Education Excellence at Logan Water
Date: 30-Sep-2022
We love seeing what our members get up to in the community education and engagement space. Most recently, work done by Logan Water’s community engagement team caught our attention. We caught up with Carmen Roberts, Community Education and Engagement Officer at Logan Water, to learn more.
At the 2022 Ignite Youth Careers Expo, Logan Water’s engagement team created an eye catching, informative booth that really caught the attention of passersby – something that can be challenging at expos, where we compete with a wide variety of other industries.
“In the lead up to the expo, we engaged a professional photographer to conduct a photoshoot of trainees and other water industry team members” Carmen said.
“These images were then used to create life-size cardboard cut outs of water industry workers. The purpose of the life-size cut outs was to bring our workforce to life, without employees physically having to be there.”
“The marquee backdrop, a 3m long vinyl banner, displayed the water journey from treatment to tap, showcasing the variety of careers along the way. This provided an excellent visual representation of the wide variety of positions that are required to deliver water and wastewater services to our customers,” Carmen added.
“We also had a hands-on shut off valve display for the students to try-a-trade – a very cost-effective way for students to get a feel for the type of work and tools required when fixing our water networks."
"A key drawcard to the display was a digital selfie photo booth with a backdrop of one of the wastewater treatment ponds. Students could don floaties, masks and snorkels , making it appear like they were floating in the ponds. The photo booth would text the photos to participants’ phones with a clever slogan: “unleash your poo-tential” – a great way for them to then share with family and friends. This fun interaction is a great way to normalise talking about sewerage with students.”
The display has since been used at other festivals as well, featuring at the Logan Eco Action Festival (LEAF) and Steam into STEM events.
“The LEAF event provided a great opportunity to promote the high-grade biochar produced by our award-winning Logan Gasification Plant,” Carmen said.
Logan’s “Don’t Rush to Flush” campaign is another effective education tool.
The campaign includes a series of animations where characters Betty Wipe, Dwayne Pipe and Ben Spiller delve into topics covering the correct disposal of wet wipes, chemicals, fuel and oil.
At events, to support the Don’t Rush to Flush messaging, four mechanised spinning clear jars are used to showcase the time taken for different types of paper to break down in water – toilet paper, tissues, wet wipes and paper towels.
“People are always surprised at the amount of time it takes for tissues to break down,” Carmen said.
“Visual and interactive displays work well for us when educating the community. We have a clear pipe with items such as toys, condoms, wet wipes, nappies and other nasties as a simple and cost-effective option to showcase the issue of blockages. We have another pipe fitted to a manhole cover to create a sense of underground infrastructure, and a (recycled) sink which we use to display items that shouldn’t be poured down the kitchen sink.”
Logan Water have also created an augmented reality display where students can be part of a pump station upgrade 20m underground. According to Carmen, this has been a clear winner as an engagement tool.
We’d love to hear from other members on successful – or disastrous – attempts on engaging and education their communities, so send us your stories please!
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