Did you know that today is the 50th Anniversary of the first Earth Day? 50 years ago people decided we needed to celebrate our Earth, which provides everything we need to live, and which we can not live without. People have not been very good at treating the Earth well and Earth Day was created to remind us of the importance of doing so. Visit this site more information on Earth Day. You may not know it, but water sources found out in nature (ponds, creeks, the ocean, etc.) have bacteria and other contaminants that would make you sick if you drank it. Where we live, we have public water systems that clean our water and pipe it to the sinks in our house where we drink it. In today's Earth Day inspired experiment, we are going to use the heat from the sun to purify water. Materials:
Extension: Have students think about ways they could speed up the decontamination process by helping the water heat faster and try some. Parent Tip: This experiment is easier when you make your own contaminated water using tap water and salt. But it is more dramatic when you use water that is visually contaminated that you collected from a pond, creek or other outdoor source. Just remember when using an outdoor source, you need to be extra careful to limit cross contamination from your pure water (in the jar/glass in the center) and your contaminated water (in the bowl). To do so:
How To Links & Explanation: Here is the link to the instructions. Thanks to the Teach Beside Me for this activity. PBS and KQED put together a video where kids do the experiment and then explain why it works. The explanation starts at 2:01. Sciencing provides a more detailed explanation of why it works. Share Your Experience: If you do this experiment feel free to post pictures in the comments section below. Happy Sciencing!
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You Can Continue to Earn the Patches over the SUmmer!
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Every school day I will post a new experiment for you to try at home. Some may be familiar to you - as they are my favorites from class - but most will be experiments I found on the web that have readily available materials. Happy Sciencing! Earn a Patch
Sunol Glen Students - Complete an additional 10 experiments (20 total) from this site and I will send you this patch: Parents - just email me when students have completed a challenge, no proof required. Categories |