During the last week of January the seventh and tenth grade science students had guest speakers dealing with water. Mr. Aaron Taylor from the city of Hay Springs attended the seventh grade class to inform our students where their drinking water comes from and where their waste water goes. Mr. Taylor’s information was very interesting to the students, who had lots of questions and the students were appreciative of his talk. The two most repeated statements from the students were that the swimming pool and water tower hold nearly the same amount of water and that filtered waste water is reclaimed by watering alfalfa.
The same week Ms. Chaley and Ms. Jade from the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies presented both the seventh and tenth grade classes with activities about water in our environment. The seventh graders focused on water health. They learned how to study the macro-invertebrates living in a stream to determine the purity of the water. Some invertebrates are very tolerant to pollutants while others are very sensitive to them, by identifying which organisms live in a stream the purity can be determined without chemical tests.
The grade ten class had several activities presented to them regarding water on the plains. They found out what type of prairie we have in the area, how plant roots help the soil, which yard grasses use less water and how the prairie and water relationship changes throughout the seasons. Both classes were interested in the information and treated our guests with respect and politeness. We were very fortunate to have these speakers come to our school!