The Global Water Challenge was started in 2003 and is one of Global Health Connections’ original projects. The Global Water Challenge gives Denver-based middle school students the opportunity to research and study water issues locally and globally. Students work in small groups to research their selected water issues, collaborate, and problem‐solve. Students use teacher‐led class time to explore their topics in greater depth, to prepare and perfect water-themed skits in preparation for competition day.
Watch this video for an overview of GHC’s Water Challenge:
During competition day, students have the chance to interact with numerous volunteer judge panels. These judges are experts in community water and health, and they give valuable feedback and insight during exchanges with students. Previous judge panels have included representatives from:
- Denver Rotary
- St. Joseph Hospital
- Denver Health
- Anschutz Medical Campus (professors, physicians, nurses, administrators and health professional students)
- Engineers Without Borders
- Water for People
- Denver Water
- CH2M Hill Engineering
- University of Denver School of International Studies
- University of Colorado Denver Health Administration Student Organization
- Colorado Health Administration Alumni Association
GHC is looking for mentors and judges!
Mentors will visit the students at their schools in the month of April and teach them about water and sanitation, or help them prepare their skits. This could be science, art, or speech based. Mentors will do this on their own schedule and there is no minimum amount of time required.
Judges will be at the Finals Competition and will judge the top teams of students from the Denver and Aurora Public School Districts who will be presenting their innovative solutions in the form of a skit.
The Global Water Challenge has become a popular supplement to Denver and Aurora Public Schools sixth grade water curriculum, bringing an international focus to students’ work on water issues.
Watch the videos below for a glimpse of GHC’s Water Challenge!
If you’d like to volunteer, fill out the form below. We’ll contact you with more information.
Biswadip Ghosh, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Dr. Ghosh received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Information Systems from the University of Colorado. His research interests include healthcare information systems, knowledge management, business process outsourcing, ERP and end-user training. His teaching areas are enterprise systems (SAP-ERP), SAP Netweaver portal and development tools, MIS capstone, systems analysis methods and computer networking. Prior to joining MSCD, he had worked in the telecommunications industry with AT&T/Lucent/Avaya for over 19 years on multimedia messaging solutions, global service delivery processes and expert systems in multiple roles such as systems/business analyst, project manager and software architect/developer. His research has been presented and published in AIS, IEEE, ACM and IFIP sponsored conference proceedings and journals such as MIS Quarterly executive, International Journal of Technology Management, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in BioMedicine, IEEE Networks, and Information Systems Management.
Sarabeth Friedman is a Certified Nurse-Midwife with 35 years of clinical experience. She has also served on the faculty at Yale University School of Nursing teaching in the midwifery master’s degree program. Her clinical work has always been with poor, underserved women. She is currently moving from being faculty at Denver School of Nursing to University of Colorado College of Nursing. There she will be taking care of women at the local jails, working in the midwifery clinic at the Anshultz campus, teaching at the College of Nursing and also helping the college develop a Global Health Track. She has established a Global Health Track at Denver School of Nursing with nursing students going on trips to Peru, Haiti, Appalachia and the Navajo Nation. She has done midwifery work in rural South Africa, Peru, and Guatemala and speaks several languages, including Spanish.