Fourth and fifth graders at Highland Elementary spent part of Tuesday in Central Park learning about the Red Lake River watershed in the River of Dreams program. The program, titled River of Dreams, was led by Andy Ulven, a monitoring and education specialist with The International Water Institute.
“In River of Dreams we try to introduce what a watershed is, and what watershed do you live in,” said Ulven. “The program culminates with each student having a 14-inch canoe that has a tracking number and we have a database so if anyone finds it downstream they can report if they found the canoe. We’ve had some found up by Lake Winnipeg.”
The students also participated in a watershed activity, passing ping bong balls or chips to demonstrate the flow of the water during different environmental situations. “The students build a watershed and we show how water starts from the headwaters and flows down to the mouth while incorporating tributaries,” explained Ulven. “We demonstrate what happens at a base flow like now when the river is so slow and only a few balls come downstream, but after a big rainfall, it gets a little chaotic and flooding happens.
The fifth graders launched are in their second year of the program, while the fourth graders got introduced to River of Dreams in the afternoon and will be launching their canoes in the spring. Wilderness Inquiry from Minneapolis also brought 10-person canoes, and all the students had an opportunity to get out on the water.
