Over 250 elementary students visited Marshall University Wednesday for the annual Water Festival.

The Water Festival teaches students about all the aspects of water and to appreciate it as a resource.

Eleven stations were placed on Buskirk field to show the children about water conservation, the different species that live in the water, why it is important to have clean water, the chemical properties and the biological properties of water and more.

“All the stations are designed to be hands on and interactive for the kids. It is not them sitting and listening to a lecture,” Tomi Bergstrom, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Watershed Basin Coordinator, said. “They are up running around and participating in all of these activities.”

One of the activities was “The Incredible Journey,” where the kids pretended to be a water molecule and had to go through the water cycle, making bubbles and talking about surface tension and what H20 is.

Elementary schools involved were Guyandotte Elementary, Cox Landing Elementary, St. Joseph Grade School, Martha Elementary, Central City Elementary, Hurricane Town and Davis Creek Elementary. The elementary school students that attended the event were in grades third through fifth.

“I think it is important because it does teach our kids about water conservation,” Travis Bailey, environmental specialist for Marshall’s Environmental Health and Safety department, said. “If they really take this in, then it becomes a lifestyle. Then they will be able to pass that on to their parents because if you get them at this age, they go home and tell mommy and daddy what they did for the day.”

“There’s nothing better than having a little kid flip over a rock and be like ‘oh, that’s a Mayfly Larvae,’” Bergstrom said, “And the parents are like ‘what?’ And they are like ‘yeah, I learned about that at Marshall’s Water Festival.’”

Krislyn Holden can be contacted at [email protected].