Tensas Academy’s Fifth Grade had an educational and fun trip to Ruston, Louisiana on Thursday, September 28. They attended Waterfest at the Lincoln State Park and learned about water quality and conservation. The Sparta Aquifer is depended upon by fifteen parishes in north Louisiana, and the water supply is gradually disappearing. The t-shirts students obtained during the trip pictured sayings such as, “Reduce your use” and, “Every drop counts.”

Students learned that an aquifer is a thick underground layer of material that holds water replenished by rain. The Sparta Aquifer is 40 million years old and three-hundred feet below the ground. Students discussed all of the ways they use water, drinking, bathing, cleaning, washing, cooking, swimming, gardening and feeding pets and livestock. They also learned ways they can conserve water, such as washing dishes in a washing machine instead of hand-washing, turning the water off while brushing your teeth, and taking a quick shower instead of a bath.

The group went through a maze, representing the traveling water. Every object they passed represented another piece of litter our water has to go through before it gets to the aquifer. They learned not littering plays a significant role in water conservation as well. 

The students played a final relay game where they had fifteen minutes to fill a 100-gallon container with lake water one bucket at a time. They got exercise and learned to appreciate their water sources and were thankful they did not have to carry water in buckets.

The group traveled back to Tensas Academy in the cars of gracious parents and grandparents of the fifth grade, Amy VandeVen, Bill Crigler, and Mary Nell Rushing. It was a water-filled fun day for all!

This is your student council reporter signing off,

Anna VandeVen
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Photos courtesy of Amy VandeVen