For the last five weeks, John Muir CSW students have been learning about how to take good care of our watershed. New Leaf interns have made 'Pollution Soup' with students, where students mix a concoction of pollution to our clean water to see how human actions can impact our watershed. They also drew maps of our watershed and added pollutants with different colored markers then crinkled them up to represent our hills and creeks and sprayed them to see how all the colors (pollutants) eventually end up in our water. Thanks to the CCC Public Works Department, students were able to explore a miniature model of our watershed with a working water feature. We painted grey water on the model to represent litter, oil, pesticides, dog poop, soap and paint and then students made it rain to see how all the pollutants ended up entering storm drains, our creek and into our Bay. As a result, we have 388 addional educated watershed stewards in Martinez!
Student engineers are challenged to make dirty water clear (not potable) by designing water filters or 'pollution catchers' out of cups, coffee filters, cotton, pantyhose, sand, activated charcoal, straws and tape. 
