These presentations include hands-on learning activities and follow-up student activities, as well as teacher follow-up packets containing a variety of resource materials. The grade levels listed for each presentation are only a suggestion; most topics can be adapted to other grade levels.

To schedule a presentation, call or email the person listed with each. Presentations are free of charge and are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

We Need Water
(Pre-K to Kindergarten - 35 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

Through the use of large picture cards and other hands-on materials, students learn about some water basics - how we use water, how much water is in our bodies, and how much water we need each day.

Water Travels with Dewey™
(Second semester kindergarten to Grade 1 - 30 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

Let Dewey™ the waterdrop puppet teach your students about places water goes after it rains. Dewey™ helps them understand water movement and pollutants that are picked up along the way. After the show, students participate in an activity to review what they have learned.

Water Journey
(Grades 2 to 3 - 30 to 40 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

Using large picture cards and water treatment chemical samples, students get involved in explaining all the places water goes in the drinking water and wastewater treatment processes and how it can become polluted along the way.

Raccoon River Players Present...
(Grades 1 to 3- 40 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

A trilogy of skits to entertain and raise students' awareness about things we do that may harm our environment. The skits-It's Your Neighborhood, Rainy Day, and Name That Litterbug-target the need for taking responsibility for backyard pollutants that can end up in rivers and other urban waterways, as well as squashing that nasty litterbug habit.

Recycle Me!
(Grade 2 - 30 minutes)
Contact: Mary Gillaspey (515) 323-6505

The entire class participates in a hands-on activity as students decide how and where to dispose of items used in daily life.

Wonders of the Water Cycle
(Grades 3 to 5 - 35 to 40 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

Where does water go after it rains and how does it get so dirty? Students "solve" a puzzle as they participate in two different activities to help them learn about the traditional water cycle and an expanded form of the water cycle.

Water, Precious Water
(Grades 2 to 3 - 30 to 40 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

How much water do we use to brush our teeth, take a shower, or wash our clothes? Students participate in a group activity to learn just how much water is used in daily activities and ways we can use water more wisely.

Drink to Your Health
(Grades 3 to 6 - 45 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

What does water have to do with keeping a healthy body? Plenty! Students discover important water facts as they discuss a variety of real-life objects that give clues to the importance of water in their lives. The program concludes with the Water Walk Game, an activity similar to a "cakewalk."

Pollution or Protection? Caring for our Watershed
(Grades 3 to 5 - 45 minutes plus 15 min. cleanup)
Contact: Mary Gillaspey (515) 323-6505

Using an Enviroscape watershed model, students learn about the watersheds in which we live. Students are shown how a watershed becomes polluted, then get the chance to watch the pollutants enter bodies of water when it rains. Students brainstorm ways to reduce water pollution and see how best management practices can be used.

We Treat It Right
(Grades 5 to 8 - 45 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

How does water get cleaned? Students view a video and get a chance to see samples of treatment chemicals used to clean water at Des Moines Water Works. If time allows, students test their knowledge of water as they play the "Water Trivia" game.

Let's Make a Difference!
(Grades: 4 to 6 - 45 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

Every day we make environmental decisions that impact our community. Your students will have the opportunity to play an active role in several vignettes that demonstrate how our actions can negatively or positively affect the environment.

Water Quality Monitoring
(Grades 6 to 8 - 45-60 minutes)
Contact: Gail Peckumn (515) 283-8753

Students help demonstrate common tests such as dissolved oxygen levels, turbidity, nitrate, pH, and hardness - used by utility laboratories to determine water quality in our streams and rivers. A discussion of how high or low levels of these characteristics affect water quality follows.

Throwing It All Away, But Where Is Away?
(Grades 5 to 8 - 45 minutes plus 15 minutes cleanup)
Contact: Mary Gillaspey (515) 323-6505

Using an Enviroscape Landfill Model, students learn about the workings of a landfill like Metro Waste Authority's award-winning Metro Park East Landfill in Polk County. They learn what happens to their garbage when it leaves the curb and how landfill by-products - leachate (waste water) and methane gas - can contribute positively to the environment and community.

Don't Dump It!
(Grades 5 to 8 - 45 minutes plus 15 min. cleanup)
Contact: Mary Gillaspey (515) 323-6505

Students learn the do's and don'ts of proper disposal of hazardous materials and how these items can potentially harm water quality by watching a demonstration of an Enviroscape Hazardous Materials Model. Effects of discharges and spills, methods used to clean up hazardous waste sites, and environmental risks associated with contamination are topics of discussion. Students learn to identify household hazardous materials and how Metro Waste Authority's Regional Collection Center can help them with proper disposal.

Earth Care 101
(Grades 5 to 8 - 45 minutes)
Contact: Mary Gillaspey (515) 323-6505

In this program, our Environmental Whiz Game will encourage your students to work together to identify good and bad environmental choices people make in their daily lives. They will see how individual actions affect the whole community while learning how they can make a difference in maintaining a clean, safe environment.

Recycling: What Does It Really Mean?
(Grades 4 to 7 - 45 minutes)
Contact: Mary Gillaspey 323-6505

Using the Curb It! recycling program has become a way of life for many of us. But what happens to the glass, plastic, cans, and papers you place in your bin? Students learn how these items are turned into useful new products for people to buy. Samples of materials at different stages in the recycling process, along with videos to show what happens in a recycling facility, provide students with a greater understanding of the environmental benefits of recycling.

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