Free Infrastructure-Related Educational Resources

In conjunction with the release and promotion of the documentary: “Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure,” Penn State Public Broadcasting Educational Services has produced free correlating educational materials for students in grades 6-12. Liquid Assets focuses on how our nation’s water and wastewater infrastructure provides a critical public health function and is essential for economic development and growth. The 90-minute documentary highlights the current status of our national water infrastructure and the tremendous challenges to maintain and modernize these systems to maintain our quality of life. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that $450 billion to $600 billion is needed over the next 20 years to address water infrastructure needs in the United States. Liquid Assets was produced by Emmy award-winning Penn State University Public Broadcasting, with financial support from AGC of America and others. PBS stations began broadcasting in October 2008. The documentary will be available for PBS stations that wish to broadcast it until October 2011. To date, more than 80% of all public television stations have broadcast the documentary and 15,000 copies have been distributed, including one copy given to each of the 535 members of the U.S. Congress and multiple copies given to President Obama’s transition team. The educational materials, sortable by grade and topic, are available through Teachers’ Domain, an online library of media resources from public television. These classroom resources — including include video segments, a background essay, and discussion questions — are easy to use and correlate to state and national standards. The six educational topics related to Liquid Assets are:       • Community participation/activism;       • Sustainable water use;       • Wastewater;       • Public health;       • A water system; and       • Watersheds. AGC encourages chapters and members involved with middle and high schools to promote the use of these free educational resources.