BEMIDJI — Firefighting, explosions and bugs were just some of the hands-on demonstrations for fourth and fifth graders during the annual Water Festival on Thursday, Oct. 10.
The Headwaters Science Center’s demonstration filled the upper level of the camp’s dining hall, where Director of Exhibit and Demonstration Production James Owens made the chemistry and physics of water as exciting as a game show.
Red Lake Elementary students shrieked with surprise at the end of Owens’ demonstration, which ended with a bang.
“Kids, they don't want to be soft handled all the time. They want to be out there, on the edge like they live their lives, you know, with each other,” Owens said. “So we get a little snappy and sassy.
“And then we take this — which formerly was a Mickey Mouse balloon, but we turned that in their mind, hopefully into a shape of a water molecule — and then we essentially blow that up and make water with it.”
The invited classrooms from Blackduck, Kelliher, Ponemah and Red Lake lie within the Upper-Lower Red Lake subwatershed. The Red Lake Department of Natural Resources also invited area partners to the idyllic German language camp Waldsee at Concordia Language Villages north of Bemidji to demonstrate the various properties of water.
Red Lake DNR Water Resources Director Shane Bowe has helped coordinate the event over his entire 18-year career with the department. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Beltrami County’s Aquatic Invasive Species program and Soil and Water Conservation District also contributed to various water learning stations covering forestry, wildland fire and more.
“A lot of that still has to do with water because it has to do with drought situations,” Bowe explained. “Trees filtering water and holding soil in place for erosion purposes and all that kind of stuff. So we've got ... all of our partners that we work with on a regular basis, they're here helping us.”
At Bowe’s station, he demonstrated the various insects and animals found in area lakes, like which fish species can be indicators of water quality. Bowe said the bug station gets good reviews from classrooms, which he attributed to the learners’ ages.
“If kids are learning about natural resources and stuff, they bring that home and it builds from that age,” Bowe said. “As they grow up, they learned about it at a young age, and it's already part of their lives. Whereas adults, I don't know — we get stubborn and old, and we know what we know."
While NASA may be looking for water on other planets, it's abundant here on Earth and especially in Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Minnesota sits on three continental divides, so almost all of the state’s water eventually flows out of state, according to a geological survey by the University of Minnesota. Because of this, all of the state’s water comes from precipitation.
“We should know a lot more about water than we seem to actually know, given the uniqueness and the weirdness that it that it actually exhibits,” Owens said. “That's what we're trying to bring forth is that understanding.
“... It's not normal chemistry, it's actually kind of weirdly different. And then when you understand that, you understand this is the necessary element for all of life.”
Owens’ demonstration of evaporation, density and even combustion certainly wowed his crowd of Red Lake Elementary students, some of whom were even included as assistants for the various demonstrations.
“Bring through chemistry and physics and environmental science and any other thing we can point to, to show, they are the Earth, and we’re essentially made up of water and stardust,” Owens said.
“You put together the fact that you are related to that dinosaur that was here 65 million years ago ... and that's our natural point. Making it fun.”
