The summer of 2020 may be unlike any other, but the Steam Exchange is helping stave off boredom and foster curiosity by delivering art and science kits that families can do together at home. When it was time for a water-themed lesson, they looked to Louisville Water to help.
The Steam Exchange, located in the Smoketown neighborhood, is a grassroots non-profit that helps facilitate learning through creativity—using the arts as a platform for young people to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in innovative ways.
Organizers Caitlin Kannapell and Rachel Mauser typically offer in-person after school and summer programs for neighborhood students, but since the coronavirus closed schools, they’ve been delivering weekly at-home activity kits to their program participants.
The water science kits allow students to explore the properties of water, such as absorption, capillary action, solubility, and polarity through hands-on activities, and include information about healthy hydration and a Louisville pure tap® bottle for each participant. The program materials emphasize the importance of reusable bottles and highlight the negative impact of single-use plastics on the environment and climate change. The students were also provided links to Louisville Water Works virtual museum activities to continue their learning online.
“We strive to reduce waste in the daily functioning of our art center, so we were excited about providing reusable water bottles to our youth,” said Kannapell. “Also, they LOVE having their own water bottles.”
Louisville Water partnered with the Steam Exchange before to keep students hydrated sustainably at their Smoketown studio, and is excited to continue to be a part of their in-home efforts. Participants were encouraged to tag @loupuretap on Instagram with their experiments and art projects—we look forward to seeing the fruits of their efforts!