By Shannon Lukens.
Nearly 400 fifth graders in Routt and Moffat counties spent the day at the Routt County Fairgrounds and Dry Creek Park in Hayden Wednesday for the 2024 Yampa Youth Water Festival.
There were 23 stations about water like the Yampa River, snowmaking at Howelsen Hill, agriculture, bottle rockets that shot from water pressure. Each class visited five.
Holly Kirkpatrick is the Public Information and External Affairs Manager for the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District.
“There are certain water standards in the 5th grade curriculum. Today actually helps teachers meet some of those curriculum standards. They get to meet with water professionals who work in the water industry every day and show these students what they do and get some hands-on learning and maybe they can decide if they want to work in water one day.”
Allyn McDermott is a 5th grader at Sunset Elementary in Craig.
“It’s super fun because we get to see all the science stuff and we get to do super fun activities about how like the world is made.”
The day started off with the launching of a weather balloon from the center of the fairgrounds arena.
Then kids traveled to the different stations, which had volunteers from different groups teaching about different ways water is important and is used.
This is the third year for the Yampa Youth Water Festival.
There are many more pictures on the Steamboat Radio and the KRAI & 55 Country Facebook pages.
