By BOB COUPLAND
Tribune Chronicle
WARREN - Through interactive activities and presentations, nearly 400 fourth-grade Warren City Schools students learned about the importance of the water cycle as a natural resource for any community.
The Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District hosted its 11th annual, two-day Community Waters Festivals this week at Perkins Park, featuring activities about the water cycle that correlate with the state's science standards for fourth-grade students.
Kelly Hardval, education coordinator with TSWC, said the outdoor educational event had several learning stations at the Warren Community Amphitheatre and scattered throughout the park.
Students take part in hands-on activities such as being water molecules and traveling through the water cycle, seeing the effects of pollution from yards and automobiles in the local waters and finding out how tiny insects in the streams give clues to water's quality, she said.
''We had the children be water drops and think about how they move through the water cycle. They think about what could happen as they move through the water system,'' Hardval said.
Audrey Hudak, an educational instructor, said children asked questions, such as how beavers alert their young to danger by slapping their tails and how beavers construct dams.
Statistics were provided to students, such as of all the world's water, 1 percent is a source of drinking water since 97 percent is salt water and 2 percent frozen polar ice cap.
Station presenters include natural resource experts from the state and local levels and independent environmental educators.
Kassidy Smith, 9, said she learned interesting facts about beavers including their second eyelid that helps them see underwater.
Madalyn Pasek, 9, and Xander White, 9, said the most fun was making the water bracelets and pretending to be water drops traveling through water.