There’s a game I do with students, it’s called Common Water. People stand in a circle around a bucket of clean water. The people are a community, the bucket their common source of water. Each person assumes the role of part of the community – a farm, a town center, a housing development. Each person has a sponge and is given 30 seconds to use that sponge to get water from the bucket and put it in a cup at their feet, representing their use of the water. However, each sponge is laced with food coloring, and with each dip, the water gets dirtier, reflecting the fertilizer runoff, erosion, and other pollutants that enter our streams and lakes.