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/asphalt 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 the 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."
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 (Bio-Swells) 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 children said "Measuring the bioswell made me think how hard a city has to work to make the city happy " One of the other quotes from the children in response to the question before today I thought: "That is a strange thing on the side of the road." but now I think "Oh.... That's what that is!"
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 they learned "How to clean water with rocks" and then continued about what they would tell a friend about that day's activities: "We might have a chance to survive the zombie apocalypse!" while another said: "Today I learned about how to build a filter out of a plastic bottle and rocks," Another of the children said: "I learned how to filter water and make it cleaner."
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. Multiple students had similar observations and interesting questions to ask, one of them said "Bacteria is interesting and I want to find out why iron in the dirty lake water was floaring rather than sinking." and another said: "When the iron floated to the top instead of sinking to the bottom, it brought up so many exciting questions." At the end of the day one of the students said in their journal to the question before today I thought 'Today was not going to be so busy" and but now I think "I was horribly wrong!" Another student wrote about their thoughts about people working in STEM "That they like helping people."
Rocket Building:
The children worked on building rockets using paper and then launching them using air pumps.
