Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Episode 471 (5-6-19): Tuning in to Water Education at Iowa’s "Water Rocks!" Program


Click to listen to episode (5:10).

Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).


Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 5-3-19.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of May 6, 2019.

MUSIC – ~ 10 sec – Opening instrumental section of the song “Water Rocks”

This week, that music opens one of a series of occasional episodes on water-related programs outside of the Old Dominion of Virginia.  The focus this week is on the Iowa State University program called Water Rocks!  Water Rocks! is a water-education campaign for youth, using the STEM disciplines—that’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—combined with the arts to challenge and inspire Iowans towards a greater appreciation of water resources.  The program employs a variety of tools in support of that goal: teacher-development workshops; classroom visits; school assemblies; traveling conservation trailers; games and other activities; videos; and, not least, music.  Water Rocks! staff and collaborating musicians have written and recorded songs on a range of water-related topics, including watersheds, wetlands, trees, soil, and pollinators.  Let’s have a listen for about 2 minutes to three samples: here are parts of “All About That Bog,” “Hidden Water,” and “Dino Water.”

MUSIC – ~ 1 min/56 sec

“All About That Bog” excerpt lyrics:
“Because you know I’m all about that bog, ‘bout that bog—go wetlands; I’m all about that bog, ‘bout that bog—go wetlands; I’m all about that bog, ‘bout that bog—go wetlands; I’m all about that bog, ‘bout that bog—bog, bog, bog.  Wetlands have many names like swamp, bog, marsh and slough, fen, and myre, the prairie pothole, too.  Wetlands slow down the water, cleansing and filtering—so many jobs they must do.  A swamp or bog or a marsh or a slough….”

“Hidden Water” excerpt lyrics:
“Water is abundant on our planet; from clouds to oceans it runs the gamut.  You find it in lakes, rivers, and streams; a whole lot of water goes unseen.  It’s hidden underground in soil or rocks, across the land, a buried treasure box.  Water fills cracks and open spaces, moves through the earth in porous places.   Hidden water, hidden water, groundwater, hidden water. Hidden, hidden, hidden water….”

“Dino Water” excerpt lyrics:
“It’s our water now; it was the dinosaurs’, too. Velociraptor, T. rex, Pterodactyl, and you.  Cycling its way through the clouds, dinosaurs back then, and me and you now.  Molecules rearrange themselves fast; they do the molecule change-up and the molecule mash.  Talkin’ ‘bout the water, dino water, dino water….”

“The Drinking Song” excerpt lyrics:
“Dig it, swig it, straight from the spigot – it’s H2O, H2O, H2O-O-O; H2O, H2O, H2O-O-O.”



From the Iowa State University campus in Ames, Water Rocks! is aiming to provide Iowa’s three million citizens with information, inspiration, and entertainment about water.  In the process, the Hawkeye State is providing a useful resource to the rest of the country, too.  More information about Water Rocks! is available online at www.waterrocks.org.

Thanks to Water Rocks! for permission to use this week’s music.  We close with one more sample of about 25 seconds, this time from “The Drinking Song.”

MUSIC - ~23 sec

SHIP’S BELL

Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Water Rocks! songs were provided courtesy of Jacqueline Comito, program executive director, used with permission.  More information about Water Rocks! is available at the program’s Web site, https://www.waterrocks.org/.

Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com.

IMAGES





Images above are as follows: Upper - The logo of Iowa State University’s Water Rocks! program; Middle - A photograph of one of the program’s traveling conservation trailers; Lower - The entry page of an online watershed game provided by the program.  All accessed at the program Web site, https://www.waterrocks.org/, and used with permission of Jacqueline Comito, program executive director.

SOURCES USED FOR AUDIO AND OFFERING MORE INFORMATION

Iowa State University, “Water Rocks!” online at https://www.waterrocks.org/.

U.S. Census Bureau, “Quick Facts/Iowa,” online at https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/ia.  The July 1, 2018, estimate of Iowa’s population was 3,156,145.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Community/Organizations” subject category.

FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION

The episode—the audio, extra information, or sources—may help with the following Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs).

2013 Music SOLs
SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”

English SOLs
8.5, 9.4, 10.4, 11.4 – symbols, imagery, figurative language, and other literary devices.

2010 Science SOLs
Many of Virginia’s water-related Science SOL’s may be supported by the information and educational resources—on a wide range of water-related topics—available at Iowa State University’s “Water Rocks!” Web site, https://www.waterrocks.org/.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels.
Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 403, 1-15-18 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade.
Episode 406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school.
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.