SPRINGFIELD – As eight and nine-year-olds filed off a school bus and into the parking lot of City Hall, a truck-mounted message sign flashed their school name and a “Welcome” message at the entrance of the City’s annual Public Works Week Event.
Ten third-grade classes from Springfield Elementary Schools celebrated National Public Works Week last week with a carnival and equipment rodeo, hosted by the City of Springfield. The hands-on field day featured the Development and Public Works Department.
“It’s pretty exciting, the kids are loving it,” said Walterville teacher and first-year visitor Cassandra Moorhead.
The two-hour field trip had two parts: half was an outdoor equipment rodeo, where kids could see and interact with five public works tools. The other half was inside City Hall, in a carnival-like setting with educational and interactive games.
DPW staff showed students “all of the work that they do – everything from planning, to building, to developing, to operating, and maintaining our infrastructure within the city,” said Mike McGillivray, communications coordinator.
Over 600 students learned about city equipment like a street sweeper; a closed-circuit television van, which inspects wastewater pipelines; an excavator; a tree trimming crew with a boom truck; “and then we’ve got Sanipac, who joins us every year, they do a recycling game and teach them about proper waste disposal and recycling efforts,” said McGillivray.
One rodeo station let students test their strength by pulling a rope looped over a branch with a wooden plank tied to the other end.
Inside the hall, students spent the second half of their field trip rotating through 10 interactive booths. City worker Thomas Gray taught kids about waterbugs, dragonfly larvae, caddisflies, and more at a “Discover Big Bugs” booth. Organisms in water samples from the Mill Race and Jasper Slough were examined under a magnifying glass.
A raindrop/cornhole toss taught kids about disposing of trash in the street and not letting it go down the storm drain since that flows through our rivers. Other booths included a surveyor obstacle course, a go-fish fishing game, red light, green light traffic safety, and safety town – creating a safe building.
Before they left, students were given goody bags filled with erasers, coloring sheets and activities, pencils, bookmarks, and other prizes.
