The Aqualibrium challenge is used for schools outreach by NGOs, professional institutes and educational organisations across the world. It is also popular with teachers who use the Aqualibrium challenge to support learning and enrichment in the classroom.

School outreach was the original reason for the development of the Aqualibrium challenge. The first ever Aqualibrium challenge happened in 2003 when the South African Institution of Civil Engineering(SAICE) ran a national Aqualibrium schools competition as part of their centenary celebrations. The Aqualibrium challenge has become one of the most popular events on the annual SAICE calendar.

The Aqualibrium background sheet illustrates the urban water cycle in a fun and colourful way. It shows how water is abstracted from the environment, treated, distributed and used in different ways. The wastewater is then collected and treated before being released back to the environment.

For school competitions, students are given a basic demonstration of the competition and then work in groups to find their best network designs. No prior knowledge is required and even primary school kids love this challenge!

The Aqualibrium challenge caters for a large range of learning opportunities that can be adapted to address local issues in an age- appropriate way. For instance, the learning objectives for primary school students may include how water gets to our taps, where the water comes from and what happens once it goes down the drain, why we should use water sparingly and the importance of protecting our natural water sources.

For high school students, learning objectives may include concepts of physics (e.g. gravity and friction forces, and conservation of mass), mathematics (used to describe the physical phenomena), how engineers apply these concepts to design water supply systems, what the local urban water cycle looks like and what can be done to protect local water resources.