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Greenbeat Magazine looks at the stories in Barton Springs Interactive

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The Aquifer Game is one of three games on the CD ROM "Barton Springs Interactive." The other games: "Creatures of the Creek" and "Sound It Out in Zilker Park." Photo: Texas Environmental Center

Geneva helps guide the user through the Aquifer Game, and offers some ways to protect on sensitive aquifer areas. Photo: Texas Environmental Center

The Aquifer Game is one of three games offered on the CD ROM "Barton Springs Interactive." The goal of the game is to help the user understand how the aquifer works, and how human behavior can cause pollutants to wash into the Edwards Aquifer and Barton Springs.

The Aquifer Game features eight sources of pollution, ranging from spilled car oil to pesticides used in the home garden. Playing the game involves clicking on each source of pollution in the landscape (see picture at left). Each correct choice in rewarded with sound and visual cues. When all eight sources are found, a raincloud forms, and a downpour washes over the land, through the aquifer and to Barton Springs.

The eight year old narrator, Geneva, reviews the various problems and recommends better options for people who live and work on the sensitive land over the aquifer.

"Nonpoint source pollution is all around us, yet it is often invisible. The game's goal is to help us visualize the great threat to the water quality at Barton Springs," said Marshall Frech, Executive Director of the Texas Environmental Center (TEC). His organization developed this game and produced the CD ROM. "The game is fun and at the same time succeeds in delivering this message."

This story is made possible in part through support from
The National Environmental Education Training Foundation.

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