Upon entering the Mobile Learning Center, students become new recruits to the Clean Water Challenge Task Force. Their mission: to solve mysterious disturbances in the health of our nation’s water habitats. Inside our 40-person onboard theater, student embark on a training journey through a watershed. Their first mission: track a raindrop from the mountains all the way to the ocean. Taking them on this journey is humorous “Agent 13” and celebrity CWC agents like television host Sal Masekela, skateboarder Tony Hawk, and professional snowboarder Tara Dakides.

Leaky motor oil. Flushed pharmaceuticals. Over fertilizing. Discarded cigarettes. This highly interactive exhibit simulates impacts from dumping pollution into our water systems. Agents place colored plastic balls representing pollution on the “watershed” model. Agents press a button to create rain over the urban landscape, sending the pollution down through the watershed, into our communities, and out into the ocean.

This actual running river is a great way for students to discover the many needs of our communities for water – and to get their hands wet along the way. Students are asked to divert water up and down the river to ensure it meets the needs of agriculture, industry, businesses, homes and tourism – and still have enough supply to reach its final destination. Just like government and business leaders must do today! This exhibit encourages students to work together to find which combinations work best.

A fascinating cultural and social look at water use. In this interactive, students discover how human settlement, farming and industry affect a lake region over a period of four centuries, starting with early colonials to modern industry. With all that use, is the lake sustainable? There are 200 frames representing this history starting at the 1600s. The task is for agents to spin the wheel and observe the changes caused by both humans and nature over time.