Water Gala a wellspring of ideas

By Virgil Hervey

If you have ever bad-mouthed Yellow Springs tap water, you probably think you can tell the difference between the water that comes out of your pipes and the kind you buy in a plastic bottle. Well, if so, then you are ripe for the “Tap Water Challenge” at the Yellow Springs High School/McKinney School Water Gala on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 7–9 p.m., at Antioch University McGregor. This blindfold taste test of straight tap water, filtered tap water, and three kinds of bottled water is a project of the “Think Outside the Bottle” intensive study group, that was just one of 16 such groups in the schools’ Water Immersion program during the first two weeks in January.

The teacher-devised program, which is new to YSHS/McKinney this year, is a grade 7–12 “interdisciplinary study of water from the global to local arenas,” according to organizers, in which students, using skills from all curricular areas, worked on solutions to real world problems. Over the two weeks, students covered issues of water rights, water conservation, and water supply on political, environmental, and socioeconomic fronts. The Water Gala is an opportunity for students to share their findings with the public.

“The idea of having an exhibit has had a good effect on the students, giving them a sense of purpose,” YSHS English teacher Elizabeth Lutz said. “It’s the villagers’ chance to see what we have been doing and celebrate with the kids, and ask, ‘What can I do?’ ”

The “Think Outside the Bottle” intensive was led by Yellow Springs High School English teacher Desiree Nickell. Her goal, she said in a recent interview, was to generate “grass roots organizing around an issue.” The students not only strived to become experts on the topic of corporate control of water, but they designed flyers and distributed them all over town, prepared a press release and wrote a letter to the editor of the Yellow Springs News. The group also took a field trip to the Yellow Springs water treatment plant.

Physics teacher Phil Lemkau took a separate group of students to the water treatment plant, as part of the Jacoby Watershed Stream Team group. In addition, they visited the waste treatment plant and tested water samples from the Little Miami River. The focus of the group was an exploration of where the water we use every day comes from and where it goes.

“The program has been making a contribution to the students’ enthusiasm for learning,” he said.

At the gala, his group will present a display on local water issues, including a topographical map of the Jacoby watershed.

Tenth and twelfth grade English teacher Elizabeth Lutz, who headed up “Exploring Water Through Language and Media Arts,” also worked on water-related themes in her English classes, including such varied topics as vessels, found poetry, sculpture, altered books and making documentaries.

According to Lutz, her group used a variety of approaches to fulfill their goal of tapping into the power of still and moving water-related images. The documentaries her seniors produced will be screened in McGregor’s large National City auditorium.

“The students are getting their own art show at the gala,” she said.

Perhaps the envy of all the Water Immersion class activities was physical education teacher Sara Lowe’s eighth-grade kayaking classes at the Antioch College pool. She had help from Chad Styles, a certified sea kayaker, and Jeff Smigelski, an instructor at Wright State. The logistics of getting the different groups of students back and forth were a challenge, she said.

Overall, the new project has been a success, according to YSHS Vice-Principal Vickie Hitchcock.

“Students have been hearing good things about the different intensives from other students. They are sharing the excitement,” she said. “They will remember this program.”

According to Hitchcock, an interdisciplinary program such as the Water Immersion program will probably take place every other year, since the teachers need an opportunity to recharge between the intensely time-consuming project.

In addition to the “Tap Water Challenge,” the Water Gala will include musical concerts, poetry, dance, a mock trial, documentaries, photography exhibits, a water mural, a quiz bowl and a Go Greene campaign. There will also be an opportunity for the community to evaluate the program.

In addition to the grant-funded projects, there will be a half-hour review from the Broadway show Urinetown: The Musical, an award-winning satirical comedy that pokes fun at government, corporations, and small town politics, under the direction of Andrea Auten. The show is something the high school thespians put together on their own time, in addition to their other project activities.

Other intensives represented at the gala will be Water and Disease; Flow — Water Poetry in Spanish and English; Web page Design; Law and Water; Go Greene, Yellow Springs; Caving and Water; Podcasting 101; Water in Africa/Global Water Issue Quiz Bowl; War and Water; Ohio Wetlands; Dance and Water; Exploring Water Through Language and Media Arts; Water Mural; Birch Creek and Music; and the Jacoby Watershed Stream Team. In addition to working on their projects, the students heard speakers, viewed films, did research and went on field trips, both as part of their intensives and in their regular classes.

The Water Immersion program was funded with grants from the Yellow Springs Community Foundation, the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education and the YSI Foundation.

The Urinetown Review, Wetlands Dance, Birch Creek and Music, and Exloring Water Through Language and Media Arts documentaries will be held in the National City Auditorium, from 7 to 9 p.m., with each program starting on the hour and half-hour. A mock trial at 8 p.m. and a quiz bowl, pitting villagers against students at 9, will be held in the Kasch Family Foundation Room. There will be displays in other rooms and in the hallways throughout McGregor, including the water mural in the lobby.

The complete schedule of Water Gala events and updated information is available on the high school Web site: www.yellow-springs.k12.oh.us/HS.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com