Students get taste of water purification process at plant

Fifth-graders from Robinson Barracks Elementary/Middle School learned how water is reused and sustained during a field trip to  a water filtration plant  Nov. 17, in conjunction with America Recycles Day.

More than 100 RBEMS students visited the Energie Baden-Württemberg water filtration plant in Stuttgart as part of an environmental outreach program coordinated through EnBW and the U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division.

The trip was designed to teach children about water’s role on the Earth and encourage them to create a better natural environment, said Robert Gromer, USAG Stuttgart environmental specialist who coordinator the water plant tour.

The tour included a ten-minute documentary film on the Earth’s water cycle, a step-by-step tour of the filtration process, a taste of filtered water from local collection sources, and a practical experiment that allowed students to see how unfiltered water is transformed into drinking water. 

EnBW specialists assisted the children in a series of experiments that simulated purifying techniques with unfiltered water.

The experiments bring what the children learn in the classroom to life, Gromer said. It’s never too early to learn how to conserve the most essential nutrient for the human body — water, he added.

For the past nine years, EnBW and USAG Stuttgart have partnered to provide water plant tours to students in Department of Defense Dependents Schools here.
The field trip complemented the students’ classroom studies on water, said Doreen Weinberg, RBEMS fifth-grade teacher. The students gleaned a better understanding of how a water treatment plant works and where their drinking water comes from, she said.

In fact, they already want to make a difference in conserving natural resources, Weinberg added. Many students have joined the RBEMS Earth Club, established earlier this year, in which they pledge to recycle where they live, work and play, and promote awareness about recycling in the community. The club is open to all students at RBEMS.