
				Pat Quinn, Governor

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Environmental Progress - Fall 2003

Make A Splash

Home-schooled students and instructors are guests at water event

Students gathered around an exhibit at "Wateshed Park" in the Illinois State Fairgrounds

Students learn about water resources through Project WET

Ninety-eight home schooled students from around central Illinois and 48 of their parents/instructors spent the day on Sept. 26, 2003, learning about water at Watershed Park on the State Fair Grounds in Springfield.

Titled "Make a Splash," the event was part of a series of events held nationally each year by Water Education for Teachers, or Project W.E.T. The event in Springfield was co-sponsored in Illinois by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture.

Students ranged from second through twelfth grades. They had the opportunity to participate in a number of hands-on presentations covering topics such as watersheds, water quality sampling, macroinvertabrates, the geological history of Illinois, how groundcovers protect soil from erosion and many others.

The entire group was entertained by environmental story-teller Brian "Fox" Ellis. More than a dozen tables at the "resource center" were covered with environmental education materials offered free to the participants to take home to their "schoolrooms."