Thanks very much to Kathy Tauscher, who sent me this game!
Materials:
Paper and pencil for each camper
Dixie cup for each camper
Water for the Dixie cups
7 Q-tips for each camper
7 large plastic cups
sugar
baking soda
vinegar
sprite or 7-up
salt
peppermint extract
Instructor Preparation:
Set up seven stations as follows :
#1
- water with sugar dissolved in it
#2
- water with baking soda in it
#3 - plain water
#4 - water with vinegar in it
#5 - flat sprite
#6 - water with salt dissolved in it
#7 - water with fruit flavouring in it
Directions:
Pass out the paper, pencils, and Q-tips to each girl. Also get each girl to take a cup of water to sip between stations so that they can clear their palates. Have the girls use a new Q-tip for each station. At each station, the kids dip their Q-tip in the liquid and rub it around on their tongue. They should then guess what is in the liquid and write down their answer on the paper. The girls should NOT discuss their guesses with each other. After each station, each child should take a sip from their glass of water and then proceed to the next station.
At the end of the exercise, discuss with the group what they thought was in each of the glasses and give out the right answers. Then go on to talk about water pollution and drinking water safety:
Water can look clean and pure but not be as it appears.
Water can have bacteria, parasites and other ‘critters’ that can make us sick. Our water supply uses filters and chlorine to kill these things, but some are too strong to die even then. When we are out camping we can boil our water for at least ten minutes to kill most of these or we can use special water purification tablets that you buy at camping supply stores.
Water can also have chemicals in it that we can not see. Some of these chemicals can make us quite sick. Others may have effects on our body that we don't know about for a very long time. It is very difficult to get these poisons out of the water once they are mixed together.
Some people's water does not come from water treatment plants but instead from wells. Even if big treatment plants are able to remove the poisons from the water, people who own wells could not.
Even if we take the poison out of the water we drink, we still may get some if we use it to water the animals we eat.
There are two main ways that poisons get in the water:
1) They are applied to the ground and seep into the ground water or run off into lakes and streams (herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers – these include mosquito spraying, washing the car, and killing the dandelions on your lawn).
2) They are thrown away in places where they will automatically go into the water system (e.g. flushing old medicine down the toilet, pouring paint down the storm drain, using harmful chemicals to clean your bathtub.)
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