Fifth-graders take to the water to grow their future
Photos by LOREN BENOIT/Press Fifth-grade students from Borah, Bryan, Skyway, Fernan STEM Academy, and Winton elementary schools listen in to Dustin Masin, with Idaho Fish and Game, as he teaches about different types of fisheries and trout during Thursday’s Water Festival at McEuen Park.
Fernan STEM Academy fifth-grade students watch as Kristi Milan, with Kootenai Environmental Alliance, drops dye onto a watershed to resemble oil during Thursday's Water Festival at McEuen Park. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Skyway Elementary School fifth-grader Keegan Wilson presses a bobcat print onto a bandana at Thursday’s Water Festival at McEuen Park.
Skyway Elementary School fifth grade student Harmoni Halloway looks at her bandana with different animal track prints during Thursday's Water Festival at McEuen Park. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
COEUR d’ALENE — These fifth-graders are all wet — and that’s a good thing.
The students took to McEuen Park Thursdsay for the third annual Water Festival. The daylong event, which continues Saturday, is sponsored by the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, the oldest nonprofit conservation group in Idaho. The idea is to take kids outside to teach them about what’s there and pique their interest in environmental science.
Students experience five learning stations focusing on water quality and understanding watersheds, KEA program manager Amy Anderson said.
At the animal-tracks station, students can make bandanas with indigenous Idaho animal stamps such as deer, rabbits and bears. A water-quality station, staffed by volunteers from the University of Idaho Extension, taught festival attendees about aquatic macroinvertebrates — which includes organisms like snails, worms and insects — and if the creatures inhabit water of good or poor quality. A station hosted by Idaho Fish and Game helped students learn about cold-water fisheries. A nature-trekking station, with volunteers from Friends of Tubbs Hill, allowed the kids a glimpse of the area’s geology which was formed from the Missoula Floods. The last stop was the watershed station, where the fifth-graders were able to see the effects of pollution by using sprinkles and food dye.
“Environmental education is really severely lacking in our schools, and so we consider this [event] as a supplementary environmental education,” Anderson said. “It matters because the kids really get it and they understand the importance of taking care of the environment.”
Cambriah Muehlahausen, 10, a Fernan STEM Academy student, said she loved the day out of the classroom because she enjoys nature and thinks it is important to learn about how to take care of the planet.
“We only have one earth, and we can’t do a do-over if we make a big mistake,” Cambriah said.
Jim Ekins, a water educator from the University of Idaho Extension, was on hand to help students navigate the water-quality station. Ekins said that giving these students hands-on experience will improve their education.
“We’re only going to be around so long,” Ekins said. “These are the future leaders and the more that they know about how these future systems work that provide us with food, protect our clean water, cleanse water and all of that, the better off everyone is.”
About 400 students, roughly 200 each day, from Fernan STEM Academy and Skyway, Borah, Bryan and Winton elementary schools are attending the festival.