BROOKINGS The 33rd annual Big Sioux Water Festival was May 13 on the campus of South Dakota State University in Brookings.
Nearly 1,100 fifth grade students representing 53 classrooms from 24 area public and private schools attended the all-day event.
Students had the opportunity to participate in a fun-filled day of hands-on water education and experiments led by professionals and educators in the environmental and water resource fields.
A wide variety of water topics were explored, including water quality experiments, planting terrariums, building water filters, exploring watersheds, traveling through the water cycle, identifying fish, creating an aquatic food web, casting fishing poles, learning how to paddle canoes and kayaks, and more.
The water festival also provided a Teacher Resource Room offering teachers water education ideas for their classrooms and for enhancing their water units, as well as resources including posters, summer professional development opportunities, and water-themed educational trunks available for check-out during the school year.
The festival was organized by members from the East Dakota Water Development District, the Brookings County Conservation District, SDSU, and the South Dakota Association of Rural Water Systems.
Approximately 150 volunteers assisted with the event.
The festival is financed through donations from area businesses, organizations, rural water systems, municipalities, conservation districts, lake associations, and also through a small grant from the South Dakota Information and Education Program.
The event is provided at no cost to the participants and the festival budget includes funding to help schools pay for a portion of their transportation costs.
For additional information visit the water festival website here.
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