Education Newsletter
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TERM 4 2020 Education Newsletter BOOK NOW National Water Week Book a FREE digital education class session with the ACT water cycle model The 19-25 October 2020 is ‘Let’s reimagine our water future,’. The Australian Water Association has put Learn all about the amazing journey of water in the ACT. together a range events, competitions and education Find out how Icon Water delivers water to your tap and material to celebrate the week. Check out their website to treats the sewage from your home and school! get involved at awa.asn.au/nationalwaterweek. Contact us at [email protected] to organise a live webinar education session for your class featuring Calling all creative students! Icon Water have teamed up creative direction from any of with Floriade to launch a Photo the themes below: Comp. The competition is open to photographers of all abilities, 1. Water – our most precious with an under 18s prize resource available. Student participation 2. Water – the environment is encouraged. and/or animals The competition is open to all 3. Floriade blooms in ACT and Queanbeyan Palerang Canberra. residents. There is $5,000 in cash prizes up for grabs. Submissions close Saturday, 31 October. All students need to do is to For more information visit submit a photograph (maximum iconwater.com.au/photocomp of 3 photos per person) using E [email protected] T (02) 6248 3111 Let’s connect iconwater.com.au PRIMARY 2-6 ACTIVITY SECONDARY 7-10 ACTIVITY What is a catchment A handy’ ma Grow your own mini catchment Toilet paper Think of your hand as a map of a catchment. Hold the the Cotter River catchment on the west of the ACTIn and this activity you will make your own mini palm of your hand upwards. Bend your hand slightly to on the south east of Canberra the Queanbeyan Rivercatchment to observe the different stages Wet make a ‘cup shape’. The lines on the palm of your hand catchment. Our catchment rivers are where we build dams wipe should now be more visible. to hold our water supply. of the hydrological cycle. Picture your fingers as mountain ranges and the lines in The Cotter River catchment is made up of three water your palm as rivers. It’s now starting to rain, the rain is storage dams, Corin Dam, Bendora Dam and Cotter Dam. Instructions running down your fingers, into the rivers and filling up in These dams catch the run off water from creeks within the palm of your hand. the Brindabella mountain ranges. The Queanbeyan River55 mins Step 1 Take your clean container and remove the lid. PRIMARY 3-6 catchment has one water storage dam, Googong Dam. If using a rinsed soft drink bottle, remove the label from Canberra’s catchments work in the exact same way as This dam collects its water from the creeks andPreparation rivers time: your bottle and carefully cut the bottle in half (adult your hand catchment. Our catchments sit within the within the Yanununbeyan and Tinderry mountainActivity ranges. time: 1-2 people supervision will be required). To flush or not to flush, that is the question Brindabella, Yanununbeyan and Tinderry mountain ACTIVITY Difficulty: 15 minutes ranges. When it rains or snows on the mountains, the Everyone lives in a catchment. Here we build our Step 2 Add a layer of gravel, followed by a layer of sand water soaks into the ground. The more rain or snow there 30 minutes cities, houses and suburbs. Water is sourcedEquipment from our required in the bottom of your container for drainage. Build up The to flush or not to flush activity helps you and your family investigate the properties is, more water will run off and flow down the sides of the catchments and piped to our taps every day, supplying medium one end of the container with a sloping edge to make a mountains. drinking water for the community’s health and wellbeing. small hill or mountain. of common materials that are used for personal toilet hygiene, so you can discover for For a temporary classroom project use a 1.25 − 2 L soft drink bottle or a takeaway container with a lid. For a yourself what can and cannot be flushed! If you look at your fingers, you should see little lines. It is important we look after our environment and our Step 3 Spoon the soil into the bottle until it is around 1/3 New education Imagine these lines are the creeks and rivers within the more permanent project use a sealable glass container water supply. You can do this by making sure you don’t full. Make small holes in the soil and place in your plants. mountain ranges that catch the water. use to much water at home or school and a takecup ofcare sand, of stones and gravel Add other features like sticks, moss and pebbles to your what you put down the drain. By doing thesegarden things soil you mini garden. Paper These creeks and rivers flow into our surrounding rivers can help protect our catchments and the urban water 20mins such as the Murrumbidgee River, Queanbeyan River water towel cycle. Step 4 Water the plants until the soil is soaked through.What do you flush or put down drains? and Cotter River. The ACT has two catchment areas - small plants, seedlings and grasses (weeds work wonders) Step 5 Fill a small dish (bottle lid) with water and add to OUR NETWORK ( W AT E R & S E W E R A G E ) Start with a quick survey to list all the items that you and your catchment by placing at the bottlom of theyour slope. family know about, other than soapy water, that goes resources to download bottle cap or similar to hold water down the drains in your home. Use the ACT urban water cycle activity scissors Step 6 Place the lid on your container to seal your mini 1-3 people to learn about the parts of the natural sticky tape catchment. If using the soft drink bottle, place the top half back onto the bottom and seal with sticky tape. Family small trowel, bucket and gloves to collect the materials Member water cycle and the built features that Step 7 Place your mini catchment in a spot with adequateBathroom Equipment required: make up the urban water cycle. sunlight near a window. Do not take off the lid.Mum / Dad What are sewer drains? 1 sheet of toilet paper Step 8 Over the next couple of weeks, observe how water Laundry There are two types of drains in the urban water cycle; sewage drains and stormwater drains. moves through the mini catchment environment. Can 1 tissue 9 Brother / Sewer drains SCI-2020-21-0705.indd 9 1 piece of paper towel 11/5/20 11:07 am you see the different stages of transpiration,Sister evaporation, Kitchen condensation, precipitation and runoff? Create a journal 1 wet wipe E [email protected] to record what happens. 2- 4 jars or containers with lids, of a similar size, Icon Water is excited to provide new Toilet Downloads availableMe now to shake your material in E [email protected] T (02) 6248 3111 Let’s connect iconwater.com.au One cup of water for each material you test T (02) 6248 3111 Sieve or strainer to drain the items at the end A stopwatch or kitchen timer Let’s connect These are pipes inside your homes, schools and Marker penbusinesses and paper that take away the sewage, the wastewater used from your taps, sinks, baths and toilets. These drains join the 3,300km of sewerage network pipes and education materials available for infrastructure that run underground through Canberra iconwater.com.au Predict: to the sewage treatment plant, Lower Molonglo Water E Quality Control Centre (LMWQCC). [email protected] SECONDARY 7-10 A goodAt water LMWQCC detective wastewater conductsfrom across Canberra experiments is using the received, screened, and treated using physical, chemical scientificand biological method. processes Before to remove you the begin dirt and thesludge, experiment, writeas well down as the yournutrients, prediction detergents andof whichother additives material we you think will beput the down best the drain. to flush. FACTSHEETSITE TOUR teachers to download and use within Water leaving this treatment plant is so thoroughly treatedI predict... that it can return to the natural water cycle, free of T pollution, and be released into the Molonglo River. It then (02) 6248 3111 flows into the Murrumbidgee River where it will be reused by other towns further downstream, eventually joining the Murray River system and flowing all the way to the ocean Stormwater drains near Adelaide in South Australia. Learn about the role waterLet’s connect their class. The website offers a E [email protected] There are also drain pipes outside your house that collect rainfall runoff from roofs, driveways, footpaths, carparks, iconwater.com.au and roads that connect to the storm water drainage network. These drains are separate to the sewage system, series of fun and engaging activities, taking rainfall from gutters on our roads, flowing into local waterways, lakes and rivers. As the two drain systems are separate, it is important that sewage and stormwater systems do not connect. plays in our every day livesT All stormwater in our drains will eventually flow back to the Murrumbidgee River system. (02) 6248 3111 videos, and factsheets that explore Let’s connect the role of water in our everyday iconwater.com.au lives. The in-class education activities have been designed to meet the Australian curriculum standards and offer tailored outcomes for students in years F-2, years 3-4 and secondary students in years 7-10.