Drink Week Day 3

The campers leaving the water tower (Photo by Eli G. and Benjamin K.)

We started at the Water Tower (Photo by John I.)

We got to go inside the water tower (Photo by Olivia P.)

We hopped onto the Ferry Boat that took us on the Mississippi (Photo by Nat S. and Caroline W.)

We passed by a bridge that moves for boats and trains (Photo by Aija, O.)

 

Day 3 of Drink week picked up where Day 2 left off. After the drinking water leaves the St. Paul Regional Water Services Treatment plant it goes out to St. Paul and other cities, like Falcon Heights (where camp is). Some of it arrives at campus, goes through the water meter, and gets pressure added with booster pumps. After the booster pumps, we walked along the pipes to the water tower and got to go inside! Cathy Abene, Principal Civil Engineer for the U of Minnesota and Madeline Knox,  explained how the water tower works and showed us the list of names of people who have climbed to the top. The water tower adds more pressure and some reserve capacity. Then we followed pipes to our camp building where the water arrives at our camp drinking fountain. What a long journey!

But that wasn't the end. After a person takes a sip from the drinking fountain, the rest of the sip goes down the drain and combines with toilet water and sink water and goes into the "sanitary sewer." Shawn, who also works for the University, lifted the man hole cover so we could peek in the sanitary sewer and see the yuck.

Then we took the bus to ride on a river boat and noticed all the life - plants, animals, and people, that depend on clean water in the Mississippi River. We even saw 3 eagles perched on branches overlooking the river.

Finally, we went further downstream to Kaposia Landing which is right across the river, from the effluent channel of the Metropolitan Waste Water Treatment Plant. This is where St. Paul and Minneapolis return their borrowed river water to the Mississippi - after they treat the sewage to be as clean as the river. At Kaposia Landing, we poured our river bottles back into the Mississippi too.

Campers and Staff at Kaposia Landing

Drink Week Day 2

We began our journey to follow drinking water by traveling upstream to the Mississippi River at River Park where we met Rena Weiss, from Wenck who does watershed education about the rain garden at River Park along the Mississippi River. You can see our pictures of River Park in our story map HERE.

In the water bottles we decorated, we collected water from the Mississippi River to join us on our journey.

We met Jodi Wallin and Alex Rossow of St. Paul Regional Water Services who showed us the Intake building across the river and described how they collect the river water there to go into the lakes and then the water treatment plant.

After the intake building, we visited Sucker Lake. We learned that the water goes through underground pipes and to a chain of lakes: Charles, Pleasant, Sucker, and Vadnais. After lunch, Nick Voss, from the Vadnais Lakes Area Water Management Organization (VLAWMO) told us about protecting the water and showed us some of the animals that live in the water and how we can tell how clean the water is by how many of them we find.

Finally we went to the St. Paul Regional Water Services Water Treatment Plant for a tour from Jodi and Jeremy.

Clarifier room at the Water Treatment Plant

Drink Week Day 1

Our camp starts at the drinking fountain of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota in the Learning and Environmental Sciences (LES) Building.

Madeline, one of the teachers, recited a poem and we all got water bottles for us to decorate and use as a symbol of the water flowing through the fountain.

River to River

What do you think

when you take a drink

out of the fountain

or out of the sink?

Where does it come from?

Where does it go?

River to river,  

follow the flow.

-Jonee Kulman Brigham

Preparing for the Journey by making our journals and inserting our journey maps.

Rain Week Day 5

On Day 5, we made art maps, tested water quality, and got our necklaces with a bit of the Mississippi River in them. At 4:30 there was an art-science exhibit for parents, and guests where we could show them our story map. You can see it here.

Teacher, Madeline hands out our Mississippi River Necklaces.

Water from our Rain Can is poured into the storm drain
as we recite our poem one last time.
Goodbye Rain!

If you look closely you can see the tear. It includes water especially.
Bye Bye water adventures. Keep the water clean! Bye Bye!
-Camper, Sadie

Rain Week Day 4

Campers planting flowers in Sarita Wetland

Campers gathered together to reflect on what they'd seen, liked, and learned from the journey to the Mississippi River yesterday. Then we looked at the GIS Story map for our camp called, "The Story of Rain: 2018." We looked at the places we'd been, and saw lots of opportunities for campers to make the story map more interesting with their photographs and observations which will be added on Friday. 

We learned about how Sarita Wetland helps protect water, with its native flowers and grasses, and campers found out that they get to help Sarita help the river by adding more plants. So we headed along the path of rain from our storm drain to Sarita Wetland and took turns planting and photographing the beautiful landscape. After that, campers returned to our "Studio/Lab" to work in their journals and make an art map about Sarita.

Here are the four types of plants we planted today: 

• Smooth Aster
• Lavender Hyssop
• Stiff Goldenrod
• Nodding Pink Onion

Rain Week Day 3

Photo of Outfall, by camper, Melody L.

Photo looking out from outfall by camper, Audrey S.

Day three of Rain Week started on the Mississippi River, where the campers were able to see the St. Anthony Outfall at Meeker Island Park. An outfall is a point where the pipes from storm drains meet the river. The campers learned about how more than trash can be pollution. For example, when leaves, grass, and dog poop go down the storm drain and all end up at the river, they can become pollution too and so it is important to keep them out of the drains and off of land where they can wash down the drains. Standing on the dirt path near the bottom of the stairs, campers heard the water flowing into the river from the outfall. We saw several fish jump as we collected river water by lowering a bucket on a string so we could observe the water, smell it, and measure its temperature. Finally, campers recited the Follow the Rain poem as teacher-Madeline poured the rain can over the outfall. Goodbye Rain!

At lunch, campers drew their memories of collecting water at the outfall

Then we bused to Crosby Farm Park for lunch and working in our journals. Abby, a park ranger from the National Park Service, educated us about the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area - one of five National Parks in Minnesota. Afterwards, Abby walked us through the flood plain forest with its huge Cottonwood trees, on our way to the Mississippi River, where we played by the water, collected more water for testing, and painted in our journals with water colors using the Mississippi River for the water!

Forest Detail Photo by camper, John W.

River view at Crosby Farm Park by camper, Keegan H.

Rain Week Day 2

Today campers went on a Rain Lands Walking Tour on St. Paul Campus to literally see the different kinds of land use where "rain lands." The weather was on theme, and campers and staff got pretty soggy by the end of the morning. First, they traveled across the field to the Native American Medicine Garden, where campers saw plants native to Minnesota and learned the importance of being respectful of plants, and paying attention to what plants could teach us. Next, they visited the Mycology Club Site to find mushrooms and the damp logs they grow on in the forest. Moving onto the Department of Horticulture's Display and Trial Gardens, campers explored the pollinator garden display to search for bees, learned some important things for a pollinator garden to include, and pretended to be a bee, as they closely studied a flower they were attracted to. 

Photo by camper Sadie F.

After getting out of the rain and refueling with lunch, the campers made their way to the Buford Avenue storm drain where they talked about the many pipes underground that carry storm water, making note of storm sewers along the way. Following the pipes above ground, we found ourselves at the Sarita Wetlands, where the water is let out. Even though the water did not look the cleanest, it was still fascinating to see the journey water takes from cloud to wetland. Then we went to the far end of Sarita to see where the water goes if it overflows at Sarita...We can’t wait until tomorrow when we visit downstream!