Water Badge

( Discover Science and Technology)

submitted by Zoee Swafford (Dolphin, Troop #148)

 

Most people do not realize how water affects our everyday lives, except when it rains. When you ask people/kids “what are some forms of water?”, they only think of rain. When you ask people/kids, “if we didn’t have clean water how would this effect what you do day to day (activities that use water)?” Most people/kids thinks of showers, baths and swimming. Lastly, when you ask people/kids “if you didn’t have clean water how would that effect or change what is in your home and school or what you do at home or school?” Most people/kids say, I do not know. As you do this badge, it will open your mind and eyes to how water is all around us and most of us don’t even realized it.

Through games, simple experiments and activities you will learn about how limited our freshwater/drinkable water is compared to the abundance of saltwater and how important it is not to destroy water in any form so it is unusable. After completing this badge you will have a better understanding of why we should help keep water clean and how to save water in our day to day lives.

All online resources are listed at the end of the badge.

 

Penguins: Do at least 3 requirements including the 2 Starred

_____ 1.* Learn about plants and animals that need water. You could use flash cards or play a guessing game. Flash cards can be found at any learn center or school section of a department store. If you are really adventurous, you could make the cards.

_____ 2.* How many things can you think of that you like to do that involves water? Draw, color or talk about your favorite activity that deals with water. (ex: baths, water painting, puddle jumping, sledding, etc.)

 

Otters: Do at least 4 requirements including the 2 starred

_____1.* Do Penguin Requirements 1 & 2.

_____ 2.* Learn about the water cycle. What different forms does water come in? Where does our freshwater come from? How long does it take for freshwater to come to the surface? Would you say that water recycles itself?

 

Dolphins: Do 5 requirements including the 2 starred

_____1*Do Otter requirement # 1 and 2

_____ 2.* Discuss why clean water is important to people, animals, and plants. Try the experiment below. This will show that no matter how hard you try to remove objects from water, you can never completely get water back to how it was before the objects was place in the water.

You will need for each person:

  • Plastic table cover (this could get messy and food coloring does stain things)
  • 2 clear drinking cups or clear containers: It should not be smaller than a 4 oz Dixie cup, and doesn’t need to be larger than a 8 oz Dixie cup (must be clear!)
  • Liquid food coloring (any dark color will do).
  • 1 tablespoon or 1 liquid measuring cup (best size to use 1 cup)
  • Clear Water

Note: While doing this experiment it is better to observe the changes in the water by looking through the side of the container instead of just looking down into it. Let’s begin!

  1. Place table cover on table
  2. Give or have each person get 2 containers, and 1 tablespoon, 1 liquid measuring cup.
  3. Place the 2 containers in front of you. Fill 1 container full of water.
  4. Have the children look at their water from the side and from the top to see if it is clear. Once everyone says it Clear! continue
  5. Put only 1 drop of liquid food coloring in the container with water in it (DO NOT MIX!)
  6. With your fingers slowly sprinkle a small about of jello power into water (DO NOT MIX).
  7. From the side of your container watch what happens when the jello power goes into the water?
  8. Have the children look at their container from the side to watch what the food coloring is doing and how it is reacting with the water.
  9. Wait 20 seconds
  10. With your spoon or measuring cup try to slowly and carefully remove the food coloring from the water and place it in the other clear container that has nothing in it.
  11. Now Stop! Have the children look at the water with the food coloring to see what happened to the water.
  12. Do step 6 and 7 2 more times.

Talk about how if the food coloring (jello powered) was dirt or oil, how this would affect how we use water? (Ex: drinking, washing clothes, swimming, food, etc.). Older girls could get into more depth with this conversation.

 

Butterflies: Do 6 requirements including the 2 starred

_____ 1* Do Dolphin requirement # 1 and 2

_____ 2.* Learn about Freshwater vs Saltwater (drinkable water and non-drinkable water).

You will need:

  • 1 state map
  • 1 county map
  • 1 world map
  1. Use the world map to learn and see the oceans of the world (non-drinkable water)
  2. Now use the state map to learn about freshwater sources available in your state.
  3. At a personal level use a county map to see what freshwater areas are near you.
  4. Take the world map and put the county map next to it. This will show how much more saltwater (non-drinkable) water we have compared

To freshwater (drinkable water)

 

Eagles: Do 7 requirements including the 2 starred

_____1*Do Butterfly requirement # 1 and #2

_____ 2* Learn about drought. What is the average rainfall per year where you live? When was your last drought? Learn about an area of the work that is drought stricken or has a drought season. How do they adapt? What measures can they take to conserve their water?

 

Owls: Do 9 requirements including the 2 starred:

_____ 1. * Do Eagle requirements 1 & 2

_____ 2. * Teach someone how to do a skill from this badge or teach some knowledge about this badge to someone. You can teach kids, your spouse, seniors, anyone, just as long as you are sharing your new found knowledge. If for some reason you cannot teach what you have learned to someone else, you may choose an additional 2 optional requirements instead.

 

Optional Requirements

_____ 3. Play a water game. For example, you could have a water race where children hold 2 containers with water in them and race to the finish line without spilling their water. The one with the most water wins.

_____4. Learn about erosion. Simulate erosion by pouring water onto a “mountain” of dirt or sand. What happens? Why is erosion control important? Find somewhere outdoors where there is evidence of erosion. What is causing it? What problems might it cause?

_____ 5. Take a field trip that involves learning about water. Examples might be to visit an aquarium, soil conservation group, flower garden, farm with either plants or animals, mill that makes juice (ex: cider or juice mill), a dam, etc.

_____ 6. Make your own water song or water game.

_____ 7. Find out how many items in your house contain water. With adult supervision, explore the kitchen, pantry, bathroom, laundry room, etc. and make a list of items that contain water.

You will need for each person:

  • A pen
  • Paper
  • A willingness to explore
  1. At home or in your meeting find food boxes, bags, juice or soda bottles
  2. Look for the ingredients label to see if water was used to make it
  3. If the label tells you, how much water was used to make that item?

_____8. Try the following experiment: Why freshwater (drinkable) is important to people, plants and animals? This will show that even though our planet is made up of about 70% water only 3% of it is freshwater (drinkable).

You will need for each person:

  • 2 clear drinking cups (must be clear!)
  • Small bowl to put salt in (this is optional! If you want to go from child to child and fill their spoons, you can do that)
  • 1 teaspoon for each child
  • Table salt
  • Table cloth (it might get messy from stirring)
  • Clear water (warm water this will help the salt dissolve faster)
  1. Place table cover on table
  2. Give or have each person get 2 containers (mark anywhere on the containers A and B or 1 and 2 so they don’t get confused later)
  3. Fill cup A and B full with water
  4. Have children take a sip from cup A and B so they know what it taste like
  5. Place small bowl with salt in it between children or fill their spoons with salt
  6. Add on teaspoon of salt to cup A and stir until salt disappears (this takes about 1 to 2 minutes)
  7. Have the children look at the cup A (salt added) and look at cup B (no salt). Do they look the same?
  8. Have them take a little sip of cup B (no salt added), then take a sip of cup A (salt added). Did they taste the same? You might not need an answer, just the look on their faces.
  9. Repeat step 6 and 7 2 more times
  10. After doing step I have the children do step 8
  11. Children might have to rinse their mouths after step 8
  12. After children have rinsed their mouths talk about how they would feel if they didn’t have fresh/drinkable water to drink. Talk about what other things they couldn’t do if they didn’t have fresh/drinkable water. (ex: drinking, bathing, food growing, etc.)

_____ 9. Make a water snooper and go snooping:

You will need :

  • 1 large empty tin can (both ends cut out)
  • 1 piece of clear cellophane cut to cover one end of can
  • 1 sturdy rubber band

Place cellophane over opening and secure with rubber band. Go to a creek, or small pond and use your “snooper” to see what you can see living in the water. Note: your water snooper will work as a magnifying glass when placed in contact with the water.

_____10. Have a visitor come and talk about how important water is or how clean water is important.

_____11. Make a list or talk about activities you can do with clean/fresh water. Now talk about how you would feel if you could not do those activities, or if it was limited by local communities.

_____12. Participate in a water service project. Ideas might include:

  • Do a cleanup of a local beach or public swimming area, a river, etc.
  • Put up a poster at your local school, library, community builds, etc…
  • Have a water fair/carnival to celebrate how important water is.

_____13 . Find out what industries have been created because of water use. (ex: hydro electricity, drink companies, etc.)

_____14. Find out if we use less plastic how that affects water and our world.

_____15. With permission from a parent, do a search online for good information about how to save water and keep water clean. Keep track of words that you used in your search and website you learned from. Have a pen and a piece of paper ready for use. What search terms gave you the best results? What did you learn?

_____16. Test and monitor local water. (http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org)

_____17. Research at least 3 careers involving water. Find out salary, education requirements, equality ratio, quantity of jobs, and any other interesting “odd” information.

_____18. If you have a leaky faucet, place a cup under it. Figure out how many droplets went into the cup at the end of a minute. Calculate how many that would be in an hour. Figure out how much water would be lost after 24 hours, 7 days, or you could even see how much would be lost in a year. If you do not have a leaky faucet, ask a parent to make the faucet drip slowly for one minute so you can do this. Here is one example of how much you could be losing. In 1 minute the faucet dripped 30 times, in 1 hour that 30 drops turned into 1,800 drops. Now figure out what this would equal in cups or gallons.

_____19. Make a wave bottle and help a younger child make one as well.

Items needed:

  • Recycled water bottle with cap.
  • Vegetable oil (younger girls and children)/ used motor oil (older girls and adults)
  • Water
  • Food coloring (only needed with vegetable oil)
  • Electrical tape

Fill bottle halfway with water, add food coloring. Add vegetable oil. Seal with lid and wrap with electrical tape. What happens when it is agitated?

__ 20. Discuss ideas on water conservation with others, make a personal goal or promise to make a specific change in your life to conserve water. Make a promise and practice this change for 1 month.

Disclaimer: Some Frontier Girls/Quest Clubs Web pages may provide links to other Internet sites for the convenience of users. Frontier Girls/Quest Clubs is not responsible for the availability or content of these external sites, nor does Frontier Girls/Quest Clubs endorse, warrant, or guarantee the products, services, or information described or offered at these other Internet sites. Use these sites at your own risk.

Additional Resources-

Don’t waste water — we need it

http://dontwastewaterweneedit.weebly.com/

Crayola water is everywhere

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/water-water-everywhere-coloring-page/

Super coloring pages water

http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/tag/water/

Free coloring pages fun water
http://freecoloringpagefun.com/nature/water

EPA water home page

http://water.epa.gov/

Free coloring pages.com

http://www.freeprintablecoloringpages.net/

Interactive water cycle

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html

Water play cycle:

http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/water-experiments.html

Virtual tour of a submarine.

http://ussnautilus.org/virtualTour/index.shtml

Additional ideas or experiments:

  1. Water cycle experiment made easy for kids: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/32887_water-cycle-experiment-easy-for-kids
  2. Most Amazing Deep Sea Creatures Part 1, 2 and 3 (children safe):
    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBSo80iNlE&feature=BFp&list=PLB792136F4BFBFC42
    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsO0j1Qoyns&feature=BFa&list=PLB792136F4BFBFC42&lf=BFp
    3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7fnumgWZgU&feature=BFa&list=PLB792136F4BFBFC42&lf=BFp
    4. Online interactive water cycle: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html
    5. Make your own water cycle at a meeting or at home: http://thewaterproject.org/resources/the_water_cycle.asp
    6. Escaping water: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/escapingwater.html
    7. Gravity Free Water: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/gravityfreewater.html
    8. Saltwater Tester: http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/saltwatertester.html
    9. Water play cycle: http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/water-experiments.html