Situation Analysis: West County actively works with 3rd – 5th grade students on the education of wastewater through treatment plant tours. This program occurs annually and they were seeking a ‘takeaway’ piece for students to enjoy. The need was to create an activity booklet that complimented the tour and reiterated material covered through activities, not through reading paragraphs of educational information. Based on experience in designing other successful kids outreach materials covering FOG and stormwater, Goldstreet was selected to develop a booklet including a variety of activities appropriate for the age group and covering the content included in the plant tour.
Solution: With careful consideration for learning styles, a variety of content and different interests of kids and numerous activities were specially developed. All activities were tested by kids of appropriate ages, to ensure fun activities with content they can understand. Word search, crossword, decoder, and mad libs were designed to be fun while telling stories. Even a seek and find was included and was designed to look nothing like the general content of sinks and toilets yet all items being ‘sought’ were directly related. This activity added a different dimension and was designed to keep their attention as they move throughout the activities and the wastewater themed appearances of activities while still covering the core content of the tour. The booklet ends with the answer key allowing kids to check their work when complete or if they get stuck along the way.
