[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# USDA Spends $900,000 to Teach MetaThinking About Water to Children

## Details

**Authors** Free Beacon

**Year** 2015

**Publisher** Free Beacon

**Kind of work** press

**Discipline** Environment & Sustainability

**Kind of engagement** press

[Read it](https://freebeacon.com/issues/usda-spends-900000-to-teach-meta-thinking-about-water-to-children/)

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A Washington Free Beacon story by Elizabeth Harrington criticizing the USDA's roughly $900,000 grant to ThinkWater as wasteful spending on experimental pedagogy.

### What they found (results)

The piece treats teaching children "meta-thinking" about water — through methods including rap and spoken word — as a poor use of federal money, while quoting the project's own account of water thinking as taking perspective on water and seeing the relationships, distinctions, and systems at play.

## Commentary

### In short

Coverage of the work in Free Beacon.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

## Refers to

- [ThinkWater / USDA — systems thinking in water education & extension](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/185)

**How to cite this** Free Beacon (2015). USDA Spends $900,000 to Teach MetaThinking About Water to Children. Free Beacon.