2021 Alamo STEM Ecosystem Virtual Conference

I am currently the Education Coordinator at SAWS that gives all of the company tours. I do all K-12 Tours, as well as community and industry tours. With the pandemic we halted all on-site tours and visitors. This meant that we needed to switch gears quickly. We developed a virtual tour of our largest water recycling center and we talk about EVERYTHING that happens "After the Flush!" We move through the water recycling center from the first step in the process (raw sewage) to the last step where we release the clean recycled water into the Medina River. The only thing missing from this tour is the smell! Along the way we learn about human impact, biology, chemistry, sustainability, the water/energy nexus and even integrated pest management! This tour can be given to accommodate 4th grade through adult! Whether it is for a 5th grade science class or a university level environmental science class, we can adjust. The tour has gotten a lot of positive feedback from teachers/professors/students. The main goal was to help teachers reinforce the concepts they are teaching in the classroom and allow the students to see them in action in "real life." We thought that a virtual field trip talking about poop would be just the thing to engage students, make them laugh, and take their minds away from the usual online classes.
Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, 4-12