Environmental Education Topic for July:
Wheeeeee Water!
Wheeeeee Water!
Isn't it just so much fun to play with water on a hot day? Yes it is. Now, let's get educational. You can use these activities to discuss conservation, address current environmental issues, and infuse inquiry-based learning into a camp day.
Activities:
Water Cycle Yoga
Make up mov
ements for different stages of the water cycle. Rise up with outstretched arms for evaporation, bring arms into a circle above the head for condensation, wiggle fingers, drop arms, and crouch down for precipitation. How fast can you do it? Water never disappears, it just changes form. Again and again and again. In a cycle. Kids like to hear that the water we are drinking today could have been slurped up by a dinosaur millions of years ago.
ements for different stages of the water cycle. Rise up with outstretched arms for evaporation, bring arms into a circle above the head for condensation, wiggle fingers, drop arms, and crouch down for precipitation. How fast can you do it? Water never disappears, it just changes form. Again and again and again. In a cycle. Kids like to hear that the water we are drinking today could have been slurped up by a dinosaur millions of years ago.Surface Tension Trials
Why are rain drops shaped like rain drops? Why does water appear to extend above a glass when you carefully fill it really full? Surface tension is the attraction of water molecules to each other. Kids can use eye-droppers to count how many drops of water they can fit on a penny. They can try to balance a paper clip on water by sliding it across the cup. And they can amaze friends and family with a magic trick. Sprinkle pepper on a bowl of water. Ask a volunteer to stick a finger in the bowl. Nothing happens. Now, without anyone noticing of course, put a little bit of dish soap on your finger. Stick this finger in the bowl. The pepper will spring out to the edges. The dish soap disrupts the surface tension and the intact tension of water toward the outer edge of the bowl will pull the pepper towards it. Magic! Science! More experiments can be found at http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/cat_surfacetension.html
Build a Watershed
Water flowing fro
m surrounding terrain into a common area is watershed. Animals, plants, and people are connected to each other in this watershed through the flow of water. Kids can get in groups to build a watershed with clay or salt dough. They can make mountains, lakes, rivers, and seas. When they have built a 3D representation of a landscape, they can cover it with saran wrap and spray it with a spray bottle. Where does the water collect? Was it what they expected. Look up and around. Where would we expect the water in our watershed to flow from and to? EPA's Wetlands and Watersheds web page can inform you on local wet features.
m surrounding terrain into a common area is watershed. Animals, plants, and people are connected to each other in this watershed through the flow of water. Kids can get in groups to build a watershed with clay or salt dough. They can make mountains, lakes, rivers, and seas. When they have built a 3D representation of a landscape, they can cover it with saran wrap and spray it with a spray bottle. Where does the water collect? Was it what they expected. Look up and around. Where would we expect the water in our watershed to flow from and to? EPA's Wetlands and Watersheds web page can inform you on local wet features.Salmon Migratio
n Obstacle Course
n Obstacle CourseSet up an obstacle course with a jump rope for a dam, cones as a fish ladder, and bears and fisherman who can tag salmon. You can require the fisherman to only move one foot, or hop around in a bucket. Discuss the obstacles salmon face as they migrate upstream to the location of their birth. The Washington Department of Ecology provides plenty of information on their Salmon web page.
Plankton Races
Plant (phyto) and animal, (zoo) plankton are food for many aquatic creatures and are an important building block in the Puget Sound food chain. They also are neutrally buoyant; and float around, not on the top of the water, nor the bottom, but in the middle. Can the kids make a neutrally buoyant creature? With a mix of materials, the kids construct their creature and can then test it in a bucket. It is harder then they expect. Some materials might include: sponges, string, washers, pipe cleaners, clothes pins, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and styrofoam peanuts. Plankton facts and the activity can be found at http://marinediscovery.arizona.edu/lessonsF00/bryozoans/2.htmlClean Up the Oil Spill
Put a bit of blue food coloring in pans of water. Add some cooking oil (which you can explain is not quite the same as crude oil) and give
kids some cleaning materials such as spoons, sponges, paper, cup of dish soap, etc. Ask teams of kids to try to clean the oil from the pan. What works? What makes more of a mess? Add some feathers to the oil. Do they change? Oil is a problem for the quality of our water in Puget Sound as well as in the Gulf. How does oil get into our water locally? Hint: cars and cement. Find out more on Puget Sound Partnership's website: http://www.psp.wa.gov/oilspills.php
kids some cleaning materials such as spoons, sponges, paper, cup of dish soap, etc. Ask teams of kids to try to clean the oil from the pan. What works? What makes more of a mess? Add some feathers to the oil. Do they change? Oil is a problem for the quality of our water in Puget Sound as well as in the Gulf. How does oil get into our water locally? Hint: cars and cement. Find out more on Puget Sound Partnership's website: http://www.psp.wa.gov/oilspills.phpAquatic Life
What can you find in Lake Washington? A puddle? A stream? Scoop out some water and take a look. You can use magnifying lenses and microscopes. Return the water and it's organisms to the location it was found when the activity is over.
