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Groundwater Detective Activity

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Summary
Grade Level: 5-7

Time: 90 minutes
Learning outcomes Standards Next Generation Science Standards
Some environmental engineers are hired by communities to locate pollution and devise a clean-up solution. They test to find the concentration of the pollutant or contaminant and use that information to determine how the contaminant has traveled. To do this, engineers drill wells and conduct tests to determine the direction of groundwater flow in the area and the direction the pollutant is moving. Engineers use this information to design remediation for contaminated water. Several remediation techniques include excavation and disposal, containment, chemical and biological treatment, phytoremediation, soil vapor extraction, and pumped removal and treatment methods.

Introduction/Motivation

How does the groundwater get polluted and what can we do about it? How exactly does pollution migrate through the ground? How do we prevent the contaminants from affecting our drinking water or the environment?

Pollution can result from any number of things, including chemical spills, leaking tanks, or just the use of pesticides or fertilizer in gardens. Such pollutants can then migrate down into the groundwater over time either by gravity or through the influences of precipitation. But where does it go from there? How can an engineer tell what is happening in groundwater, if they cannot see under the ground?

Well, first engineers drill wells and conduct tests to determine the use mathematical modeling to predict of groundwater flow in the area. With this information, engineers can determine in what direction the pollutant is headed. In most cases, the pollutant travels in the same direction as groundwater flow. In addition, engineers can test for concentration of the pollutant or contaminant and use that information to determine how the contaminant has traveled in the past. For example, in most cases, the highest concentration of a contaminant is where the spill originated. Concentrations will usually lower in the direction of groundwater flow.

In real life, engineers must determine not only how the pollution has migrated through the ground but also where it is going and how fast. Once engineers have determined where the pollution is going, they need to think of a strategy to get the contaminants removed or contained. There are many ways that they can do this. Several methods include:

Containment with physical barriers, or putting something in the ground to stop the groundwater flow.

Biological treatment, by adding microorganisms like bacteria that break down, or "eat," the pollution to make it less toxic.

Chemical treatment, by adding chemicals like chlorine or ozone that react with the contaminant to make it less toxic.

Soil vapor extraction, by moving air and vapors through the groundwater in order to remove the contaminant.

Constructed wetlands, where several treatment methods are used in a shallow pond-like area.

Pump and treat methods, where engineers pump the contaminated water out of the ground, treat the water and put it back into the ground.

How do engineers choose which method(s) to use? Well, they begin by researching the type of contaminant that exists, then investigating which treatment methods could work, next, thinking about constraints like cost and environmental impact, and finally, choosing the appropriate clean up/removal method.

Today, we are going to investigate a source of pollution, predict where it is headed, and then think about how to clean it up. Having used a pump and treat method to obtain some contaminated water samples from the source, we will remove the contaminants from our sample using a variety of physical and chemical methods. Through teamwork, we will develop a treatment process, try it out, and then improve on our design. This will take us thorough a similar method that an environmental engineer would use to clean up pollution in real life - a method called the engineering design process.
Materials
Each group should have:

6 strips of wide-range pH paper (litmus paper) Note: 100 strips are available for less than $5 at many chemical supply companies, such as Auspex Scientific

7 numbered small plastic cups for samples

Plastic spoon for mixing

2 copies of the Finding Pollution Worksheet

12-inch ruler

For the class to share:

6 Ziploc® bags or plastic bins

~12 cups of playground sand

1 marker or Sharpie®

1 roll of masking tape

6 teaspoons

1 container of unsweetened powdered lemonade mix

6 soil samples (made from sand and lemonade mix; see Procedure section for preparation instructions)

jug of water

1 bottle of vegetable oil

1 box of baking soda

1 bag of (any-sized) cotton balls

6-10 coffee filters (any size, kind)

6-10 plastic spoons

1 bottle of liquid dishwashing soap (any kind)

(optional) plastic disposable gloves

Procedure
Before the Activity

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eGFI - For Teachers " Groundwater Pollution Detectives

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Summary Grade Level: 5-7 Time: 90 minutes Learning outcomes Standards Next Generation Science Standards Some environmental engineers are hired by communities to locate pollution and devise a clean-up solution. They test to find the concentration of the pollutant or contaminant and use that information to determine how the contaminant has traveled.

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Students from around the globe team up to test fresh water.

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Students from around the globe will team up to test fresh water. Join us in this collaborative project, comparing the water quality of your local river, stream, lake or pond with other fresh water sources around the world. The focus of the project is to:

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Environmental Protection Agency Site

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Learn about EPA's work to protect and study national waters and supply systems. Subtopics include drinking water, water quality and monitoring, infrastructure and resilience.

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USGS Site

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Groundwater, U.S. Geological Survey's Water Science School site.

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Interactive classroom tool for teachers to engage students with interactive lessons

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Nearpod: Foster a love of learning in every student

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Create active learning experiences students can’t wait to be a part of.

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Student Digital Portfolios for Apple

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Seesaw is the best platform for empowering students to demonstrate and share their learning. Students use powerful tools in the Seesaw app to create, reflect and demonstrate learning. When students share their learning in their Seesaw portfolio, teachers and families gain valuable insights into what their students know and can better support their development throughout the school year. Teachers tell us that students who use Seesaw feel empowered, motivated and proud, and that they are engaged in more meaningful ways.

The Basics:
∙ Seesaw is used in over 200,000 classrooms, over 150 countries, and 1 out of 2 schools in the US
∙ The core Seesaw experience is free for individual teachers and always will be
∙ Seesaw works on any device, shared or one-to-one

How does Seesaw Work?
∙ Students use Seesaw's intuitive tools to demonstrate learning in a portfolio.
∙ Teachers see what students know and get ideas for activities in Seesaw.
∙ Families see their child's work and leave comments and encouragement.

What Can Teachers Do with Seesaw?
∙ Unlock creativity for all students in any subject
∙ Gain insights to meet students where they are
∙ Engage families in conversations centered on student learning
∙ Give students a space for ownership and choice
∙ Get inspiration and ideas for your classroom
∙ Celebrate and recognize student progress

Awards Include:
∙ 2018 Top Pick for Learning by Common Sense Education
∙ Best Website of 2016 by American Association of School Librarians
∙ Richard Byrne's Free Tech for Teachers
∙ Featured by Apple as "Perfect for Every Classroom"

Other Seesaw Features Include:
∙ Compatible with 100s of other apps, including Apple and Google apps.
∙ Multiple sign in options, including QR sign in options for younger learners or shared device classrooms.
∙ Teachers control who can see what, and whether students and families can add likes or comments.
∙ Translate notes, comments and captions into 50+ languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese and more!
∙ Getting started tips and professional development resources at help.seesaw.me.
∙ Follow @Seesaw on Twitter or join our Seesaw Teachers Facebook group to give feedback and connect with other inspiring educators.
∙ Seesaw is COPPA, FERPA and GDPR compliant. Learn more at web.seesaw.me/privacy

Seesaw for Schools: Premium Features
Make Seesaw an official part of your school or district with our subscription service. Bring the power of Seesaw and additional premium features to all your students, teachers and families. Additional benefits include the ability to:
∙ See student progress year over year
∙ Get real-time insights into schoolwide learning
∙ Centralize setup and management for your school or district

Version 7.5.5

- Reliability improvements for uploading posts

Best Ever!!

I teach 1st grade, and I love the way that Seesaw allows my students and me to share what is happening in our classroom. My students are able to record their voices, take pictures of their work, and share their thinking with me and with their families via Seesaw. It is also a really fast way for me to communicate with parents. I use Seesaw to send out my weekly class newsletter and to send out last minute announcements, as well. Great way for teachers, parents, and students to stay connected! Also, it is a great place for teachers to share things with each other. I use so many assignments from the community of teachers on Seesaw to advance the thinking and learning in my classroom. The only thing I wish were different about Seesaw is I wish I were able to assign things just to certain students instead of to the whole class. It would help me differentiate my assignments better. Maybe there's a way to do that and I just haven't figured it out yet... 🤷‍♀️ Not sure. But overall, Seesaw has been such a neat tool and resource for my classroom!

Best Educational App Bar None

I am an experienced teacher, and I've been using Seesaw for years. It's always been wonderful. It is the most helpful technological tool I've ever used by FAR! It's always been fantastic, but they are always making improvements, and they respect teacher input. Since the pandemic, they have been incredible-dealing with an influx of new users and going above and beyond to meet ever increasing needs. I never want to stop using Seesaw. It's excellent for virtual teaching and face to face teaching. It's got outstanding tools and features for teachers, AND it's user friendly for teachers and students. I use it with Kindergarten students, and they get the hang of it so quickly. They love it. It's engaging and fun, but it truly enhances and improves their learning. The people at Seesaw truly want to do the best that they can for teachers and students. It is by far the best technology I've ever used in the classroom.

Decent for distance learning

Like many, I'm sure, I have been using the Seesaw app for distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, the app has been beneficial for the teachers to share the lesson plans and we utilize the app similar to a social media (FB) platform by responding to the teacher's posts with the completed assignments.
Unfortunately , this is also why I only rate the app 3 stars. The issue is that once I've responded to an activity posted by the teacher, there are no indicators that the particular assignment was completed/responded by me resulting in a lot of time spent searching through activities that need to be completed. I liken this issue to having read an email in Outlook and then going back later for that one email but all emails are marked as "unread".
It would be excellent if the developer were to create a means for the completed assignments to be highlighted that it has been responded to/completed. Further, it would be additionally helpful if the app indicated that the instructor reviewed the students work and whether it needed to be redone.

The developer, Seesaw Learning, Inc., indicated that the app's privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

Seller

Seesaw Learning, Inc.

Compatibility

Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Copyright

© 2020 Seesaw Learning Inc

In-App Purchases

1 Month of Seesaw Plus $12.99

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.

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‎Seesaw is the best platform for empowering students to demonstrate and share their learning. Students use powerful tools in the Seesaw app to create, reflect and demonstrate learning. When students share their learning in their Seesaw portfolio, teachers and families gain valuable insights into what...

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Career Tech Education Lessons and Curriculum

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Modeled after the ongoing success of the CTE Online Platform, the recently launched California Educators Together Platform serves as our state’s new comprehensive home for both Career & Technical Education Teachers and Leadership Personnel, as well as ALL other PK-12 practitioners and support teams…

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High School lead poisoning curriculum from LA County Department of Public Health

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NGSS activities, lessons, and curriculum for each PE

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Are you a STEM, STEAM, and/or science teacher looking for great edtech for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? Browse hundreds of apps, games, and websites evaluated by our expert reviewers and tagged for relevant Performance Expectations (PEs).

To find the right tool for your NGSS-aligned activities, lessons, and curriculum: select a grade, choose a topic, and then find the PE that interests you. Click the green arrow on the right-hand side of the PE to see a list of suggested tools. Just below each PE you'll see three NGSS dimensions - Science and Engineering Practices (SEP), Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI), and Crosscutting Concepts (CC) - for quick and easy reference.

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Interactive whiteboard for teaching. Record video tutorials, create interactive presentations. Join 24+ million users of Explain Everything.

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TryEngineering offers a variety of lesson plans that align with education standards to allow teachers and students to apply engineering principles in the classroom.

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Curriculum Standards

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TryEngineering offers a variety of lesson plans that align with education standards to allow teachers and students to apply engineering principles in the classroom. Take our Lesson Plan Survey Our lesson plans can be aligned to local education standards around the world.

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You-tube 15-20 min lessons on science content to support teachers and students. Courses organized into playlists.

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history biology literature learning education science humanities school "world history" ap tests smart fun chemistry psychology apush whap study "crash cours...

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A series of free online lessons for household water well owners from the National Ground Water Association.

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Lesson plans - National Groundwater Association

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The National Ground Water Association is the hallmark organization for anyone affiliated with the groundwater industry. A nonprofit organization, NGWA is composed of U.S. and international groundwater professionals - contractors, scientists and engineers, equipment manufacturers, and suppliers.

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List of sites to help come of with real world problems for your classroom.

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A MiddleWeb Blog

What do STEM teachers do?

According to U.S. News and World Report, STEM teachers pose problems and combine problem solving with project-based learning across disciplines. They work together with students on activities to develop students' critical thinking, communication, assessment, and inquiry skills.

That's an impressive job description; however, one source describes the teacher preparation system for STEM teachers as "chaotic, incoherent, and uncoordinated, filled with 'excellent programs, terrible programs, and many in between.'" That's not surprising, since the STEM acronym has only been around for a few years. But it certainly needs to improve.

What Good STEM Lessons Do

While things seem a bit muddled on the STEM teacher preparation front, we do know some things about STEM curriculum. We know, for example, that a good STEM lesson accomplishes these things:

1. Helps students apply math and science through authentic, hands-on learning

2. Includes the use of (or creation of) technology

3. Involves students in using an engineering design process

4. Engages students in working in collaborative teams

5. Appeals equally to girls and boys

6. Reinforces relevant math and science standards

7. Addresses a real-world problem

Problem solving is really the heart of STEM investigations. Providing students with real-world problems to solve fuels their curiosity and investigative interests. In its policy paper on establishing effective K-12 STEM education programs, the National Research Council reports that students in high-performing STEM programs "have opportunities to learn science, mathematics, and engineering by addressing problems that have real-world applications."

Providing students with real-world problems and asking them to brainstorm solutions will bring their higher order thinking skills into play. But for me, identifying real-world problems that students can solve is one of the hardest parts of creating STEM lessons.

They have to be problems that students can reasonably grapple with. And those all-important problems may need to synchronize with a specific set of math and/or science standards from the school system's pacing guide. Hopefully you don't have that constraint, but realistically you probably do.

Sites for Real-World Problems

I've located some sites that help me come up with real-world problems, and I'm always on the look-out for more. I'm going to share several sites I've identified, and I hope that you'll share some as well. I invite you to click on these sites and mull over the possibilities.

The National Education Environmental Education Foundation is a great site for problem hunting. The site correctly avows, "Solutions to 21st century environmental challenges often result from STEM knowledge and skills. Hands-on environmental education projects enrich STEM learning and offer an exciting opportunity to engage more students in STEM. The possibilities are endless - from calculating school water usage to observing, documenting, & protecting wildlife populations in the schoolyard."

In the Greening STEM section on this site you'll find ideas for relevant problems. Most environmental topics can fit under standards for either life or physical science, so these may provide you with some real "kid-catchers," or ideas that snag students' interest.

Topics include areas such as:

* Oil spills
* Water pollution
* Air quality
* Endangered species
* Environmental Health

Another favorite site of mine is the Design Squad Nation. They have some real-world problems there that I find intriguing. For example student teams might invent these:

* Band Instrument
* Electric Gamebox
* Confetti Launcher
* Solar Water Heater
* Speedy Shelter

How cool are those ideas? As a middle school science teacher, I found STEM to be a natural fit for most of the topics I taught. Math, however, seems to be a different matter.

The Problem with Math

One issue I hear repeatedly is that math teachers find it difficult to identify real-world problems and implement STEM projects in math classes. (Note that these math teachers are not able to work collaboratively with science teachers to develop/implement lessons, and must therefore "go-it-alone.") However, the math teachers who mentioned this are looking determinedly for ways to implement STEM lessons.

The Common Core Standards state: "Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace." This adds urgency to the search for real-world problems that bring in appropriate math standards.

Among the places that may help with this dilemma is The STEM Collaborative, which offers lessons that focus on key middle school math standards and content. While most of these focus on real problems, you may need to be selective if you want the activity to qualify as a true STEM project.

Math standards addressed by the lessons on this site include these and more:

* Fractions, decimals, percents
* Ratios and proportions
* Estimating and predicting
* Rates and unit rate
* Modeling problems with graphs, tables, and equations
* Comparing, graphing, and interpreting data
* Scale factors
* Geometry and measurement
* Probability
* Proportional reasoning

Another site that links math to real problems is Middle School Math and Science. Students solve problems involving train races, global sun temperature, amount of water usage, and so on. Most of these are Internet-based, so you may want to design some of them as hands-on projects for students. (UPDATE: This Ohio State University site is now an archive, but you'll still find plenty of useful resources.)

Teach Engineering

No list of real-world problem ideas would be complete without mentioning the Teach Engineering lessons. As you peruse these, read the summary of the lessons rather than relying on the titles. Look for projects that include hands-on ideas, such as those involving microbes, rocket-powered boats, solid fuel reactants, the fisheries bycatch problem, and so on. Notice that many of the lessons have hands-on "Associated Activities." These generally hands-on investigations bring the "E" in STEM to your students.

I hope these sites will be of value to you, and will assist you in brainstorming ideas for real-world problems. Feel free to share comments or sites of your own. We're inventing a new specialty and need all the help we can get and share!
Visit Anne's STEM by Design website
for more real-world lesson ideas

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What do STEM teachers do? According to U.S. News and World Report, STEM teachers pose problems and combine problem solving with project-based learning across disciplines. They work together with students on activities to develop students' critical thinking, communication, assessment, and inquiry skills.

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A comprehensive middle school curriculum which integrates both new and adapted solar lessons and activities using state-of-the-art SDO data. T

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Buck Institute for Education in California

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Buck Institute for Education in California

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A Boeing and Teaching Channel Partnership

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