Broward County was our first train-the-trainer community for Rising Waters. The School Board of Broward County and the Broward County Environmental Planning & Community Resilience Division held a climate change youth summit in January 2020 with over 800 Broward County public school students at the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS) in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The theme of the summit was Sea Level Rise, and Rising Waters was installed at MODS in keeping with that theme. Students from 28 schools learned how to install the science-based artwork at their schools and communities. In November 2021, students installed Rising Waters at multiple school buildings around Broward County. You can see them here. In 2022, the lines were painted permanently onto the columns of the Museum forecourt.

At the original installation, two iterations of Rising Waters were used: lines and fish flags. Lines wrapped major columns in the entry court with dates stenciled on them – 2030, 2050, and 2070 – to show potential future flood levels in a major storm event with sea level rise, storm surge, and rainfall at king tide. Lines in the project colors, which indicate rising threat levels, were installed at the actual heights where water might flood according to projections and data from NOAA and the SE Florida Climate Compact Group. The lines will remain installed at least until the spring.

Fish Flags were also part of the workshop, showing sea level rise at king tide in front of the museum in 2030, 2050, and 2070. Students made the Fish Flags prior to the summit and completed them in the workshop, where they wrote climate action items on the backs and planted them in the ground in front of the museum. The fish were later moved across the street to the park where a sign invited seafood festival attendees to take home a fish flag with an action item.