Appleton students learn about water scarcity

APPLETON – If students in the Appleton Area School District want a drink of clean, cold water, all they have to do is walk down a hallway to a bubbler.

They recently learned that not all people have that luxury.

Teachers from kindergarten through high school used the novel "A Long Walk to Water" to educate students about the worldwide water crisis and to introduce them to global issues.

Sara Wayland and AnnMarie German wrote grants to purchase copies of the book and supplies for teacher resource kits. Instructors weren't required to teach the book — or its themes — but those who wanted to do so received tools from the kits.

Grants also will pay for a visit to Appleton by the book's author, Linda Sue Park, in April.

The book is appropriate for children in fifth-grade and older, but the importance of water can be taught to all children. Teachers wove the water crisis into science, English Language Arts, geography and economics lessons, German said.

follows an orphaned boy named Salva Dut and a young girl named Nya.

Nya walks for hours every day to fetch water for her family. The only water she can find is contaminated. While Nya's story is fictional, it represents the plight of many people in Africa.

Salva's story is true. As a child living in Sudan, he fled war, lived in a refugee camp and eventually came to America. He used his fresh start to raise awareness about the water crisis and build wells in African villages.

German said she hopes the novel inspires students to pursue causes and interests they care about.

"I think the message is find something you're passionate about and go after it," she said.

K-12 impact

Krista Powell taught the water crisis in past years to her contemporary world studies class at Appleton North High School, "but not to the extent that this book has allowed me to," she said.

"A Long Walk to Water" puts children at the heart of the crisis — swimming for their lives with Salva in a river or walking for hours to fetch water with Nya.

Besides the scarcity of water, students learned about the sacrifices people make to survive. In the novel, Nya's main priority is water.

"My students probably didn't realize how fortunate they are to have an education. A lot of kids in Africa don't (go to school) because they're forced to go get water each day, which isn't always close," Powell said.

Seventh-grade geography students at Einstein Middle School used the novel to dive into other African issues, such as poaching and malnutrition, said teacher Kathy Summers.

The novel helped students look outside themselves, which Summers said will benefit them in the long run.

"I think that in seventh grade students really need to expand their horizons to find out what else is going on in the world and this helped them do that," she said. "They kind of get out of Appleton and learn there are a lot of people who suffer in the world and don't have basic needs met."

Students Cady Isom, Taylor Lauterbach and Luke Schmid gave the novel four out of four stars. The students weren't aware of the war in Sudan or the water crisis until they read the book.

"I thought it was really impactful because it shows how one person can make a difference in the world," Isom said.

Students inspired

The stories of Salva and Nya inspired classrooms across the Appleton Area School District to raise money for wells in Africa.

Early next year, Jamie Kimball's fifth- and sixth-grade students at Stephen Foster Elementary Charter School will kick off their campaign. The goal is $5,000, and they're designing posters, creating slideshows and building websites for the fundraiser.

Makaila Steidl and Caitlynn Johnson worked on a public service announcement for social media platforms. The PSA pairs facts about the water crisis with images.

The girls didn't know about the water crisis before they read the novel, but now they want to raise awareness.

Sam Ewald wants more people to reflect on their own lives, and how fortunate they are in comparison.

"People should know how hard it is just for them to get water," he said.

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/ne...city/20868541/


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