Learn More: SASD Elementary School Outreach
San Andreas Sanitary District has fostered a unique partnership with San Andreas Elementary School to provide hands-on, real life, real science learning experiences for elementary-aged kids in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. School program components include classroom lessons, an art contest, and an onsite tour at the wastewater treatment plant.
Classroom curriculum includes theme-orientated lesson plans provided by the District and a calendar artwork contest submitted by students based on a specific theme. Themes rotate annually and include topics such as the Water Cycle, Watershed Protection, and Water is Life.
Hands-on learning includes a tour of the laboratory and treatment plant areas. A typical tour includes:
- the laboratory where students view and identity organisms under a microscope;
- hands-on activities related to the year’s theme;
- a biosolids demonstration that concludes with a traditional “poop squeeze” where kids glove up and touch actual, treated biosolids, and learn that the biosolids are used as fertilizer on hay fields; and
- a Q&A session with the District manager and staff operators.
The partnership is considered a win-win between the school and the District! The program:
- Fosters an understanding about the important role the District serves in the community by providing safe, reliable wastewater treatment,
- Provides scientific lessons about the importance of wastewater treatment and its relationship to the environment,
- Satisfies the District’s requirements outlined in the state’s Pollution Prevention Plan for public education, and
- Allows the District to serve as a technical resource to San Andreas community and demonstrate hands-on the science behind the treatment process.
