A group of students in Bozeman have created a podcast. The three episode podcast series called “Water in the West” looks at water usage in the Gallatin Valley and shares community and student perspectives on water conservation.
More than 20, 4th-8th grade students from Peak Potential Academy in Bozeman worked on the podcast. The “Big Sky, Little Water” episode produced by 8th grader Everett June explored what kinds of water conservation measures are in place now and could be in the future to protect the area’s natural resources.
“It’s a beautiful place that we live in. There are mountains; everything is green. We’ve already started to see in the summer there have been a lot more wildfires. It’s just kind of worrying. In 20 years it could be…dry,” he said.
Audrey Keith, who is in 6th grade, was a writer for the podcast. She says, Bozeman is not yet in a water crisis, but could be soon, if we don’t find more ways to use less water.
“One thing I really loved about our podcast is that we were trying to let people know that they can really do something because sometimes it feels like you’re powerless, like this is such a big issue that you can’t do anything to help, but we’re not to that point right now. And we need to understand that we can still do things that can help us,” she said.
In one of the episodes, Keith shares tips on how residents can use less water in their daily lives.
“Tip number one: switch to showers. Tip number two: keep the sprinklers off. Tip number three: turn off the tap. Tip number four: use leftover cooking water. Tip number five: fix leaky taps. Tip number six: make sure your dishwasher is full, that’s an easy way of reducing your water footprint,” she said.
The student-created podcast “Water in the West” was entered into National Public Radio’s student podcast challenge. You can listen to the podcast online from alink on Peak Potential Academy’s website.
