CW3E Hosts Outreach Booths at the 1st Annual Yampa Youth Water Festival

September 23, 2022

On 9/21, a group of researchers from CW3E participated in the 1st Annual Yampa Youth Water Festival at the Routt County Fairground in Hayden, CO. The festival, hosted by the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, brought together over 400 5th grade students from Routt and Moffat counties. Groups of students rotated through 26 unique stations with activities covering a wide range of topics including weather, hydrology, biology, and water quality. The festival aims to discuss the importance of water resources in northwest Colorado by providing students with hands-on activities to learn about water and the Yampa River Basin.

CW3E kicked off the festival by launching a weather balloon in front of packed stands of cheering 5th graders (video of the launch)

Researchers from CW3E hosted two booths at the festival, one focusing on weather observations and the other focusing on meteorology. The observations booth provided a hands-on experience with instruments including weather balloons, radiosondes, an anemometer, soil moisture probes, and a tipping bucket. This booth was led by Cody Poulsen, Kerstin Paulsson, Garrett McGurk, and Holly Roth (University of Colorado Boulder). The meteorology booth included a discussion about precipitation which used an interactive lesson to teach students about temperature, weather fronts, and the water cycle. This booth was led by Sam Bartlett, Shawn Roj, and Agniv Sengupta.

The event was covered by local news outlets including the Steamboat Pilot & Today and Steamboat Radio.

The Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District produced a video document the activities of the day which featured CW3E’s weather balloon launch that kicked off the day (0:24), the booth featuring hands-on activities with weather instruments , and the interactive meteorology lesson that students participated in (1:35).