Welcome to our USEPA funded WaterWorks project. I am Dr. Kauser Jahan and I am directing this project with many other colleagues from Rowan University and other partners from the area. I am heavily invested in STEM education and I love bringing innovative ideas to encourage K-12 students/educators to get excited about careers in STEM.

This is a three year project, which has been recently awarded, and we are just getting started by developing some great fun activities that will bring careers in water and wastewater utilities alive to build the next generation of a diverse workforce. Please feel free to visit our website to learn more https://research.rowan.edu/research-areas/engineering/usepa-waterworks/index.html.

We look forward to your comments and suggestions on the following:

a) hands on activities that can be added that are related to water/wastewater treatment

b) other similar work that we may not be aware of.

Thank you so much for watching our video and for your important input. We value your suggestions.

Warmest regards,

Kauser

Support

This is such a fascinating project! We've learned a lot about the watershed and sewershed systems in urban environments for our project, WaterWays, geared to 3-5th graders, and it's amazing how so few people are aware of how water gets to them, and what happens to it after it goes down the drain. 

Dr. Jahan-thanks for a great presentation! I am curious to learn more about the hands-on activities you sue with your water mobile. Thanks in advance!

Great work Dr.Jahan, students, and staff! The blend of teaching hydraulic concepts with physical and high-tech models make the industry approachable for many. As a Water/Wastewater engineer for the past 6 years, new talent is always welcome. Proud to be a Rowan alum!

Thank you Tyler. Best reward to hear from our alumni. We are very excited about this project. Will keep you posted on the progress.

Apoyo y voto.

Fantastic work!

Learning science and technological concepts through specific examples provides motivation for students to learn some of the basic ideas that may seem abstract without the examples.  The water activities that you are developing serve as good examples.  Are you evaluating that the activities are engaging students also to learn the basic concepts?  Have you considered explicitly linking your activities to the K-12 national standards in science (NGSS), in technology (ITEEA) and in mathematics (NCTM)?  Your activities help students answer the question of why do I have to learn this stuff; wherever will it be useful?  It may also increase the use of your materials nationally.    

Thank you for sharing some excellent ideas. We will have to link our activities with NGSS as this is written in our proposal. The other two are great additions. Thank you for providing is input.

Water is such a critical factor in equity, and this project is providing educational access to all. I am certain this will have positive long-term impact on water careers in your area. Also, I am excited to see what the team does with Water Pal.

Water education has the potential to create awareness for many within our population. Many times this awareness can have an impact on human behavior (i.e. conservation, pollution). Have you seen any measurable difference in the way the participants perceive their relationship to water after engaging with the project?

What wonderful experiential learning tools are represented here.  As a high school science teacher in a school with a very low budget, I would be very interested in having the water mobile visit my 9th-grade Environmental Science class next year.  We are about to embark on our end-of-year CSO project.  Combined Sewer Overflow is a huge problem in the City in which I teach.  As such, we end each year with our water resources unit, which caps with a final design and simulation build of rainwater runoff reduction solutions.  Please let me know if there is a way my school may also partner with this outreach.  As a Rowan Engineering Alum, I am always selling my students on the wonderful opportunities that Rowan has to offer.

This is great!  Please reach out if I can support this effort.

we will be working with American Water, Very excited.

This is a necessary and very valuable project. How much has industry been involved in it's development, and the development of the excellent activities you have? I know that there is a lot of interest from local companies with respect to research into wastewater management. What new activities are you developing and what has been the inspiration for them? Thank you! 

This is a great project. Thank you for sharing all you are doing. It is great that you are able to connect with high school students through this work as well, which will undoubtedly raise awareness and hopefully increas interest in this critically important topic. Is the WaterPal App something that is used within any water management districts or water utility companies? If not, is it based off of technology that current students might see when they enter the workforce?

Great presentation and very interesting project! Good luck! 

Very timely and excellent project. Although our planet earth abounds itself in water content, only 3% of this life sustaining natural resource is accessible to mankind. The importance of the proposed project is thus loud and clear. My best wishes for all success. 

Great work and congratulations to the team for such efforts

Great project.  I really like the creativity behind the various 'water tools' and the emphasis on experiential learning.  I would like to see the "Day in the Life of Water Worker" that you mention in the video.  Would it be possible to get me a link?  One reason I'm interested is because the project my team has submitted also focuses on giving students a real feel for what it's like to work in a particular field of science, in our case BioFabrication.  One of the elements of the project is a set of video profiles of recent college graduates who are now working for BioFab startups.  You can watch our overview of the project here: https://stemforall2022.videohall.com/presentations/2489 and you can see the actual videos here: Building a Strong Workforce Alliance for Biofabrication & Bioengineering through K-12 Education.  Please let me know what you think.   

Amazing project and great video! You may already be well aware of us, but I work with CUAHSI, the consortium of universities for the advancement of Hydrologic science, and we operate shared scientific infrastructure for water science, I wonder if any of our apps or repositories would be of use to you in your activities, we have apps like CUAHSI Jupyterhub and CUAHSI matlab online, that offer free licenses, and water data storage and discovery options. Our video is on our infrastructure, but our website is here: https://www.cuahsi.org/ , please feel free to reach out of you think any of our services would be of use in your water programs! 

Clara- Thank you for watching our video. We are aware of your amazing work and will incorporate some activities that you have mentioned.

Hello,

This seems like an interesting and excitign program! Have considered integrating any learning modules that integrate how Covid-19 has affected the water/wastewater sectors in the US? In particular, the use of wastewater-based epidemiology has been in the news and students may have heard about it, which might be a great way to showcase career opportunities that they might not initally think of. Perhaps this case study about an Cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Georgia could be used to illustrate how water treatment systems are integral to maintaining the health of communities. Best of luck with this program!!