Personal Reflections

Hydroday Reflections

As all good scientists know, most things don't go the way you plan! Reflection is vital in growing your methodology and understanding of your scientific work! Students were asked to think critically about the process and outcome of their water tests, and to suggest how they might improve in the future!

Ashwika's Personal Reflection

My project was about the nitrogen in the water. This is very important because if there is too much nitrogen in the water, it could get dangerous. Let me explain… Nitrogen in the water is good. Nitrogen helps sea plants grow. But it can get dangerous if nitrogen exceeds 1 part of nitrogen for every 1 million parts of water. Too much nitrogen creates algae; if it gets too thick, it blocks the sun from entering the plants, so the plants die. Over time, the algae will die and sink to the bottom. With the decay of the plants and dead algae, it can suck up all the oxygen in the water. Due to this, the fish die, and water sources get populated. To prevent this and ensure the nitrogen is in the right amount, the Nitrogen test kit tool is used. If you mix 5ml of any water with test tabs, the color will change. There you can compare the color with the chart. The more pink/red it is, the less dangerous it is. The more yellow it is, the more the water contains too much nitrogen.

The project was not successful in the beginning. As time passed by I learned my mistakes and the project turned out successful. I first thought that maybe I didn’t need the tes tabs and could just compare with the water only. But it didn’t work. Then I searched the ingredients that made up the tests to see if I could just put the ingredients to make it work. But, of course, I couldn’t get my hands on the stuff. Because first, the main ingredient is found inside a fish, and second, you can find it in a factory. I would not kill a fish and dissect it somehow for the project! (In my opinion, it is fish abuse >:( ) And I could not do it to the factory:( But then luck struck me! My dad's high school friend visited, and his job was to advertise a water filter. So he advertised it to my dad, showing how all types of water are not as healthy with pH. I asked him if he had test tabs for nitrogen, and he said YES! That's how I got the water to test. I also taught my brother about the nitrogen in the water.

Next time, I will do better. I tried my best on it. There were still some things I could do to be better. Something I could do to make things better is my chart. I felt like I did a basic job on the chart. But I know I can go even further. I would also like to add more detail on how I did the project on my sketch notes. Also, all my ideas for this project were all over the place and were disorganized. Next time I wanna be more clear to myselfmy self of what I am doing. I would make my ideas organized and easy to understand. Next time, I wanna make sure I do simple but extraordinary work.

Delina's Personal Reflection

My water test project was a natural red onion pH indicator! My water test works by injecting the pH indicator onto a water sample I need to test, then after doing that, what colour the water turns to shows the degree of how much alkalinity and acidity there is in the water. This pH indicator tests water safety by telling us if the water is too acidic and alkaline for us to drink. Therefore, we don't get sick by drinking unsafe water that is too acidic and alkaline.

I believe my water test was very successful. I was able to help kids understand and learn about this aspect of testing water with simple words. I was also able to keep the kids entertained throughout the scientific experiment. My pH indicator worked very successfully. I could easily find out the degree of acidity or alkalinity with each water sample chosen by the kids. I'm extremely proud of how I handled the kids and how my water test ended up being.

Next time, in the future, if I were to do this project again, I would explain how dangerous the water is if it is too acidic or too alkanitic for our health. I would also be more specific about how it could badly affect our health in the future. Thirdly, I would have also made the set-up of my water test more attractive to attract more kids to test water samples with. Lastly, I would find a way to bond more with the kids during the testing.

Ghita's Personal Reflection

My project was about testing water safety. It wasn't easy, but it was enjoyable to learn new things. I used paper, cut it, and then colored it. I made three of those little paper trips to test three different items. The three items were a cup of water and coffee, A cup of salt water, and a cup of normal water. I dipped each paper trip in a different cup and saw which was the safest. Last, I put them on a poster and labelled everything, explaining how I did this project.

My project was about 80-85% successful because I only added 5 colours, even though that's the average colours on a testing kit that you can use at home. Other testing kits have more colors. The colors mean something and they're not just there. They show us the safety of water. I sadly wasn't there to teach kids on a hydro day so I can't say something about it.

Next time i will try something new like not copying something from a youtube video. I got the idea from a video. Next time i want my own idea to get my own credits for the idea. I would probably use a straw and color it or maybe use my idea i used in science class. I would use a beaker too. Thats all I would change because im proud of what ive done.

Aida's Personal Reflection

Paragraph 1: My project is about how tea helps us know whether or not water is safe to drink. I put the same amount of water in two cups, and then I put two different tea flavors. The second one is clearer than the first one, so it is safer to drink.

Paragraph 2: I got no one I just got teacher and I do a big fail so I don’t need to be very careful next time.

Paragraph 3: Yes I will do it differently to don’t do it again so to use the same type of water.

Materials :

2 tea bags

Water

Goal: Know if tea can help us check if water is drinkable.

Process: Using containers A and B, we used tea to check if our theory was true.

In container A, we put a tea bag with lukewarm water.

In container B, we put the inside of a tea bag with lukewarm water.

We then waited 3 days for them to be ready.

Result: The result was a failure, but I learned something new.

Jana's Personal Reflection

My science project was testing if the water was safe or not.

To figure out whether it is safe or not I used a microscope to zoom in close to the water and see if it has any bacteria or dirt. At the bottom of the microscope, there is this little torch. That puts light directly into the slide, which we could see much more clearly. If it was unsafe, you would see little black/brown dots or worms moving through the small circle. If it was safe to drink, you would see a blank white circle with nothing unusual about its aspect. In conclusion, this microscope substance experiment would definitely test your water and let you know if you can use it!

My project was very successful towards the younger kids. They were very interested and had fun learning more and testing my microscope experiment. I enjoyed showing these little kids a science observation to something they haven't used yet! I taught and performed my speech about this aspect of testing water, which was cool to do. Many of the water samples worked and we could tell if it's dirty or not. I asked many children whether they would drink it or not. Should we use this type of water for something useful or not? What happened to be a fail was some sparkling water with a bunch of bubbles that we couldn't see clearly through the microscope and many of the children had noticed. Lastly, alhamdoulah, my project was a success, and I'm so proud of getting to this experiment and teaching it to others!

(Thank you, Ms.Emma!!)

In the future, If I were to do this project again I would’ve had different samples of water in front of me for the little kids to try each instead of trying one. I refilled my little glass cup multiple times for the upcoming kids who wanted to try the experiment. But I think it would have been a better Idea If they were just in front of me instead so that they could have chosen which type of water they wanted to see under the microscope. Regardless, it still, thankfully, all worked out, and they were each able to look through the microscope and get their own perspective. Finally, there weren't any failures whatsoever and it ended up being an extraordinary microscope substance experiment!

Miss Emma's Personal Reflection

This event was a large amalgamation of all of the work that my seventh grade students did during quarter two! We have been learning about the water cycle and have been particularly focusing on the issue of water security in the world. At the moment there are more than 700 million people who lack access to clean water, and that number is going to rise dramatically over the next century! My students and I created HydroDay to educate our school about the importance of having access to clean water. In addition, our school currently uses over 700 water bottles each day, which is a devastatingly large amount of plastic to go straight into the trash, without being recycled! My students also worked with Student Council, the Environmental Committee, and Guidance classes to use this educational event as a way of raising money for our school to buy a better water fountain. The goal for this fountain is to give our school community access to clean water without using unnecessary plastic!

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