21 August 2009
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A new water competition for South East Queensland schools is set to inspire our future water managers, engineers and planners.
The Seqwater Up a Dry Gully competition will challenge students to identify how water can be delivered to a community now and into the future against changing climate conditions and growing population.
Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability and Member for Ashgrove, Kate Jones, officially launched the competition at St Finbarr’s Catholic Primary School, the first school to register for the competition.
Registered schools are provided with a detailed scenario outlining a hypothetical town’s water supply problems and associated environmental, social and engineering concerns and students are encouraged to develop real-life solutions.
“This competition challenges students to investigate how water can be supplied to the community and provides an ideal opportunity to increase their understanding of water issues,” Ms Jones said.
Seqwater Chief Executive Officer, Peter Borrows, said the competition together with the Seqwater tour program reflected the organisation’s commitment to water education.
“While our combined dam levels have almost hit 80%, educating future generations on the importance of the sustainability and quality of our water supply both now and into the future is vital. I’d encourage as many schools as possible to get involved,” Mr Borrows said.
St Finbarr’s Catholic Primary School Principal, Ms Ann Hall, said the competition provided a great opportunity for students to learn more about water including the water cycle and developing sustainable water options for future.
“The children love the colourful catchment creatures and our teachers are looking forward to developing the various classroom activities involved in the project. It is a great project that can be integrated into existing units of work during class time using the downloadable classroom resources and activities provided,” Ms Hall said.
To date more than 35 schools have registered. The program can be linked to the environment, science, geography, maths, art, film and social studies and schools can enter as many teams as they like.
In addition to the competition, Seqwater has launched a dedicated educational tour program for primary and secondary schools, TAFE, universities, professional delegations and other interested groups to a number of its sites across south-east Queensland.
These Seqwater Learning Centre educational tours offer an insight into Seqwater’s operations and show the link between catchments, dams and the treatment of water as part of the broader water cycle.
For more information about the Seqwater Learning Centre educational tours visit: www.seqwater.com.au
For more information or to download the free resource kit of classroom activities, lesson plans, fact sheets and background information visit: www.upadrygully.com.au.
BackgroundThe Up a Dry Gully competition is designed for schoolchildren aged from Prep to Year 12 – with 4 different categories. Schools need to register online (www.upadrygully.com.au) and will receive a free resource kit. Seqwater can also arrange for a staff member to visit to provide more details. Each school needs to register their team/s and student names. There is no limit of teams per school.
All entries need to be submitted by the end of Term 3, 2009 – 18 September 2009.
Finalist teams will be notified on 14 October – with the award ceremony to be held during National Water Week 18-24 October 2009.
There is an array of prizes for schools to win. As part of the competition:
Media contact:
Fleur Thresher
mobile: 0400 402 961
phone: 07 3035 5563
e-mail: fthresher@seqwater.com.au
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