UW-Eau Claire groundwater workshop offers unique insight, access

Dr. Sarah Vitale, associate professor of geology and environmental science, guided her second group of K-12 educators through a day of exercises and discussions on June 26. She explained how water moves from the earth’s surface into wells, aquifers, rivers and lakes, and then showed participants how to measure water depth and determine its flow. Later, she organized a tour of the city of Eau Claire’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, which treats approximately 2.76 billion gallons each year.

Each instructor left campus with a free groundwater model, a roughly 2-foot-by-3-foot glass case filled with rocks, sands and tubes that represents conditions below the surface once activated.

“You can inject food dye and watch water move through the system,” Vitale says. “I want teachers to have an idea for how they can talk to their students about groundwater.”

Vitale started the workshop after realizing she could broaden her impact by providing tools like groundwater models to teachers instead of simply teaching students. The workshop is funded by a Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin grant, which Vitale secured in 2023 and covers the cost of the approximately $1,400 models along with meals and other travel expenses.

Vitale had 11 educators, mostly from the Chippewa Valley, enroll in the first offering last year. She worked with three instructors this year, which provided for more intimate conversations.

Dana Lex, who has taught for 28 years at West De Pere High School, drove across the state to acquire a model.

“You could try to explain it, you could gesture, you could draw, but if they aren’t seeing it move or noticing how it’s going faster in this type of sediment,” she says. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a model like this, I don’t think there’s an analogy for that.”

Kirk Jansen teaches fourth and fifth grade students at the Chippewa Valley Montessori Charter School in Eau Claire, where Vitale has visited with the model in the past. Having a model in hand will allow Jansen and his colleagues to implement their lesson plans on their own schedules.

“I know I can introduce this in place of some things, and I don’t have any hoops to jump through,” Jansen says.

Jeff Schmid, who teaches an advanced biology class at Two Rivers High School, hopes the hands-on abilities of the model will prompt students to develop and answer their own questions. Ultimately, he wants students to realize why groundwater flow and other ecology topics are impactful on life in Wisconsin.

Vitale hopes to hold the workshop again next year so she can reach more classrooms and communities.

“People care about our water,” Vitale says. “I think the more tools we have to understand how it works, even for the general public, is really valuable.”