Last Friday, March 22nd, was World Water Day and in acknowledgement WSB hosted special guests from Bay-Wise, an organization working to bring awareness and solutions to watershed pollution in Maryland. Master Gardeners, Ms. Swartz and Ms. Baliske, came to our school in the morning for our 1st – 4th grade student assembly and did a demonstration about pollution and our national treasure, the Chesapeake Bay. The presentation was done through storytelling and visual aids. We started with two big jars filled with clean water, and as the story of humans’ relationship with the bay unfolded each of the students dumped a small vile (filled with dye and/or objects) into the water. Each vile represented a different pollutant (factories, building sites, barnyards, etc.). After the water had grown murky we discussed all the positive things we can do to clean up the bay and prevent any further pollution. The students were full of creative ideas and eager to care for the clean water we all take for granted.
Afterwards, Ms. Swartz and Ms. Baliske took the 5th – 8th grades outside to survey the WSB grounds with the Bay-Wise Yardstick and harness ideas on how we can improve our management of water. WSB received 37 inches (points) certifying us as Bay-Wise landscape, and the students found many more ways we can improve on that score. Some of the things we will be looking into doing this Spring are: planting ground cover flowers in front of the building to reduce soil compaction, installing 2 new rain barrels, increasing the mulched area around some of our trees, and planting more native plants to attract pollinators.
You can have your lawn assessed and certified for FREE. To do so contact Bay-Wise through their website linked above. A big Thank You to Ms. Swartz and Ms. Baliske for sharing their time and passion with us. Below is slideshow documenting our morning with Bay-Wise. Enjoy.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.