| Havergal
College
Ontario, Canada |
Payson Seymour Elem., Illinois, USA | Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, Adelaide, South Australia | School
No.217
St. Petersburg Russia |
Pinehurst
Primary
Cape Town, South Africa |
Pingelly District High School, Pingelly, Western Australia |
| Ray Miller Elem., Missouri, USA | Rosenwald-Dunbar Elementary, Jessamine County, Kentucky USA | Pettisville Elementary School, Ohio USA | Fairfield Elementary School, Virginia USA | Compton Primary School
South Australia |
Cowell Area School
Cowell, South Australia |
Module Four from Havergal College Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Hello Water Project Partners,
We are sorry our module is late, but we wanted
to include a very exciting field trip we had to a "Water Festival".
Please
check our website to see our contribution to
module 4.
http://www.hccommunity.havergal.on.ca/btaylor/modfour.htm
Some of our information that is on the web page is written below.
Water is the basis of all life. It is "liquid
gold". Without it, nothing lives, nothing grows. The Grade Two water groups
discussed how fortunate they all were to have
an abundance of clean water available to them for drinking, cooking, washing
and playing in. They also discussed ways in which
they could be responsible to help to conserve and not waste this
water, even though there seems to be an endless
supply of it. The groups then completed surveys on the use of water in
their
homes, the kinds of water that they drink, (tap
and/or bottled water) and ways to improve or eliminate the unnecessary
wasting of water.
Grade Two water groups also talked about the responsibility
that they have to others in the world who do not have access to
clean water. These girls were only seven and
eight years of age. How could they really help others in need? Then they
learned
about another Canadian student, named Ryan Hreljac,
a six year old who wanted to build a well for some African
children in Uganda so that they could have clean
water. Here is his story:
When Ryan was in Grade One he learned that people
in Africa live very differently from how he lives. His teacher told him
that
there wasn't much food, medicine or clean drinking
water in many areas. This was all the inspiration that Ryan needed. From
that moment on, he became determined to do something
to help. He came home from school that very day, excited about planning
what he could do. At first, his parents were
concerned that he might be disappointed in trying such a huge task. They
agreed to let
him do some chores around the house for which
he would be paid. In four months he earned $70, which he thought was enough
for a well. As it turned out, this would only
be enough for a pump and that $2000 was needed to actually drill such a
well.
Surprisingly, this made Ryan even more determined
to help. As Ryan continued with more and more chores, news of his plan
and dream spread. Articles appeared about him
in local newspapers and more family, friends and people became involved.
Also,
Ryan began to think that this well would be best
built near a school. He (and his now Grade Two class) began to write letters
to a
school in Uganda and amazingly, Ryan was actually
able to visit this school in the summer of 2000. (By this time
Ryan had been able to raise more money himself
and to get enough donations from others to build a well near this school!)
He had become quite well known!
Ryan's work continues and he hopes to someday
be a water engineer. He now often visits schools, conferences and special
events.
One of his appearances was on the popular talk
show "Oprah" and he has met Prince Charles of England among other celebrities.
He says that he is still "....Just playing basketball,
soccer, running around, playing tag. I'm just a regular kid."
And his advice for kids who want to help others?
"If they can't do a big thing like I'm doing, they can do little things....
be generous,
and be nice...Don't say 'I want this and I want
that'... If everybody was nice and generous, it would be one step to making
the world
a great place for everyone."
We were so inspired by Ryan's story and dedication
to this cause that our two classes decided to support it. We held a bake
sale
and raised $250 to send to WaterCan, an agency
here in Canada which coordinates such efforts.
To conclude our water study, we participated in
a full day multi-school, multi-grade water festival at a large conservation
area near
Toronto. Below are pictures of some of the activities
we enjoyed. While we were there, we made some exciting discoveries in the
wetland area we explored. We found a Red-Winged
Blackbird nest with newly hatched chicks and we were able to catch, examine
and then release some leopard frogs.
We have really enjoyed this water project and
would like to thank Rhonda for organizing it. We wish her good luck
in her
presentation at the World Conference on Computers
in Education which is going to be held in Copenhagen this summer.
Best wishes,
from, Mrs Thom's Grade 2 class and Mrs Siatkowski's
Grade 2 class.
Module Four from Payson Seymour Elementary, Illinois, USA
Dear Water Partners Around the World, Here is
our 4th and final module for the project. As usual, we have strayed
from
the listed project idea, mainly because we keep
finding interesting things about water and we can't help but explore them!
In this module, we tried out a hypothesis, then
went through steps to determine if our hypothesis was correct using
a
property we had learned from a previous
water experiment. Feeling like we had a little expertise with cohesion,
we proceeded
to determine How Many Drops of Water Will
Fit on a Penny? Since many scientists such as out selves might vary
in their
efforts, we averaged out attempts to gain
the most precise outcome. After working with normal sized United
States pennies,
one of our scientists (Nathan) used an
extrememely oversized penny in the same experiment. What follows
are the details of
our work. Our school year is rapidly coming
to a close -- May 23rd is our last day. We're worked hard with all
of your modules,
enjoyed some of your web sites, and hope
that we can maintain contact with those of you who like to continue
meaningful email.
Thanks once more to Rhonda for having this project
which allows the rest of us to collaborate and learn from each other.
So long until next year. Terry Smith
Class web: www.dstream.net/tksmith
Penny Experiment
===============================================
Dear E-mail Pals,
MY PENNY EXPERIMENT MODULE #4
Some of the steps that I, Jordan E, took
were:
#1.) First I got all of my materials together,
which were:
A.) eye dropper
B.) work sheet
C.) a glass of water
D.) a sheet of paper towl
&E.) a penny
#2.) We took our work sheet and made an estiment
on how many drops of water we could fit on the penny. My estimate
was
4 drops. I was way off! My hightest was
42 drops!
#3.)We did step 2 four times.The first
time I tried I got 16. The second time I tried I got 42. the third time
I tried I got 26 and
the last time I tried I got 20.
#4.) For the fourth step I found the average.
I found out it was 26 drops. That concludes my penny experiment in module
4.
Jordan E
===============================================
Today our class did an experment with a penny,
paper towel, eyedropper and a cup of water. We guessed how many drops
of
water we could put on the penny before it
rolls off. Then we did it to see how many drops we could get.
1. 18 drops
2. 25 drops
3. 53 drops
4. 63 drops
My average is 39 3/4 drops. Krykette
=======================================================
Today our experiment for the last water module
was to take a Paper towel and put a penny on the paper towel
then take
a cup of water and an eyedropper. We saw
how many drops of water dropped on the penny and stayed on it with
all 4 tries.
My data:
1. 32 drops
2. 24 drops
3. 36 drops
4. 33 drops my average # is: 38 AShley
B
==================================================
Penny Experiments for Water Module 4
Today we were doing the penny and water experiment.
The materials I need is paper towel, a penny, an eye dropper and
a cup
of water. This is how I did it. First I
guessed a hypothesis that 14 drops of water would stay on the penny.
Second I put drops
of water on the top of the penny and the water
spilled off the penny and I dropped 21, second time, 18 drops, third
time I got 14
and the fourth time I got 14 again. The
third and the fourth I guessed it right!
Brandon
=====================================================
Today May 17 we did a penny and water experiment.
The materials I used were: a paper towel, an eye dropper and a penny.
The steps were: lay the paper towel down
on your desk then, put the penny on the paper towel. Last but not
least we took the eye
dropper and got water in it. After we did
that we started putting drops of water on the penny. Actually before we
did any of that
we had to guess how many drops of water we could
get on the penny. I guessed 26. The first time I put water on the
penny I got
26 drops on it, second time, 34 third time,
29 and the fourth time it was 45. The average amount of water my
penny could hold
was 33 1/2 drops. What held the water on
the penny was cohesion.
Ashley W
========================================================
Today I experment with a penny, water dropper,
paper towel. We put little drops of water on the penny. First I guessed
how many
drops I could put on the penny. I guested
four but the most I got was 53. I dune it four times then I took
all the numbers I got and
figured out the average. Why the water
bubbled up and stayed on the penny was from cohesion. Cohesion means the
water sticks to itself. From Jennifer
=========================================================
Today we did an experment with a penny, water
dropper, paper towl. We had to put the water on the penny and see
when it would
fall off the penny. It stayed on because
of cohesion. And to suceed you had to go slower with your drops instead
of fast.
Jordan C
========================================================
Dear Water partners, Our class is doing
water module 4. Our class remembers what adesion and cohesion means.
Here are
the steps that we did: 1. We placed our
paper on a piece of paper towel. 2. We guessed about how many drops
of water we
could put on the penny to see when it dripped
off the penny. 3. We used the eye dropper and began slowly and added
up numbers
of how many times we dropped water drops on the
penny in four rounds. It was cohesion that kept the water on the
penny until so
much was on it that it spilled off of the penny.
Your Friend, Paul
=============================================================
Module Four from School
217, St. Petersburg, Russia
Module Four from Pinehurst Primary, Cape Town, South Africa
Dear Water Pals,
Since we are very late in sending off these last two modules, we have combined them.
We have read about many of your experiences where
certain of your classes managed to visit a water treatment plant
and other interesting places.
During National Water Week in South Africa, our
children went on an outing to the Imax Theatre to watch a water presentation.
We learnt many interesting things about how important
water is for us and life on earth. We were fortunate enough, when
we
left the Imax, to watch a live presentation about
water, as part of National Water Week. We learnt some new ideas about how
to
conserve water and these were presented in the
form of drama and mime.
Some of what we learnt was the following:
*Never leave taps running while brushing your
teeth
*Rather shower than bath and sing shorter songs
in the shower!
*Wash your car using a bucket and not a hose
*Fit water-saving devices in your toilets
*Wash vegetables in a basin of water, not under
running water.
We have unfortunately not managed to visit a water
treatment plant and most of our activities were
based on smaller outings so most of what we have
done happened in the classroom.
We learnt how to filter water by using an empty
plastic Coke bottle.
This is what we did:
1. We cut the top off a Coke bottle to make
a funnel.
2. We plugged the neck of the bottle with
cottonwool.
3. We were told to place three different
layers in the funnel.
The layers were:
gravel, sand and damp soil.
4. We waited for less than a minute to
watch what would happen.
5. The water from the damp soil filtered
through the cottonwool.
6. The water came out clear.
Cape Town is well-known for its many beaches that
are major tourist attractions. We enjoy social activities such as surfing,
bodyboarding, kayaking, paddle-skiing, scuba-diving,
jet-skiing, etc. Some parts of our country have natural hot warm springs
which are used to create naturally heated warmbaths.
The 5 dams, which are found at the top of Table Mountain supply
Cape Town with its water.
We did another experiment in the classroom to
investigate how much water is being used by the pupils in our class at
school. We measured the amount of water wasted
by one child when drinking from a tap. We used a stop-watch to measure
the length of time it took for them to drink
the water and then worked out, on average, how much water was wasted.
Although
not everyone had the opportunity to be part of
the experiment, it gave us a good idea of how much water is wasted by the
pupils
in one day, at our school.
In Pinelands, outside our school, is a canal,
which carries water from various parts of the community. It was a
good idea to
use this canal to discover how polluted this
water actually is in our area. We used Coke bottles and placed a visibility
disk with
the numbers 1 to 4 on it. We took a sample of
the canal water and waited for it to settle. According to the numbers that
were
visible to us, we could determine how polluted
the canal water is.
Our class came up with some fantastic ideas on
how to improve the condition of the state of pollution in the canal.
*Never throw anything in the canal
*Designing posters to encourage the children
in our school not to pollute the canal
*Organise a canal clean-up
*Send letters to surrounding factories and the
health department, showing our concerns for the state of the canal
*Send letters to the municipality requesting
that they place more garbage bins along the canal
We have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to share our ideas with you. We hope that you have learnt as much as we have.
Module Four from Ray
Miller Elem., Kirksville, Missouri, USA
Dear Water Project Friends,
Our class decided to save water. We composed
the following list of ideas to use less water.
1. Turn water off when you brush your teeth.
2. Take a shorter shower or fill the bathtub
up with less water.
3. Don't play in the sprinkler as long or turn
it on a lower pressure.
4. Drink the first water that comes out of the
faucet to fill your cup - don't wait until it runs cold.
5. Get hands wet, turn water off and lather hands,
then turn water back on to rinse.
We also made water filters to see an example of
how to clean water. Our class used several methods to purify soiled water.
Please view our pictures
and inventions. We had the following supplies available to clean our
water, but each group decided
how to build their filter.
1. coffee filters
2. rocks
3. sand
4. cheesecloth
5. plastic cups (with and without holes)
6. liter bottles
7. charcoal
8. nylon net
We have enjoyed being in this project. We have
learned many new ideas about water and about other schools.
We hope everyone has a great summer.
Your friends,
Mrs. Bowers' Third Grade
Module Four from Rosenwald-Dunbar
Elementary, Jessamine County, Kentucky USA
Module Four fromPettisville
Elementary School, Ohio USA
Module Four from Fairfield
Elementary School Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA