This document provides guidance for utilities to educate schoolchildren about water and wastewater systems to influence future customers. It recommends engaging elementary, middle, and high school students through classroom presentations, science demonstrations, tours of facilities, and service projects. By starting education early and making lessons relevant, utilities can help students understand water infrastructure and careers, conservation, and the importance of taxpayer funding for "capital projects" and loans.

1. Schoolkids Now,
Customers Later
Brian Gongol, M.Ed.
DJ Gongol & Associates, Inc.
IA-WEA Collection Systems Conference | Ames, IA
March 9, 2023

2. Why are schoolchildren an
important utility audience?

3. Schoolchildren influence
their parents

4. Schoolkids need careers later

5. They grow up so fast
(to become ratepayers)

6. It’s in your
immediate
interest to
reach them
now

7. It’s also in
your long-
term interest

8. Part 1

9. Elementary school

10. A great age for classroom talks

11. A great age for classroom talks
Low information
requirements
(they’re just little
kids!)
Most elementary
teachers
appreciate a break

12. “How water and wastewater systems
connect our communities”

13. “Water scarcity and conservation”

14. The Water Cycle, or:
“You’re Drinking Dinosaur Pee”

15. “Hometown jobs in water work”

16. “Water around the world”

17. Elementary school outreach
opportunities

18. Earth Day (April 22nd)

19. Children’s Water Festivals

20. Science fairs

21. Plant tours (field trips)

22. Community open house/tour days

23. Science classroom demonstrations

24. Part 2

25. Junior high / middle school

26. You retain a
surprising
amount from
junior high

27. Altemeier’s Three
Laws of Science
• Round things roll
• Glass breaks
• Things get hot when
heated

28. Offer a chemistry
workshop to a
science class

29. Explain utility ownership
to a social-studies class

30. Demonstrate physical forces to a
science class
• Gravity
• Centrifugal force
• Friction
• Potential energy
• Kinetic energy
• Pumps
• Water towers
• Gravity sewers
• Force mains

31. Show samples from different treatment
stages to a life-sciences class

32. Offer a job-shadowing day

33. Communicate your
availability to
school counselors

34. Give service clubs something to do

35. Get to know your Scoutmasters and
Confirmation teachers

36. Part 3

37. High school

38. High school
• Do you remember being bored out of your mind by a class in
high school?

39. High school
• Do you remember being bored out of your mind by a class in
high school?
• Teachers often don’t know how to make specific lessons
applicable to the real world

40. High school
• Do you remember being bored out of your mind by a class in
high school?
• Teachers often don’t know how to make specific lessons
applicable to the real world
• That’s where you come in!

41. Going to the classroom
with a message

42. Biology class:
Dump your oil,
poison a fish

43. Civics/government class
From the ballot box to your tap:
Fluoride, bond issues, and EPA orders

44. Computer class:
SCADA, remote
monitoring,
tower-mounted
cell service

45. Drafting/construction tech class:
Broadband Internet via sewers

46. Health class: Five diseases Americans
don’t get anymore
• Cholera
• Typhus
• Dysentery
• Polio
• Giardiasis

47. Physics class: How pumps defy gravity

48. History class:
Five civilizations that died of thirst

49. Economics class: How the Midwest
exports water without using bottles

50. General science class:
Last chance to teach the water cycle

51. Consumer economics class:
Bottled water is tap water, too

52. Getting high school students
in the door

53. Volunteers/interns: Lab assistants

54. Volunteers/interns: GIS assistants

55. Volunteers/interns:
Websites, social media

56. Volunteers/interns: Graphic designers

57. Volunteers/interns:
Shop class / voc-tech / tech ed

58. Volunteers/interns:
Institutional memory trackers

59. Part 4

60. Think
beyond the
classroom

61. Make sure you know the
school’s career counselors

62. People are always looking
for service projects

63. People are always looking
for service projects
Adopt-a-
storm-drain
Creek cleanup
Conservation
ambassadors
Rain barrels
Rain gardens
Smart salting
ambassadors
Recycling
Tree planting
and caretaking

64. Facility tours (everyone likes to see
“behind the scenes”)

65. Facility tours: Is your plant a cathedral
to public service?

66. Show people what they’re paying for

67. Show, don’t tell:
Equipment, maintenance,
and security investments
matter

68. Help emerging taxpayers understand
“capital projects” and “SRF loans”

69. Part 5

70. Model lesson plans

71. Who’s going to educate the public
about water?
If not us, who?
If not now, when?

72. When should you start teaching people
that “flushable” wipes…aren’t?

73. When should you start telling young people
about good jobs in skilled trades?

74. When should you teach people not to
pour grease down the drain?

75. When should you
teach people not
to flush unused
medical waste
(and drugs) down
the toilet?

76. When should people learn not to pour
paint or motor oil down the drain?

77. When should people be taught to keep
storm drains clear?

78. Who needs to be taught not to blow
grass clippings or leaves into the street?

79. When are people old
enough to start
thinking about where
their taxes go?

80. You can do this!
You are the local subject-matter experts on water

81. Questions?
• You’ve been a great
audience
• This presentation is posted
at gongol.net/presentations
• For sample lesson plans,
send me an email:
brian@gongol.net
• Brian Gongol
DJ Gongol & Associates
515-223-4144
• @djgongol on Facebook,
LinkedIn, and Twitter

82. Sources
• Screenshot of NASA Earth Observatory page on the Mayan civilization taken from the
public domain
• https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Maya
• Screenshot of GOES-East satellite view taken from the public domain
• https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus_band.php?sat=G16&band=GEOCOLOR&length
=48
• Images generated by Dall-E:
• Dogs in laboratory costumes
• Dogs dressed as Scouts
• Dogs dressed as teachers or school counselors
• Dogs dressed in hard hats
• All other photos and illustrations (except stock icons and emoji characters) are the
original work of the author
• Copyright 2023
• Reuse, duplication, or other copying is strictly forbidden without express written
permission