This portable wooden box opens to a visual display of a watershed, storm drains, and has a marble game for kids which demonstrates positive and negative choices of water usage. It was made for MARC (Mid America Regional Council) to be used in their citywide water education.
Left panel shows long roots of natives, short roots of non-native plants, middle is a close up of rain gutter options and workings of a storm drain pipe, left is a sculpted relief of a watershed, and the bottom is the marble game.
When it rains water drains into the street storm drains which take which take not only the water, but all the litter and street debris directly to our rivers. Some materials used: aluminum cans (roof), yogurt and cottage cheese containers (house), puppy chow bag (green grass), green net produce bag (tree and bushes), blue detergent bottle (river water), straws (gutters), garden hose (drain pipe), roofing shingle (street), telephone wire (storm drain grates), blue plastic bag (running water).
The marble game is designed so that poor choices will have the marble come out fast (they are also painted in gray), good choices will have marbles come out slower as if water is soaking into the earth (they are painted in full color.
