The city of Bowling Green and Warren County stormwater management programs have been awarded $10,000 from the General Motors Global Corporate Giving program for their annual Streamside Field Day.

The educational workshop encourages young participants to get wet to learn about local water resources and how human activities impact them.

“Tons of these kids tell us it’s their first time in a stream,” said Bowling Green Environmental Manager Matt Powell, who helps organize the primarily middle school-age program. “When you’re actually there, you learn about all of it … it’s an immersive educational experience.”

The program is divided into three sessions: Bowling Green Independent School District sixth-grade students in the fall; Warren County Public School sixth-graders in the spring; and elementary through high school students from summer school, homeschool, English learner language programs and other summer programs in the summer.

The first part of the program takes place in a classroom, where students learn about topics such as watersheds, water quality measurements and what to expect while in the stream.

The second part of the program involves children and staff in groups of about two dozen actually wading into a local stream with an aquatic expert. There are multiple 25-minute stations that cover basic water chemistry and physical indicators, and the identification, tolerance indices and collection methods of benthic macroinvertebrates – which includes animals such as beetles, snails and crayfish.

Entering the stream is an individual choice. Some kids get in ankle deep, and others wade to waist deep. A few opt to fully submerge.

Representatives from Western Kentucky University’s Center for Geography and Geology and Center for Environmental Education and Sustainability, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Warren County Conservation District and many other organizations help run the stations.

“The huge benefit is, whatever the professional chooses to talk about, he or she’s actually in the stream … (and) can point to specific examples,” Powell said.

Powell specializes in water quality and helps students identify water quality issues through odors, visible signs of distress, audible sounds of bubbling (bubbling at the surface indicates that dissolved oxygen is being driven to the surface) and observations on the presence and quantity of certain animals to determine water quality – species like water penny beetles can’t survive in polluted environments whereas snails are pollution-tolerant species.

Since many children often don’t know the locations of their local streams or what they look like, Powell tries to educate them with some cool facts. Each field day, Powell asks the students how many animals they think are within a foot of their own feet. The students usually respond with zero, based on what they can see. Then, they use a net to scoop near rocks next to their feet and discover sometimes as many of 70 animals representing more than 30 species within that foot.

“We get a lot of ‘Whoas,’ ” Powell said.

Some other topics include soil properties, karst features and a game centered on understanding the impact of non-point source pollutions on aquatic plants and animals.

The field day helps connect the dots in children’s minds on how pollution enters the stream from seemingly distant places and creates a sense of responsibility.

“This generation understands that individual actions have a real-world impact on the environment,” Powell said. “It’s a connection I think is important. … The biggest take away is the individual culpability, responsibility and impact.”

Another benefit of the program is introducing young minds to career possibilities such as fish biologists and benthic macroinvertebrate surveyors.

This is the second year the program has been funded by GM Global Corporate Giving. The $10,000 is split between transportation, food, portable restrooms, tent rentals and other associated costs.

“Bowling Green Assembly chose Streamside Field Days as one of our community grant recipients because their goals and initiatives align with our corporate giving priorities,” Rachel Bagsaw, communication manager at the GM Bowling Green Assembly Plant, said in an email. “They have continued to be an organization dedicated to advancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) education and building sustainable communities, which are aspects highly valued by GM.”