MWH hosted more than 50 third-graders and their teachers on Sept. 6. The eight-year-old students came from the Adams County STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) Magnet Lab school near Broomfield, Colo. For the last several years, MWH has partnered with local STEM schools to show students what it means to work as an engineer and helping in Building a Better World.
The MWH Team created a full morning of activities including an opening by Dan McConville, president of BSG, in which he talked about the company’s heritage and experience in the water sector and quizzed students to think about their daily activities and the role of engineers in those activities.
Maura Horn, director of Talent Management, talked about matching the students’ strengths and interests to career 
aspirations. Students were divided into three groups and asked to participate in activities that represented different aspects of the business. Group activities included:
- Water Cycle Dice Activity: Students took part in an activity that was led by the YPG team from the Denver and Broomfield offices. The water cycle was discussed and the students had fun rolling dice and spending time in different parts of the water cycle. The take-away message was how precious water is and the need for conservation
- Saving Beans – An Exercise Looking at Carbon Footprint of Food: This bean counting exercise allowed students to identify areas in which any individual person can choose to reduce his or her carbon footprint by understanding the energy required to produce different foods.
- Live on Our Projects: In this activity, students were paired up, one being a future engineer and one being an interviewer from the MWH News Channel. Students were provided scripts based on the Panama Canal project. They were then taken into the studio in their pairs and were recorded talking about their projects and their future ambitions. Travis Bush and the studio team did a fantastic job of making this studio experience real using visual media of a news studio as a backdrop to the recordings!
Jamie Olsen, who attended the event as a STEM teacher, praised the MWH classroom experience for her students. “Thank you so much, she said. “MWH always knows just what to do to keep the students energized and interested. It was perfect educational mix. Your speakers show them the potential for an exciting career, you teach them topics that fit with our curriculum and you also talk about caring for the environment. We couldn’t ask for more.”
Read more on the STEM trip in the latest article published by the Broomfield Enterprise.
