APW Teaches Over 1000 About the Water Cycle at UA's Largest STEM Even Ever in Downtown Phoenix

The fourth annual Connect2STEM event at the University of Arizona's Phoenix Biomedical Campus was held this past Saturday. This year, the event increased its attendance by more than 1,000 people, drawing over 7,500 parents and children from around the valley to explore the wonders of STEM. Arizona Project WET is honored to have been a part of this incredible STEM event since the inception.

 

Many people - adults and students alike - think of the water cycle as a simple circle, where water evaporates, condenses into clouds, and precipitates. However, the more than 1,000 participants (mostly children and their parents) who visited the APW booth this year, learned that it's much more complicated. By taking the perspective of a water molecule in APW's Incredible Journey lesson, children travel to all of the places that water can go in the earth system. Water droplets infiltrates into the soil, percolates into the groundwater, and resurfaces in a river. They travel through a plant in liquid form and come out as vapor at the stomata. They get stuck in the ocean and the Arizona clouds that seldom bring rain. Students learn that the water cycle is not a circle at all, but a complex and constant movement. AmeriCorps members Nicole Kallman and Joshua Wyrick engaged with participants, leaving them with a memento of their water cycle journey in the form of a multi-colored beaded bracelet.

 

Connect2STEM was part of the larger, month-long Arizona SciTech Festival.  The festival is geared towards exciting Arizonans about STEM and its role in our communities. From late January to the end of February, more than 1,500 events will take place across the State as part of this celebration.  During Connect2STEM, attendees watched and performed a huge variety of experiments with the two hundred plus exhibitors gathered Saturday afternoon in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Performing CPR; chasing (and being chased!) by a motion-detecting robot; dissecting a sheep's eye; playing a banana-piano; and becoming a water molecule in the hydrologic cycle with Arizona Project WET were just a few of the things that people could do at Connect2STEM. To see more check out this link!