THE SCHOOL WATER AUDIT PROGRAM:
Environmental sustainability will require new awareness about water as a limited resource and the translation of that awareness into action by a wide public. But, changing ways of thinking and establishing new habits can be challenging. The author presents an innovative approach to bringing about water conservation awareness and action through the School Water Audit Program (SWAP) designed for elementary, middle and high school students. In conducting a SWAP, students engage in active learning strategies to determine how much water is used at their school. SWAP curriculum is designed to enable teachers to lead their students from teacher-directed activities to increasingly student-directed inquiry. A fully completed SWAP would include having students use the data they collect to write specific proposals about how their school could use water more efficiently, to actually implement one or more of those proposals, and to evaluate and communicate the results. The extensive active involvement of the students moves this curriculum from an academic exercise to an applied science, math and writing project that brings excitement to the classroom. This new curriculum promises to have three positive results. First, the SWAP can result in significant water conservation. Second, students gain content knowledge and skill development required by science teaching standards. Finally, features of the SWAP may result in proenvironmental long-term attitudinal and behavioral changes. Self-delong-termination theory is explored as providing support for this final claim and indicating future research directions.
KEYWORDS: environmental education, water audit, self-determination theory, water conservation INTRODUCTION
I want to show my little brother how great his big sister is. And I want to make a good role model for him and my baby sister. That s pretty much what I want to do. Alyssa, 8th grade.
Alyssa s statement was not about her future plans to save the world or solve the crisis of the day. Nor was she imagining herself as a WNBA star or a singer or dancer on the big stage. Alyssa, an eighth grader at Southwest Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona was talking about her participation in the School Water Audit Program.
What is a School Water Audit Program?
of scientific methodology than ever before. Because the SWAP integrates science, math and writing, it can meet academic curriculum standards in all of these areas. It can also be extended to include art, communication, and technology. And without a doubt it empowers students like Alyssa. It teaches them to recognize that they are capable of using science to positively influence the world they live in, today, while they are young. They begin to imagine a better world tomorrow and themselves as stronger and more powerful citizens.
SWAP AT SOUTHWEST SCHOOL
The authors assisted teachers and administrators in conducting a SWAP at Southwest Elementary School (Southwest) in Phoenix, Arizona. This SWAP provides a good example of the benefits of the Program. At Southwest, students were challenged to determine how much water was used at their school and how they could use water more efficiently at their school. Through research associated with conducting the swap, students came to recognize that in Arizona s desert environment, there is enough water to use, but not enough to waste. 366 Southwest students participated in a two week SWAP that included at least one class from most grade levels and all 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Students measured water use at their school and were informed that they had the opportunity to make a difference at their school by writing proposals about how to make their school more water efficient. They were told that one of their proposals would be selected for funding by The University of Arizona Water Sustainability Program and that the winning proposal idea would be implemented before the school year was over. The students expressed genuine interest and excitement about the fact that one of their ideas would be selected and implemented.
The winning proposal noted that the school had a hand washing station with eight faucets that ran continuously during the school s lunch periods. The lunch periods spanned about two hours each day and water flowed through the eight faucets whether or not children were present and washing their hands. The proposal suggested retrofitting the station with either sensors or metered values commonly known as push buttons. After consultation with a plumbing distributor, metered valves were selected as the best fix. Before school closed for summer vacation, a plumber installed the metered valves. Rather than having the work done over the week-end when no students were present, the authors suggested that the plumber work during a school day so that all students could witness that the retrofit was actually occurring. The student who wrote the winning proposal was called to the office and photographed with the assistant principal and plumber. Brief announcements were made in the classrooms that sent in applications to inform students about the winning proposal. To recognize the efforts of the school administration, teachers and students, the school received a plaque identifying it as an Exemplary Water Conservation School. Conducting the SWAP and its completion in a very visible way and including recognition activities were important in sending the message to the students that their ideas were valued by adults and that they really were capable of making changes occur in one of the most important institutions in their lives: their school.
Before the retrofit, approximately 220,325 gallons of water flowed through the hand washing station during the school year. Assuming that each student washes his or her hands once per day using the new metered valves, it is anticipated that 54,087 gallons per year (25% of the pre-retrofit amount) will now flow through the hand washing station. A City of Phoenix Water Services Department official estimated that the school will save nearly $1,000 per year in water and sewage fees. Actual usage and savings will be monitored to determine actual water and monetary savings, however, as the entire school utilizes only two water meters, exact impact may not be determined.
This kind of inefficient water usage is not unique to Southwest Elementary School. Many schools are similar. Thus, schools provide an opportunity for significant improvements in water use efficiency. However, improving water use efficiency is not the primary goal of conducting a SWAP. Educational benefits, impact on long-term attitudes and behavioral changes are the real goals. Schools are in the business of education and teachers are provided with curricular standards which must be reflected in lesson plans and daily classroom activities. Students are tested for educational achievement and students, teachers and administrators are held accountable. Any project that occurs during school time must contribute to the meeting of these standards or it cannot be a sustainable school time activity. The SWAP provides educational benefits in the areas of math, science and writing, as well as providing opportunities for skill improvement in the areas of scientific processes, measurement, critical thinking and team work. The activity also can easily be extended to meet academic standards in social studies and the arts. For instance, in Arizona the history surrounding the building of dams and development of water law are important social studies topics. To integrate the SWAP into arts education, students at Southwest created posters about water efficiency. The Art teacher created a rubric detailing the art elements that an effective poster should include and student posters were graded according to this rubric.
SWAP AT WILSON K-8
devised a way to determine how much water was wasted by measuring the flow while drinking and without drinking. Though students realized that they should not stop drinking water, they came up with the idea to bring water bottles to school and fill them up at the drinking fountains. Students at Wilson K-8 became very engaged in the SWAP. In response to an attitudinal survey, participants were given a 5 point likert scale within a matrix of statements (X axis) and likert options (Y axis). The results of the likert matrix (where f is the frequency of the response and % is the percentage of respondents) are summarized in TABLE I. The survey showed that 94% of Wilson K-8 students either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, I will save more water thanks to my involvement in the SWAP project. To the statement, I would like to report my findings to others in my community, 64% strongly agreed or agreed. These survey results show that at least directly following the SWAP, students were interested in taking action. A subgroup of Wilson K-8 6th graders led by their teachers has demonstrated continued interest in the SWAP and water conservation. They created how-to videos for auditing the faucet, auditing the drinking fountains, checking the toilet for leaks, and replacing the toilet flapper.
SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY AND PROENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS Water conservation is not only an academic topic in arid states like Arizona. One of the purposes of education is the development of citizens who can take an informed role as decision-makers in their communities and act as responsible members of their communities. All teachers involved in the Southwest SWAP reported that their students had become aware of the importance of water conservation because of their participation in the SWAP. Students would have gained significant content knowledge and developed important skills by participating in only the water measurement part of the SWAP. But, by participating in writing proposals to improve water efficiency at their school with the belief that their proposal might be selected and implemented, each participating student was given a chance to actually make a change for the better at their school. In terms of long-term attitudes about the environment and their ability to impact the environment, this aspect was key. In terms of attitudes and behavior change, the lesson that they can be powerful actors in their world may be the most important lesson of all. Students who engage in a SWAP gain knowledge and skill, including analytical skills that may enable them to see how to apply that knowledge to make improvements. The self-awareness that they have this knowledge and skills may give them the confidence to apply these outside of the classroom.
Social psychologists who have studied proenvironmental behavior report that frequency of proenvironmental behaviors is highly correlated with self-determined motivation as opposed to behavior motivated by external factors (Pelletier, 2002). An example of behavior motivated by an external factor is someone who refrains from littering because he or she is afraid of a fine. With this type of motivation, the individual may only refrain from littering when he or she believes that being caught is likely. In the case of self-determined motivation, refraining from littering will occur whether or not there is likelihood of being caught, thus this individual will participate in less littering than the externally motivated person. Self-determination theory recognizes that individuals learn by integrating new information and beliefs into their existing cognitive structures (Cole & Cole, 1993). For instance, students at Southwest walked past their hand washing station for years when the faucets flowed continuously for two hours, but did not recognize this as problematic until participating in the SWAP. Through the process of actively participating in the SWAP, students came to the new belief that the water use at the hand washing station was an instance of waste. They knew the concept of waste before participating in the SWAP, but because they were directed to measure all water use at their school and propose ways to cut down on water waste/water inefficiency at their school, they suddenly saw the hand washing station in a new way.
Learning theory helps us understand how people change their beliefs and thus may change their actions, but an additional question may be posed. Will students, and the future adults they will become, extend their new knowledge and new behaviors into new and different instances of proenvironmental behavior or will they only repeat the behaviors they have learned, e.g. if students learn that they should turn off the water while the are brushing their teeth, will they generalize this behavior to include such as acts as turning off the hose when water is not needed while they are washing their car? Certainly individuals generalize knowledge and adjust their actions in this way. This may be because individuals find resolving cognitive dissonance satisfying and thus they actively seek challenges to their cognitive structures and then resolve these challenges by changing their beliefs and actions. It is a crucial fact about human curiosity and the impulse to explore that we enjoy, or find satisfaction, in new discoveries. Curiosity and the urge to explore can be troublesome and sometimes lead to negative outcomes, so we might wonder at this aspect of humanity. But, the joy found in learning and discovery can at least be partially explained by recognizing this joy as the feeling that accompanies settling new experience into existing cognitive structures. It is, perhaps, related to aesthetic enjoyment. But, we know that learning and changing is difficult and that people appear to resist learning as much as they enjoy and seek it. How do we make sense of this apparent contradiction found in human behavior? What factors make a difference to whether or not new information and actions are sought and achieved?
made the step of recognizing that this was an activity that a positive role model would engage in. Part of her recognition was brought about by the way it was valued by the adults associated with it. Furthermore, Alyssa was selected to be part of a brief video about the SWAP that was placed on You Tube added to the positive social context of her actions. In such a case, Alyssa might understandably be motivated to actively seek opportunities to extend the type of experience she had while engaging in the SWAP.
Another important factor in extending proenvironmental behaviors concerns the experience of competency in acting (Darner, 2009). The authors discovered that students who had not had previous experience with inquiry-based learning had great difficulty in successfully participating in an early version of the SWAP curriculum. The curriculum was changed so that students would be led in progressively more student-directed activities so that their competency in problem-solving and in requisite skills could be developed. It is important that teachers think through the skills needed for students to be adequately prepared. These skills include the ability to participate in an inquiry-based project, but also other abilities that may not be obvious. For instance, do students know how to measure water accurately? This may be more challenging than assumed. The authors conducted workshops with teachers to introduce them to the SWAP and found it essential that the teachers actually go through some of the activities themselves so that they would know through experience the practical and intellectual challenges their students would encounter. As one exemplary 4th grade class demonstrated, it is not necessarily the grade level of the students that determines whether or not they can successfully and fruitfully complete a SWAP, but whether they are prepared to do so and guided by a thoughtful (and courageous!) teacher. Individuals who believe that they are competent in an area are more likely to seek out opportunities to exhibit that competency and extend it to new activities (De Young, 2000).
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
G
al
lo
ns
Classroom Faucets
Bathroom Faucets
FIGURE I Annual school water savings with
faucet aerators
Without Aerators
With Aerators
Water Savings
TABLE I Student attitudes following participation in audit
Strongly
Agree
f
, %
Agree
f
, %
Neutral
f
, %
Disagree
f
, %
Strongly
Disagree
f,
%
I would like to report my findings to others in my community
17 = 33%
16 = 31%
14 = 27%
4 = 8%
1 = 2%
I will save more water thanks to my involvement in the SWAP project
38 = 73%
11 = 21%
3 = 8%
0 = 6%
0
REFERENCES
Cole, M., & Cole, S. (1993). The development of children (2nd ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Darner, Rebekka. (2009). Self-determination theory as a guide to fostering environmental motivation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 40, 39-49.
De Young, R. (2000). Expanding and evaluating motives for environmentally responsible behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 509-526.
Deci, E. & Ryan, R. (2000). The what and why of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.
