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Wet and Wonderful Water
April 10, 2010, Saturday

 
Over 150 braved the gray skies and cool weather to see Tule Ponds at Tyson Lagoon in its spring beauty.  Stephanie Yi, a senior, from Irvington High School helped educate people on how important areas like Tule Ponds are to the ecosystem.  Other high school volunteers helped at the Water Molecule station, where students learned about the compound and demonstrated its properties by making a water balloon with its molecular properties.  Another station (Bubblemania) had students looking at surface tension by making large bubbles.  Another station had students plan wildflowers in celebration of spring.  All had a great day to see the many trees, flowers, and birds that were out and about.
 

Stephanie Yi demonstration of  stormwater filtration as part of her Quest Project at Irvington High School (see below) Stormwater pollution information

Tule Ponds at Tyson Lagoon, Stormwater Filtration
by Stephanie Yi, Irvington High School

Quest is a benchmark project required for seniors at Irvington High School. My chosen topic for Quest involved the health of the water at Tule Ponds and the influence that the community has on Tule Ponds. My project consisted of two parts: experience and service. Experience is designed for us to learn more about our topic. I completed my experience under the guidance of Dr. Blueford and worked with her as well as a group of high school interns. As a group, we researched both the biodiversity as well as the chemical composition of the water samples collected from various stations around Tyson’s Lagoon. By doing so, I learned the importance of water health and stability at Tule Ponds. My experience provided me with a multitude of information regarding my topic.

Therefore, I chose to educate the local community on the information that I had acquired as the service portion of my project. After consulting with Dr. Blueford, she directed to the biannual Wet and Wonderful Water event held at Tule Ponds in which different booths were set up to educate visitors of the importance of water in the community and at Tule Ponds. I was in charge of the final booth of the tour called the “Importance of Wetland”. This simple model served as an entertaining and effective visual to teach children and other visitors of the importance of wetlands to the community. In addition to the model, I made two posters which provided the children with a visual image and helped them to understand the lesson better. The first poster outlined what shouldn’t be dumped into the storm drains. The second poster explained what clean pond water is and included the names and pictures of different types of organisms that can be found in clean pond water. This was extremely important because many people automatically assume that clean pond water must be like “clean” or “pure” drinking water—free of living things and crystal clear. However, clean pond water actually contains countless microorganisms as well as plants that allow the water to be considered ‘clean’. This project was not only educational but also entertaining, because I was able to educate and work with various people from the community.

I would like to thank the following volunteers who helped me during the Wet and Wonderful Water event: Stacey Yi, Samantha Yi, Joshua Siu and Jason Siu.

OTHER ACTIVITIES DURING WET AND WONDERFUL

   

Make your own H2O molecule

Bubblemania

Sponsored by 
Alameda County Flood Control & Water Conservation District  

Math Science Nucleus