Rainbarrel

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The idea of harvesting rainwater starts at an early age at FWCD.  Students in the lower school science classes purchased and decorated a rain barrel for their garden.  The barrel collects rainwater from one of the lower school roof's drainage spouts. The runoff is used for hand watering some of the butterfly garden plants and seedlings grown throughout the year.  In middle school students continue to study the idea of harvesting roof runoff during the 7th grade Prairie Day.  They use google maps on a computer to calculate the area of the roof on their own home.  Next, a computer simulation determines how much rainwater could be collected in that area during one year, based on the average rainfall for the local Fort Worth area.  

Finally, students analyze the volume of rainfall collection possible and evaluate whether a rainbarrel (55 gallon) or a swimming pool (15,000 gallons) would be a better storage container for the rainwater collected.  Most correctly grasp that the runoff is a much larger amount than it seems and that a swimming pool would be the better storage container.