About 250 Fallbrook fourth graders put their creative caps on for the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s annual water conservation poster contest. But only 14 made it into the final product: the 2023 “Be Water Smart” calendar.
Twelve of those winning images appear inside the calendar – one for each of the 12 months of the year; another image is printed on the cover, and another is for January 2024.
The San Diego County Water Authority today released an interactive, digital workbook to help upper elementary students learn about the region’s most precious natural resource: water.
The online digital water education workbook is the latest addition to the Water Authority’s long-running education program that has helped instill water knowledge in hundreds of thousands of students in over more than two decades. It was funded by a grant from the Hans and Margaret Doe Charitable Trust and State of California, Proposition 84 Round 4 funds.
There are eight learning modules in the workbook, which is free for all teachers and students in the San Diego region. The curriculum is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, which are used by schools throughout the state.
In the workbook, students can learn about important water-related topics such as the water cycle, San Diego County water supplies, bodies of water, and water-use efficiency. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
Blue, an animated, effervescent water drop is the main character who leads students on a journey to learn about topics such as the water cycle, San Diego County’s water supplies, states of water, bodies of water, water and wastewater infrastructure, and careers in the water industry.
“Schools have relied heavily on virtual learning over the last 18 months, and the Water Authority has also adapted our education programs to virtual options to ensure that students can continue learning about important topics like water,” said Denise Vedder, Public Affairs Director at the Water Authority. “We realized there was a need for a comprehensive and interactive water education resource that students can access wherever they are learning. We are grateful to the state and the Hans and Margaret Doe Charitable Trust for their generous support of this important learning tool.”
Novus Origo, a veteran-owned company based in Vista, California, provided graphic design, animation, and web development services.
In addition, Water Authority staff collaborated with partners such as the San Diego County Office of Education, Fleet Science Center, local teachers, and the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies.
The workbook and other water education resources are available at sdcwa.org/education.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, both located at UC San Diego, have forded a stream between high-performance computing and water cycle science.
This summer, SDSC’s petascale Comet supercomputer—which can perform nearly 3 quadrillion operations per second—will conclude formal service as a National Science Foundation resource and transition to exclusive use by Scripps’ Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. The transition enables CW3E researchers to leverage Comet’s computing capabilities to improve weather and hydrological forecasts with the goal of enhancing the decision-making process associated with reservoir management over California, which could result in increased water supply and reduced flood risk over the region.
Human fingerprints are all over the world’s freshwater. A new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that while human-controlled freshwater sources make up a minimal portion of the world’s ponds, lakes, and rivers, they are responsible more than half of all changes to the Earth’s water system.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
