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Water Pollution
Fifth graders investigate how humans pollute the water supply with a number of different contaminates. While working in small groups they examine screening, sedimentation, filtration, and chemical treatments as methods of water treatment.
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Where Does Your Water Come From?
Students engage in a lesson to determine the source of water that is used. They conduct research using a variety of resources. The lesson includes information for the teacher to share with the class. Students write and define the...
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The Perils of Drinking Water
Students determine the presence of drugs in water. In this chemistry lesson plan, students experiment on water samples using thin layer and column chromatography. They determine the concentration of drugs present using graphical analysis.
DiscoverE
Clean It Up
Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink—until we clean it, of course! Scholars design a filtration device that removes pollutants from water. The goal is to have the water come out as clean as possible from the device. How...
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Not A Drop To Drink
Fifth graders discuss ways that humans pollute our natural water supply. They observe a video about water pollution. Students identify eight different ways water is contaminated. They investigate an oil spill by conducting a hands-on...
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Is It Safe To Go In?
Students examine acceptable levels of toxins in swimming areas. Working in groups of four, students dilute a salt or sugar solution to 1 part per 1,000,000 (ppm) solution. Students taste test their diluted liquids and record at which...
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Storm Drain Dumping
Students conduct an experiment to show how water gets contaminated through neighborhood runoffs.
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Porosity And Permeability
Students participate in an exercise/experiment designed to show how environmental pollution can affect the quality of drinking water.
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The Water in Our Lives: Kit Practice
Students examine a local water source using testing kits to determine water qualitiy. They identify the pollutants and contaminants in each sample. They determine if samples fall within an acceptable range for drinking water.
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Still Waters
Pupils construct a still to turn seawater into drinking water. They estimate the cost of distilling it. They investigate ways to make the conversion more efficient. They track the source of their home drinking water and make a map of its...
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9-12: The Movie, "A Civil Action," as a Legal/Environmental Science Case Study
Students analyze information to determine how they can help a community that has been affected by water contamination. In this environmental science lesson plan, students watch portions of the movie "A Civil Action" and discuss specific...
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An Underground River
Seventh graders describe how water flows through the ground, what an aquifer is and what soil properties are used to predict groundwater flow. They consider the affects of pollution on groundwater supplies and write a letter drawing...
Teach Engineering
Density and Miscibility
The liquids did not mix — so what do density columns have to do with it? The seventh part in a series of nine provides the theoretical explanation of why density columns do not mix. The activity covers the topics related to mixing and...
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A Plume of Contamination
Students perform an experiment/investigative simulation regarding the movement of contaminants in groundwater. They test the pH of three water samples, and then use their reasoning skills to determine the source of an invisible...
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More About Water Below the Ground
Students examine groundwater and its relationship to springs, artesian wells, ordinary wells, and sinkholes. They describe the process by which sinkholes are formed. They investigate saltwater contamination and its causes.
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Groundwater Lab
In this groundwater instructional activity, students simulate a pumping well and a pumping well near an injection well using plastic bottles and dirt. They use food coloring to act as a contaminate to see the movement of food color into...
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Microbial Contaminants in Drinking Water
When presented with three unopened bottles of water, learners are asked to tell decide which one is contaminated with a microbe. Students work in small groups and role play being a Microbiologist, a patient, or a recorder. The patient is...
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There Must Be Something in the Water
Students read a New York Times article as a class and discuss how groundwater near a nuclear test site may have been contaminated. They explore how groundwater contamination can spread through aquifers by participating in a simulation.
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Revised: Adventures in Earth Day: Why Do We Care About Our Environment? - Biology Teaching Thesis
To describe the ecological and aesthetic importance of the Potomac River, Middle schoolers name the ways in which the river's values are jeopardized and explain the purpose of Earth Day. They write a response to a newspaper article in a...
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Water Pollution
Fifth graders examine what contaminated water looks like, and how it becomes polluted. They examine a teacher demonstration of water is not polluted but does contain rocks and other things that do need to be cleaned out before drinking...
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Ugh! We DRINK This Stuff?
Learners explain the processes involved in the cleansing and purifying of surface water. After a lecture/demo, students engage in an experiment that illustrates how water is cleansed before we drink it.
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Do You Drink It?
Young scholars explore the aquifer. They create a model of an aquifer and explain how a well works. Students explore the relationship between a well and the water table. They explore the various ways that groundwater becomes contaminated.
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Florida's Springs
Students illustrate how water is stored and the water cycle. They discover how underground water can become contaminated.
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Subsurface Contamination of Groundwater
Learners watch a demonstration with a balloon filled with water being buried in a milk container that has been cut length wise and filled with sand. Students are told that there is an underground storage tank filled with a contaminate...