Day 3 activities
Water Run-Off Experiment:
The children learned the difference between a natural and urban environment when it comes to rainwater run-off. They simulated the difference between rain falling on concrete/asphallt and rainwater falling on vegetation. They used a spray bottle to simulate rainwater and then timed the water flow for the natural and the urban settings.
River Dye Experiment:
The children learned about how pollution spreads in water. One of the facilitators with some student volunteers dumped food coloring in the river (harmless for the river environment and the water) and then the children watched how fast the simulated pollution, in this case the food coloring, spreads in the river and how fast the color of the river changed to pink. A quote from one of the students: "Don't you ever pollute, it will carry on forever." and another one said: "The water bead activity. It has me thinking of ways to get water where we truly need it".
Rainwater Treatment Activity:
The children went to the large parking lot of the local Lowe's and learned how the specialized plants present in the parking lot treat the rainwater falling in the parking area before that water is diverted to the river or the drainage system. The children learned how those plants remove the toxins washed by that water such as oil spilling from the cars in the parking lot.
The children then went to specialized sidewalks also meant to treat rainwater falling on the roads before that water finds its way into the river or the drainage system. They made some calculations about how these specialized curbs and sidewalks treat the water. One of the quotes from the children was: "The engineers don't get enough credit. They have to map it and do lot's of calculations"
Sandfilter Design and Building Competition:
The children built custom sand filters from natural materials such as sand and gravel and then competed to see which group builds the filter that generates the cleanest water in the fastest time possible. The element of competition added to their experience and their motivation to build a good filter. One of the students said about what they would tell a friend about that day's activities: "My team won in the filter contest!" while another said: "Today I learned about how to build filter out of a plastic bottle and rocks," and they also said that they would tell their friends: "I would tell them that it will help a lot if they every got lost and need to filter water."
E-Coli Samples After Incubation:
Having created E-Coli samples the previous day and put them in an Incubator for the night, the children took the samples out to see if there is E-coli in the water samples they collected.
At the end of the day one of the students said in their journal: 'It kinda makes me think I want to become a scientist."
Below is a widget that links to folders that have all the photos from the second day's activities. You need to double click on the folder name and then you can flip through the pages and browse through the pictures and if you find a picture that you like you can download it easily.