Water Quality testing!

This lesson plan requires materials not typically available in homes. Please ask a parent or guardian for assistence with this first step:

To complete the lesson as intended, you need to request a salt testing kit from Save Our Streams. Email a trusted adult, such as your troop leader, a teacher, or a guardian, for help using this template. Please ensure that, prior to sending the email, you've changed the email address from the example email address to your trusted adult's email address.

Dear [trust adult],

I want to complete an online Water Quality testing lesson, but I need a Save Our Streams salt testing kit! Please request a testing kit from Save Our Streams at saltwatch.org. It is completely free of charge and only requires a couple minutes of your time. 

Thank you so much for your help,
[name].

Once you've sent the email and your test has arrived in the mail, you can continue the lesson below:

This lesson requires the following materials: a testing kit, two cups, salt, water, and a notebook.

Now it's time for your experiment!
Make two cups of water, one with salt and one without salt. Use a water test from the kit on each cup, following the instructions provided in a kit and supervised by a trusted adult. What are the differences you note? How did the salt change the result of the test from Cup 1 to Cup 2? Write down your answers in your notebook.

If you feel comfortable, take a sip of the water in either cup. Do you like the water with the salt, or the water without salt? How does this compare to the results of the tests you took? Would you like all of your water to be like the cup with salt?

If your answer is no, then think about the fact that fresh water (water without salt) is less than 3% of all water on earth. Salt water is then 97% of water on earth. How can we conserve fresh water? What's the importance of fresh water to our daily lives? What would it be like if we could only use salt water?

Once you've answered those questions, your lesson is complete! Congratulations! Email a trusted adult about your findings. Just click on the email link and fill in the content blanks and email adress on your chosen email platform. Please ensure that you've changed the email address from the example email address to your trusted adult's email address.