Tapwater Testing.... What's in it for Students?
BACKGROUND
Testing the water that comes intoour homes, workplaces and schools is a big business, and for goodreason! It is easy to take for granted the life sustaining propertiesof water. The standard answer by students to" In fact, understanding the watercycle, the solvent properties of water, mixtures, solutions,concentrations of additives (both natural and man-made) can be a bigpart of a multi-year integratedstudies approach toscience education.
STANDARDS
This lesson addresses the following California
Science Content Standards.
Grade 6 6b: Different natural energy and material resources, including air, soil, rocks, minerals,
petroleum, fresh water, wildlife, and forests, and classify them as renewable or
nonrenewable.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The creation by students of acollaborative database of tapwater information, combined with riverwater studies, and information on public water supplies, can be usedby students of many ages to work with high order problems concerningthe science, and politics, of water in our county, state, andbeyond.
STUDENTS
€Tapwater Tour The "Tapwater Tour" is a mini unitavailable from a variety of distributors.(create link) It is aneasily managed introduction to water study, or can be inserted almostany time into work on introductory chemistry or environmentalstudies....or a health class for that matter! At the end of about 8-10 classperiods, students will have an introduction to Other Resources andExtensions In the following pages andlinks
Life, Earth, & Physical
Sciences
Investigation &
Experimentation