Weather Workshop #1!

Today, was the Green Team's first Environmental Workshop, with the ASA Kids, and we had a blast learning!

Throughout the day, unfortunately we had some technical difficulties, and had to quickly change our plans at last minute! BUT, things worked out great!

We engaged the kids into learning about Wind Energy and how Wind Turbines create electricity. We followed a short speech with a pinwheel activity, and held a contest to see who created one the best. This made the kids very enthusiastic about the activities and made them anticipate for what was to come.

Next, we introduced them to Geothermal Energy, and they had already had a little background on this topic. We had them do a easy activity sheet, informing them about more details of Geothermal Energy. Then, our project was to show them none other than the Mentos & Coke Experiment! Demonstrating how the heat of the earth can force water, or gas to burst from the ground. The kids absolutely loved it, and learned about "Old Faithful."

The kids had a 30 minute lunch break, and when they returned we had them watch a short animated film about the Carbon Cycle, followed by another activity sheet. The activity sheet contained questions about how much energy they used in their homes, at school, etc. Once they had an idea of what the Carbon Cycle was, they each recieved candy due to their great progress.

The last activity contained of dirt, water, sand, panty hose, and gravel. What could kids possibly do with all these? Clean water, ofcourse! We took the children outside and asked about what they thought the dirty water contained. Once they answered, we gave them a chance to pour dirt, leaves, sticks, trash, & every dirty thing into a bottle of water. We asked how we could clean this and explain the process of filtriation. Once inside, they got the opportunity to build their own filter out of cotton balls, panty hose, and sponges. They filtered dirty water to, somewhat clean water.

Some things the Green Team learned was that candy + kids, do NOT mix after lunch. We might have some minor things to improve on, but we know that next workshop, the kids will enjoy it 100%. Their comments and feedback are helping us improve till next workshop.

-Green Team. (Ruben Ramirez, Alondra Sanchez)