WRc presents on Water Matters at Swindon’s Earth Summit 2009

A team of volunteers from WRc participated in the Earth Summit on 1st - 4th June 2009.

The Earth Summit is an annual event organised by Swindon Borough Council in partnership with the National Trust, Thames Water, WRc, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and The Ridgeway School. Its aim is for year 5 pupils across Swindon to learn about sustainable living. Children attend workshops on a variety of issues, from renewable energy to recycling, and from transport to fair trade.

WRc presented the workshop called Water Matters in conjunction with Thames Water. It included activities to encourage the pupils to think about where water comes from and the processes that are required to treat water. These discussions prompted ideas about what actions the children and their families could take to reduce their water consumption. They were also given the opportunity to make water filters to test different filtration materials and observe which ones were most effective.

The event took place at the National Trust Estate in Coleshill, which has acres of land in which the children could learn as well as enjoy the great outdoors. The weather was glorious and the event was a resounding success. Jayne Humphreys of Catherine Wayte School, which attended on 3rd June, wrote to thank the event organisers, and said “The workshops were a hit with our pupils and were appreciated by us. We also thought it was really relevant to our year 5 curriculum and gave us an opportunity to embed our science work from last term.”