Curated OER
Contaminated Drinking Water
Learners see if they can tell if our water is safe to drink by looking at it and tasting it. They perform an experiment using salt and vinegar to see when they can tell water has been contaminated.
Curated OER
Subsurface Contamination of Groundwater
Students evaluate the potential problems associated with underground storage tanks. They research the potential hazards from various subsurface pollutants and simulate a superfund site cleanup.
Curated OER
Water Filtration Competition
Learners design water filtration systems. They draw sketches and write paragraphs about their systems. After presenting their systems to the class, each group then builds their system and determines its effectiveness for purifying...
Curated OER
Investigating How Pollutants Travel Through Groundwater
Young scholars determine how pollutants can travel though sediment and explore methods of pollutant removal. They conduct an experiment on porosity and permeability of soils and simulate an EPA "pump and treat" method for removing...
Curated OER
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...
Teach Engineering
Introduction to Water Chemistry
What are the issues surrounding water quality? Viewers of this short presentation gain information about the importance of clean water, the lack of fresh water, water contamination, and ways that engineers treat water.
Curated OER
Midnight Dumpers
Students explain how pollution affects ground water. They participate in a simulation to discover the location of an illegal dump. Students explore the monetary benefits, risk and environmental concerns are factors in business decisions.
Curated OER
What's Gotten Into You?
Young scholars use models to investigate the process and consequences of water contamination on the land, groundwater, and plants.
Curated OER
More About Water Below the Ground
Learners define groundwater. They identify groundwater's relationship to springs, artesian wells, ordinary wells and sinkholes. They describe the process by which sinkholes are formed. they define saltwater contamination and explain its...
Curated OER
Investigate Factors Affecting Nitrates in Groundwater
Students participate in an experiment in which they investigate the factors affecting the levels of nitrates in groundwater. Using examples, they explain the nitrogen cycle and identify the sources of chemical nitrogen fertilizers. ...
Curated OER
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.
Salt River Project
How Do We Clean Polluted Water?
How do we clean up oil spills and other pollutants in the water? Explore water treatment strategies with a set of environmental science experiments. Groups remove oil from water, work with wastewater treatment, and perform a water...
Curated OER
Leach Out and Touch Someone
Students discuss how groundwater becomes polluted. In groups, they design and create models of groundwater pollution sources. They demonstrate to the class how the water may become contaminated from local and nonlocal pollution sources.
Curated OER
Porosity And Permeability
Students participate in an exercise/experiment designed to show how environmental pollution can affect the quality of drinking water.
Curated OER
Where Does Your Water Come From?
Learners 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...
Curated OER
Eek, It leaks!
Students construct model landfill liners out of two-inch strips of garbage bags within resource constraints. The challenge is to construct a bag that will hold one cup of water without leaking. This represents similar challenges that...
Curated OER
Tracking Pollution - A Hazardous Whodunit
Learners read a story problem about the issue of hazardous waste and pollution in a fictional town. In groups, they create a topographical map and predict how the water might flow and determine the place of contamination. To end the...
NOAA
It All Runs Downhill
Examine how pollution makes its way into an ocean with help from a model watershed. Scholars use household items to recreate a mini-watershed, equipped with pollutants, that when mixed with rain drain into a model's body of water. After...
Teach Engineering
Chromatography Lab
Groups use alcohol and chromatography paper to separate the color components of black ink. The purpose of the activity is to allow the class to become aware that mixtures exist in hidden places.
Curated OER
Water Mitigation
Students identify the major health effects of arsenic contamination. They explain how arsenic gets into groundwater in Bangladesh. Students list ways to prevent arsenic from getting into drinking water. They explain why access to clean...
Curated OER
A Town in Trouble
Pupils identify and describe the parameters and analytical techniques used to characterize water contamination in a class presentation. They identify the consequences of high contamination levels in the water supply during a class...
Curated OER
Storm Drain Dumping
Students develop an awareness of what happens to water contaminated through neighborhood runoffs. Students perform an experiment that shows what happens to runoff when it's diverted to different places.
Curated OER
What is an Aquifer?
Learners examine how an aquifer operates. They discuss the implications of the groundwater becoming contaminated. They work together to create an aquifer model to observe the connection between surface water and groundwater.
Curated OER
Examining a Hazardous Waste Site
Students identify activities that produce hazardous waste. They examine how contaminants are spread in air and water. They work together to create a model to show how the contaminants move through water.