Local 5th graders become flush with H2O facts at Iron County water fair

CEDAR CITY — “What’s all the flush about?” was the headline question at this week’s “Iron County Fifth Grade Water Fair,” as hundreds of students gathered to learn all about H2O.

Students watch a presentation during “Iron County Fifth Grade Water Fair,” Cedar City, Utah, March 8, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

During his opening presentation on Tuesday, Southern Utah University physics professor Brandon Wiggins performed several entertaining science experiments involving water and its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen. 

Wiggins made a miniature fire tornado, lit soap bubbles and plastic bottles filled with hydrogen, and demonstrated the different effects that carbon dioxide and oxygen have on fire.  

“Water is cool. Science is cool,” Paul Monroe, director for the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District, told the students as Wiggins wrapped up his 15-minute presentation.

The students, accompanied by their teachers, then went by classroom in groups to the various breakout stations, where they did a variety of hands-on activities. 

Among the topics addressed during the mini-sessions were the water cycle, runoff and erosion, conservation tips and of course, plenty of facts about toilets. For example, a leaky toilet can waste 7 gallons of water per day and cost $840 per year. Also, the average person uses 57 squares of toilet paper each day.

SUU professor Brandon Wiggins gives a presentation during “Iron County Fifth Grade Water Fair,” Cedar City, Utah, March 8, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

At one popular station, students competed against each other in a Jeopardy! style game, using handheld remotes to enter their answers to various multiple-choice questions about water.

The two-day event, which was hosted by the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District and the local Utah State University Extension, started on Tuesday in the upper rooms of Cedar City’s Festival Hall, with approximately 200 children attending for a half day that morning, followed by a similarly sized group in the afternoon.

On Wednesday, two more such groups are scheduled to participate, bringing the overall total to nearly 800 fifth graders from elementary schools throughout Iron County, organizers said.

Monroe said this is the first local fifth grade water fair held in three years, as both the 2020 and 2021 events were canceled due to COVID.

Local schoolchildren have also been making recent field trips to visit a special water-themed exhibit called H2O Today, which is on display at Frontier Homestead State Park Museum in Cedar City starting mid-February and lasting until the end of May. 

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