Community Outreach
Nya, Keicol, Dain, Bharti & Emily (same order as the picture) teaching a class about their project.
We knew from the start of the project that we had to reach out to the community. We had to do this because we needed other people to know who we were and what we going to do for their/our community. Since we attend a school with grades from Pre-K through 8th grade, we found out that we could present our project to kids in the lower grades. This would help the kids by expanding their knowledge about rainwater, trees, and how to conserve regular water.
Presenting Our Project
After we had finished making our first prototype (the board prototype) we asked a teacher in the younger grade if we could present our project to their students. We did this for a total of 5 classes altogether. The way we presented to the kids was by making a slide presentation which consisted of details about us as a group, about our project, and a mini test at the end. The test was to make sure the kids were paying attention during the presentation, and they were.
In our slide presentation, we explained how we made our project and we placed pictures for the kids to visually see the efforts we put into the project. We gave details about the group members so that they could get an insight of who we are and what we did to contribute to the making of our prototype. Once we finished presenting our slide, we actually let the kids interact with our prototype.
The kids pouring water into our prototype which shows them how our project works.
Emily, Nya & Bharti explaining the importance of not wasting water and how to save water.
After the presentation is over, Emily, Keicol & Nya ask the kids questions to see if they were listening.
The kids in the classroom raise their hands and participate to answer a question they were asked.
Bharti presenting and explaining our project to the younger children.
Interacting With the Prototype
The way we let the kids interact with the prototype was by dividing the class into 4 groups. Most of the time, the class was already divided into four groups, but if they weren't, we divided them. Each group was assigned a name, which was either Drizzle, Regular Rain, Heavy Rain, or Hurricane. In that order, each group came up to pour their water, which each kid in each group got and it was served to them in a cup. However, each group had to pour their water differently. Drizzle had to pour their water slowly, while Regular Rain was poured a little faster than Drizzle. Heavy rain had to pour theirs quickly, and Hurricane did the same thing, except all the kids poured their water at the same time which was all at once.
Other Ways We've Reached Out to the Community
We didn't only present our project to kids in lower grades. We also presented our project to a group called the Sierra Club in the reservoir. We did this alongside other Project Reservoir groups and there we just explained what our project was all about and what we were trying to do to help the community. Another way we reached out to the community was by updating our social media and making posters. We made a poster that we put all our social media on and we gave them to teachers around the school to hang up in their class. At the reservoir, we also surveyed people with dogs if they thought that if there was a place where their dog could drink from a tree (the dog project) in the park would be useful.