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Earth Day Activities
POLLUTION
Human Impacts on Our Environment

Grades K-3: Water Quality

Students will learn how water can be purified.

Materials: newspaper, 2-liter soft drink bottles, scissors, tape, filtering materials: cotton, sand, gravel, paper towels, wire, screening, coffee filters; muddy water, plastic cups, rubber bands, crayons or markers and paper.

Vocabulary: water treatment plant, purification, pollution

Procedures:

  • Discuss how does water become unsafe to drink and harmful to fish and other aquatic animals? Explain the process of how water is cleaned for drinking water.
  • Cover table tops with newspaper.
  • Organize students into pairs. Each pair gets a 2-liter bottle cut in half
  • Instruct the students to create a funnel by placing the top of the bottle upside down and rest it in the bottom half of the bottle.
  • Have groups try two different filtering methods. Pour off water in between tests.

Conclusions: Students should answer questions: Does the water look clear after it was filtered? What was left on the filter? Which filter method worked better? How can you improve your filter?

Time: one class period

Followup: Discuss the water cycles and how water can become polluted.

Back to Pollution Impacts

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Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1009
Tel: 216-443-3749
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