from 9:15 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. on Friday. Most of the classroom activities will take place in Bailey Hall, and an exhibit hall in Hill Gymnasium will be open all day.
Other major sponsors of the Water Festival include: the Portland Water District, Poland Spring Bottling Company, National Semiconductor, Cumberland County SWCD, Casco Bay Estuary Project, Maine Audubon, U. S. EPA New England, International Paper, the Maine Coastal Program, Maine DHS Drinking Water Program, and J. Weston Walch Publishers.
FMI, contact organizer Marianne DuBois at 287-2115 or visit:
www.state.me.us/dep/blwq/cwfpage.htm;
or at USM contact Rob Sanford at 780-5756 or rsanford@usm.maine.edu.
USM’s Irwin Novak, an associate professor of geosciences,
and Sarah Coombs, a USM environmental science and policy student,
have also helped organize the event and will also make presentations
at the event.
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