What is World Water Week? We started WWW four years ago during our first year as an international school.

We chose the theme of water because we thought it would be relevant to students and teachers and of course, it is one of the most critical global issues on the planet. WWW is a weeklong series of assemblies, synchronous lessons, a student conference, evening keynotes, service learning, and celebration. Each of the four years has had a sub-theme. The first year it was global scarcity and local conservation. The second year was food security. Last year was sanitation (toilets). This year's theme is plastic pollution. We wanted to help students see the interconnections between all of these complex global issues, with water at the center of it all. Check out this video from last year's festival. And this write-up. How does it all come together? About 40 students spend 5-6 months planning the different elements of the festival. It has grown into a popular leadership activity in our school. This year, the festival is led by 11th graders Aisaya Corbrary and Paloma Robertson with the support of senior Tasha Addington-Ferris. There are four student committees (outreach, events/activities, field event, and art), each chaired by student leaders. Several teachers and staff support the students throughout the planning process. How are the 9th grade Water, Ecology, and Sustainability Team (WEST) Project and World Water Week connected? The 2nd annual WEST Project takes the themes of World Water Week and brings them into the core social studies, language arts, science, and math curricula. Freshmen are working in their action teams to research water-related topics On Friday, March 7th, all freshmen will go on 12 different field trips into the community to conduct research for their projects. Groups will visit wastewater treatment plants, the Cedar River Watershed, Seattle Biomed, the Duwamish River (on a boat), rain gardens around West Seattle, the Burke Museum (exhibit on the removal of the Elwha River Dam), Lincoln Park for a beach cleanup, Solid Ground (Marra Farms in South Park), the High Point community (to learn about stormwater drainage), and the Gates Foundation Visitor Center. Students will create their action projects over the next few weeks and will present them to 8th graders at Denny during World Water Week and again to the public at the WWW evening keynote event on the 25th. Ten classrooms in Kenya are collaborating with our 9th grade students; Ms. Griffin and Mr. Glover visited Kenya in February to launch the exchange. Finally, the students who create the most innovative projects will earn a spot at We Day Seattle on March 21. What will the week look like? We are making some changes this year. First, our bell schedule will be aligned with Denny IMS. This will allow the 9th graders to present their WEST action projects to 8th graders. And we will be able to invite Denny students whose teachers have incorporated WWW themes into their curriculum into some of the larger conference sessions in the auditorium. Second, the student conference will take place on a Wednesday, which is also an early release day. As a result, workshop sessions will be slightly shorter. Finally, with the aligned schedule, we will have four "study hall" periods. The WWW student leaders are developing a reflection/action planning session for us to do with our study hall students on Thursday, March 26, the day after the conference. We want to provide some time for students to debrief what they learned and to figure out how to apply new knowledge. Other than Wednesday (early release), classes will meet as normal throughout the week. There will be no DEAR and the bell times will of course be different. Block days are pushed to Thursday/Friday due to the early release.

Monday 3/24: half of the school will attend a student-led assembly in the auditorium and the other half will participate in a synchronous all-school lesson in their study hall classrooms. Teachers will receive a detailed lesson plan. The allschool lesson will provide factual background on the social and environmental impact of disposable plastic. The assembly will be more about our personal role in plastic pollution and how by seeing the world differently, we might be able to change behaviors that are difficult to break. Tuesday 3/25: again, the school will divide in half. At 6 pm, there will be a community resource fair with local organizations that work on water-related issues. We will have live jazz and refreshments. Also, the 9th grade WEST projects will be on display for all to see. At 7 pm in the auditorium, internationally renowned photographer Chris Jordan will give a talk and share clips from his soon-to-be released film Midway. Chris has spoken at our WWW conference each of the past two years. We are excited for him to bring his story to a larger audience of students, parents, and community members. Click here to see Chris Jordan's short talk at PopTech a few years ago and to find some links to an amazing eco-art project that he led earlier this month in Australia. Wednesday 3/26 (early release): this is the big day, our student conference. On Wednesday, March 12, study halls will receive the conference program with workshop descriptions and presenter bios. Student will rank their top four choices for workshops. Our core WWW student leaders will then create a conference master schedule (the process takes several hours). Each study hall class will receive a schedule the week before the festival with their four assigned sessions. We do our best to honor students' preferences. Students will report to their study halls on 3/26 at the start of the day (8:33 AM). They will immediately head to their first session from there. Workshop sessions are 50 minutes long with 7-minute passing periods. This year we will be bringing up a keynote speaker for the conference from the Bay Area. He is an activist who works with the organization 5 Gyres. He has some of the best footage and stories available about the Pacific Garbage Patch. Other sessions this year include: Puget Soundkeeper Alliance WWW student art project (coordinated by Ms. Authenrieth) Micro-plastics researchers from UW-Tacoma NOAA on mammal stranding (the folks who discovered the beached sperm whale in W. Seattle that was filled with plastic bags) Tox-ick.org (Puget Sound plastic pollution) Environmental policy analyst A doctor from Seattle Children's hospital (impact on human health) King County Solid Waste Division (how do we recycle plastics here?) Careers related to sustainability (led by Global Leadership students with guest speakers from local businesses) Environmental Cleanups Students Rebuild Project - making beads for water (last year was 1 million bones, this year is beads). Product Stewardship Institute Waste Management A "field event" that is an opportunity for students to move around and learn at the same time. It may take place indoors this year depending on the weather. WEST Action Project presentations

We are still looking for a few more speakers. But we are pleased with the lineup so far. Thursday 3/27 (1/3/5 blocks): Students will reflect on their learning at Wednesday's conference and create a personal action plan. Thursday evening is Multicultural Night. Each club is being asked to incorporate the themes of World Water Week into their table displays. Friday 3/28 (2/4/6 blocks): Closing ceremonies will take place at the end of the day in the gym. We will have a musical performance by a to-be-booked band. We'll recognize the hard work of the students and we'll play some games.