Bend, Environmental Center expand water education program

The City of Bend and the Environmental Center are continuing and expanding an education program called Our Water System: A Journey through Bend.

The program began in the 2014-2015 school year with a goal to make 1,500 contacts (a contact is each individual time the instructor works with a student), give 60 presentations and work with 10 classes. For the 2015-16 school year, the program will grow to 2,000 contacts, 75 presentations and 15 classes.

The program was originally piloted at Marshall High School and delivered to sixth grade students at Cascade Middle School. This year, the program is expanding to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, Pilot Butte Middle School and the Bend homeschool group.

Also new this year, the program will include field trips to the City of Bend Outback water facility west of Bend, and the Water Reclamation Facility – the City’s wastewater treatment facility – east of Bend.

Classroom lessons include an overview of the Deschutes Watershed and how our community uses water, where our drinking water comes from, a school ground tour of how water gets into and out of our schools and homes, where water goes when it leaves our house and how it is treated, what happens to Stormwater after it rains and a hands-on lesson about water conservation.

The program is free for middle and high school classes at public and private schools in Bend.