Essential Question: How can we purify water from a filthy source to make it drinkable?

Lesson Summary: In this lesson students explored the purification process that transforms compost water into drinking water. 

We learned about five different stages in the purification process:

1. Aeration
2. Coagulation
3. Sedimentation
4. Filtration
5. Disinfection

After expert testimony from students, the class participated in a filtration demo with rocks, sand, and a coffee filter attached to a bottle. Together we successfully (...sort of) filtered compost water into only slightly contaminated water. 

Demo setup

Waste water treatment video from class

Another from of purification, solar distillation, as shown by Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild as he distills his own pee. 

Essential Question:
How can we determine which type of water students prefer without experimental bias?

Lesson Summary:
Today students were challenged to create their own blind taste test to compare different types of bottled water to the school water fountain water. 
The results were quite interesting. 

Several groups found that students preferences changed once they could not see the label of the water and concluded that there was experimental bias. 

Other students reported in poster presentations that their preferences stayed the same during both rounds of testing. 

Today we continued our investigation of yeast by changing the variables in he experiment. 

Each lab group was given a choice of either changing the amount of yeast, the amount of sugar, the temperature of the water, or the size of the bottle. 

Most of the time the winner appeared to be either hotter water or a smaller bottle. 

Essential Question: How can we test if something is alive? 

Today we investigated whether yeast is alive by combining yeast, sugar, and warm water inside a water bottle and placing a balloon on top. Scholars then waited as their balloons began to expand!