GWI students visit schools on World Water Monitoring Day

World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) occurred on 18 September 2018. To celebrate, postgraduate water research students from the UNSW-GWI, in collaboration with Streamwatch and the Australian Museum, visited seven primary schools in the local Sydney area to educate children about the importance of water quality.

WWMD is a global community outreach and education initiative that aims to build awareness and involvement in protecting water resources. UNSW students delivered presentations to over 400 children aged from 8 to 12 years on the importance of water quality and water resources—and demonstrated simple field techniques used to measure water quality. 

Tomas Beuzen, PhD student from the UNSW Water Research Laboratory, was responsible for coordinating the student and the school visits. 

"It was a really great experience for our UNSW postgraduate students to share their knowledge and passion for water research with the children at these schools," said Tomas.

The aim of the UNSW-GWI outreach visit was to educate young children about the importance of water quality and water as a precious resource, as well as to promote interest in fields of water-related work in the future.

UNSW students demonstrated a range of field techniques used to measure water quality, including, pH, conductivity and turbidity — looking at samples taken from Manly Dam, Centennial Park and Bondi Beach.

"The children were very curious and engaged with the science behind water quality, the importance of caring for our environment, and they loved the practical demonstrations that we provided," said Tomas.

"Engaging with children at this age is important as it helps to foster communities that value sustainability and our environment, and it was rewarding to see how well the children responded to this educational initiative."