Our Water – Learn it! Live it! goes from strength to strength
Water – Learn it! Live it!, a free education program aimed at primary and secondary schools, gives teachers the tools they need to educate students about the importance of saving water.
Developed by Melbourne’s four water businesses, City West Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water and Melbourne Water, more than 190 Melbourne schools have signed up since Water – Learn it! Live it! was launched two years ago.
The Water – Learn it! Live it! program encourages students to save water in their homes and schools and has the flexibility to accommodate a wide range of year levels: younger students can learn about how water is used in the community while older students might tackle more challenging projects like researching the impacts of drought or developing water saving technologies. Many schools already involved in the program have incorporated water conservation lessons in really innovative ways, including students carrying out a school water audit, hosting water forums and planting drought tolerant gardens.
Schools can become accredited as a Water – Learn it! Live it! school by working through a series of milestones. More than 100 schools have achieved accreditation, including two reaching ‘gold’ level accreditation. Schools need to reduce their water use, incorporate water conservation lessons across all grades and promote water conservation messages to their local community to achieve the top ‘gold’ level accreditation.
Niddrie Primary School
In the spirit of Wallace and Gromit, Niddrie Primary School students made two water themed claymation films last year. The Raindrop Escapade follows the journey of three raindrops, while Residential vs. Industry tackles the misconception that big companies use more water than households. The students have also recorded a song and performed it at a story telling competition in August.
The school has also installed four rainwater tanks to flush toilets and irrigate the oval and set up a weekly environmental forum called the Unwasteables. They were the first school to receive gold accreditation through the program.
A new Water – Learn it! Live it! resource makes learning even easier
After 18 months of hard work, a new Water – Learn it! Live it! education resource was launched in June 2008.
Consisting of activities, exercises and a CD ROM, the new resource builds on the strengths of the previous one with new ideas, interactive tools and a streamlined layout to make the document more user-friendly.
What’s more, while the new resource has been designed to accompany the Water – Learn it! Live it! program, it can also be used as a stand-alone resource or in conjunction with the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative Victoria.
To find out more about how schools can get involved with the Water- Learn it! Live it! program, contact Nick Abroms at City West Water on (03) 9313 8247.