Mad Science: Day Six

Update: Here are Make and Take equipment for stream studies.

Update: Clear fluorescent tube sleeves or guards are about $3.75 to make a turbidity or transparency tube.  Here are instructions for reading results.

Mad Science Camp needs back up activities.  Sometimes planned  activities are completed in five minutes when 30 minutes were anticipated.  So, here is Day Six: Stream Assay.  When kids measure the health of a stream, or in our case, a retention pond, there are several factors: temperature, turbidity, pH, and nitrates.  Weather data is important, too.  We’ll use GLOBE protocols to learn about clouds and test water in the stream and retention pond near our house.

Our resources are found in Elementary Globe.  First, we’ll make clinometers,  densiometer, transparency tubes, and assemble water kits: buckets, thermometers, test kits, white ice cube trays, magnifiers, tennis ball, flags, and measuring tape.  The kids will do Water Wonders, read Willow Creek and Clouds Have Names, do a Sky Report, use a cloud identification chart, (and this chart, too). make clouds in jars,  look for macroinvertebrates, test the water, measure stream flow, and measure canopy of the trees over the stream and pond.

We need to test these plans.  We’ll assemble the materials for the instruments and charts.  Several friends are naturalists.  Here are several protocols.  We’ll have a blast!