(First 3 photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
This past Friday was World Water Day, all around the planet. And at Chief Sealth International High School, it wasn’t just WWD, but also the finale of the third annual World Water Week “ideas festival,” a weeklong focus on water issues global and local. One of many workshops presented to, and with, students on Friday is the subject of our first three photos. West Seattleite Tiffany Silver-Brace had e-mailed to let us know that her company, Seattle BioMed, would be making presentations to students about “aquatic insects (mainly mosquitoes) and the diseases that they carry. We will be focusing on the malaria burden worldwide and how to keep mosquito breeding sites (i.e. stagnant water) under control.” They brought mosquito specimens as well as microscopes to show the students “real malaria parasites.” Tiffany is at right in the photo below, with Jen Hume, who led the Sealth presentations:

Tiffany also told us that Seattle BioMed’s BioQuest program “hosts local high schools and conducts lab tours, global education and hands-on science…including mosquito dissections! It’s an amazing program run by amazing people for a great cause: global health and getting high school-ers excited about science.” At Sealth, they brought along free insect-swatters:

Before the day full of special events on Friday, Wednesday and Thursday included sanitation education for Sealth’s 1300-plus students, both local and global:

That’s Casey Plank from King County Wastewater Treatment Division, which basically is responsible for what happens after you flush; social-studies teacher Noah Zeichner, WWW organizer, shared the photo. And these are just the tip of the (frozen water) iceberg of what happened at the school all week long, and in preparation. They have a donation campaign going too, to help ensure ongoing education of the issues that affect billions of people worldwide – you can chip in here. Some of the other Sealth WWW coverage included:
*WSB report on keynote speaker Jack Sim from the World Toilet Organization, who spoke at the school Tuesday
*Seattle Globalist‘s report about World Water Week @ Sealth
*WSB coverage of Sealth students’ challenge to actor and water-issues advocate Matt Damon