Make the most of school breaks at TecH2O

Make the most of school breaks at TecH2O
Posted on 07/08/2022
Water Conservation Technician Jesse Hall and Water Conservation Specialist April Lopez made chocolate daisy seed bombs for the upcoming School Break Water Discovery Series.

Want to boost your child’s thirst for knowledge during school breaks?

El Paso Water’s TecH2O Learning Center wants to help El Paso’s young students and their parents become better water stewards by engaging in fun, free activities on conservation.

The School Break Water Discovery Series targets elementary school students ages 8-11 and their parents to help them develop lifelong water-saving habits in the family, said April Lopez, Water Conservation Specialist.

“We’re putting together an educational program for parents and their kids,” said Lopez, emphasizing that the activities are intended for families to do together. “It’s crafting but, at the same time, they are learning important lessons on water conservation.”

Three activities focusing on our ecosystem and community in the Chihuahuan Desert will be offered July 22, Lopez said.

  • Importance of Native Plants: crafting seed bombs resembling planet Earth harvested from the xeriscaping outside the TecH2O Center.
  • Keep Hydrated: making solar paper art and learning the importance of staying hydrated and the power of the sun. “We will talk about how we lose water through evapotranspiration,” Lopez said. “That’s why you can only water outside during a certain time of day.”
  • Monsoon Season – crafting rainmakers. “We’re going to discuss monsoon season -- the time of year when a large amount of precipitation sweeps through the area,” Lopez said. “That’s also when llegal dumping can wreak havoc in our waterways.”

logoFuture events in the series are set for Oct. 10 and Dec. 19 – timed with school breaks – and will feature different conservation-related activities. Registration is not required, and visitors to the TecH2O, 10751 Montana Ave., are free to drop in anytime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Lopez anticipates parents will be just as engaged as their children.

"Parents are encouraged to engage and interact with their child during activities,” she said. "These are all things that not your typical El Paso adult may know. They may not know about native plants or monsoon season. At the same time, parents will be learning right alongside their child.”

At the end of the series, Lopez hopes families walk away with a better grasp of how to reduce their water footprint at home.

“They will learn about our water resources and different ways they can conserve and why our community is so different because we live in a desert,” Lopez said. “Little things we do can make a difference, such as choosing native plants. Everything in the Chihuahuan Desert had to adapt in order to survive and thrive here; we should do the same.”

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