Day 3 of STEMmerssion 2019
“What did you learn about where our water comes from, or the importance of water."
Water Day-May 20, 2019
On day three of STEMmerssion, we visited five water stations. The first station was the River Mobile. We looked at two maps of the Miami Valley and both showed the five rivers of Greater Dayton. When we went inside, the guide explained the history of Dayton's water system. I learned that there have been numerous floods in the Dayton area since there have been people here. The largest of these was the flood of 1913 where the idea of dams came up.
Next we went to listen to workers at the City of Dayton Water Facility. Then, we went outside and learned about how water gets here. Water moves in a cycle, it cannot be created or destroyed. Rain falls and fills water bodies or gets soaked up by the ground. The water above the ground is then evaporated by the sun while the water underground goes to feed plants or goes into aqueducts.
Aqueducts are how Dayton gets its water. We have five dams; the Huffman, Englewood, Germantown, Taylorsville, and Lockington. The dams help to keep the water out of our cities. Because we live in a valley, water naturally flows down to us, and this creates a problem that the dams solve.
We finished with a talk about water quality and then got to see a CCTV van. The CCTV van was basically a control center for a robot that can fit through pipes people cannot. The robots are controlled by a joystick and buttons. The man that worked in the van has taken the robot on over 14,000 jobs to identify problems.
I learned a lot today during our exploration of the water cycle, water treatment, and water location in the Dayton area. I cannot wait to spend tomorrow kayaking!
The River Flows
The River, flowing and free
That held all the water, clear and cold
Where the fish, vibrant and active, swam all day
And the sand, tan and grainy, is river’s foundation
With the mud, damp and squishy, helping to build the solid ground
And the rocks, strong and rough, added the texture to river
With trees, bold and firm, adding the protection
And the hills, tall and wide, that caught the water and sent it back to the
River, flowing and free
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