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College classes are done for the 2024-25 school year, but the South ������Ƶ State University campus will be “flooded” with a much younger student population on Tuesday, May 13, as SDSU hosts the 33^rd annual Big Sioux Water Festival.

The event will draw 1,100 fifth graders from 24 schools in eastern South ������Ƶ, including Brookings and Watertown. They will be accompanied by 180 teachers and chaperones from 53 classrooms plus 155 area volunteers.

The students will be able to apply their knowledge of water education that they have learned in their classrooms.

Here is a sampling of the myriad of activities that will be going on from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 13:

• Professor Francis Ting will demonstrate “The Great Tsunsami” in the fluid mechanics lab in Room 103 of the Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies building (formerly Agricultural Engineering) from 9:45 to 11:45 a.m. and from 12:50 to 1:30 p.m.

• ISG Engineering will present an activity on “How a Toilet Flushes,” which demonstrates the siphon effect and bowl principle.

• In “Mystery of Sandy Bottom Creek,” students will learn about how pollutants, such as chemicals, can end up in a stream, bioaccumulate and eventually effect top predators and even humans. This includes discussion about best management practices that could prevent this.

• In “Be a Water Treatment Officer,” students will build a mini-water treatment model following the steps and process involved in purifying water at a water treatment plant

In addition, there is an exhibit hall in the Volstorff Ballroom of the University Student Union with 21 different stations the students can roam about to things that interest them. The stations include remote sensing, ground water model, bubble station, water tricks, ������Ƶ station, enviroscape model, river rats, ecosystem engineers and quicksand.

Big Sioux Water Festival is sponsored by East ������Ƶ Water Development District, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, SDSU Water and Environmental Engineering Research Center, SDSU Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Brookings County Conservation District, and the South ������Ƶ Association of Rural Water Systems.

Check-in station: Information booth in the main walkway of the University Student Union. The exhibit hall and teachers’ resource area are there as well.

For more information or a contact on May 13: Deb Springman, East ������Ƶ Water Development District, edwdd4@brookings.net, 605-695-3843; Jenny Bickett, Lohr College of Engineering, Jennifer.bickett@sdstate.edu, 605-203-1385.

For directions to building on campus, go to the interactive campus map: