At-Home Activities

As a follow up to the Try This activity in this lesson, collect water samples from additional sources around your home and community and repeat the procedures.

As you travel to or from school, make note of where water is present in your environment (e.g., rain, snow, lawn sprinklers, bodies of water, clouds, condensation on cars, etc.).

• Make salt water by mixing 10 mL of salt per 250 mL of water. (This is approximately a 3.5% solution, roughly the same as ocean concentration.) Locate items around the house and identify those which sink in fresh water but float in salt water. Try things like plastic toys, a potato, a carrot, small wooden items, etc.
• Discuss with family members some of your outdoor experiences with salt water (e.g., fishing, swimming). How do they differ from the same activities in fresh water?

Make a list of where you might see or experience the effects of evaporation or condensation in your home. Look for them when you shower, cook your food, etc.

• In early spring, locate a tiny stream of melting snow (meltwater) around your home. Dam the water and observe what happens as the water builds up behind the dam.
• During a heavy rain, observe what happens when raindrops hit hard surfaces, bare earth and vegetation. Do you see the raindrops bounce? Is any soil loosened on the bare earth?
• Look around your community for evidence of erosion.

Test percolation at home using the following materials: three coffee filters, a coffee-filter holder, two measuring cups, 125 mL of rice, 125 mL of coffee grounds and 125 mL of flour, one cup of water. You will also need a watch with a second hand.

1. Place a filter in the filter holder and add the rice.
2. Place the filter holder on top of a measuring cup and pour 250 mL of water directly on the rice.
3. Time and record how long it takes for 175 mL of water to percolate through the rice.
4. Take note of how clear the water is after it passes through the rice.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the coffee grounds and the flour.

If these three foods were soil, which one would rain water soak into? Off of which would it run off?

Take note of sources of pollution in your neighbourhood (e.g., cars idling for long periods, lawn pesticides, dumping of harmful chemicals in drains or sewer systems, litter). How can this pollution make its way into the water system?

• Try to identify the source of water entry into your home and where the wastewater exits your home. How large are the water pipes? How large are the drain pipes? (Water pipes are usually 2 cm in diameter and drain pipes are usually 7-8 cm.)
• Investigate how a toilet works or where the various water and wastewater pipes run in your home.

Discuss with family members or acquaintances any experiences they may have had with a water disaster in their lifetime. How did they cope with the situation?

As a follow up to the Try This activity in this lesson, try making a larger, more permanent water shed at home using plaster and foam packing material. For low vegetation, use green-painted coarse sawdust stuck on with waterproof glue. Make trees from pieces of foam and wire. Predict how the water will flow, then let it rain on the watershed. Make sure that the watershed has a container for the water to run into.

In winter, try cutting into a snowdrift to see the various layers of snow. Snow can change in only a few weeks: older snow becomes more granular and icy.

As a follow up to this Inquiry Investigation, try making some ice cubes with coloured salty water. In the same freezer, make another set of ice cubes with coloured fresh water. Using short, wide glasses that contain tap water of various temperatures (ice-cold and room-temperature), see which type of ice cube combines more quickly with the water in the glasses.

If you have not done so in class, attempt the Try This activity for this lesson at home.

Watch the weather reports and record the local weather for a few days. Try to identify instances in which ocean currents or prevailing winds over water (or land) appear to affect local weather patterns.

Make waves in your bathtub and observe what waves do when they hit a flat wall.

Compare the tidal ranges of water in containers of various shapes.

1. Put some water into a square container. Tilt it toward one of the flat sides, then tilt it toward one of the corners. Compare the tidal range of each.
2. Place some water into a tall, narrow container and the same amount of water into a short, wide container. Tilt the containers and compare the tidal range in each.

From your school or community library, sign out a video about deep-sea exploration or adventure. Watch these with other family members and discuss what you learned.

Locate commercial products in your home that are made from oil. (This will help you answer Reflecting question no. 4 in this lesson.)

• With adult family members, explore shallow marshes or streams around your community. Observe the plants and animals you find.
• The next time you have an opportunity to visit an ocean shore, explore the tidal pools and dig into the sand after the tide has gone out. Observe what you find in the sand.

Plant fertilizer is a commonly available commercial product. Many people, however, use "home remedies" to help their plants grow instead of commercial fertilizers. Survey older family members and acquaintances about possible alternatives to commercial fertilizers. Could any of these materials harm local water systems? Predict the effect on algae growth of adding such materials to a water supply.

You may want to raise your own brine shrimp at home. Science suppliers and some aquarium retailers often sell starter kits. You can research information on how to maintain brine shrimp populations on the Internet.

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Note to parents: Since the Design Challenge may be used by teachers as a performance assessment opportunity, parents should consult with the teacher to determine the appropriate degree of parental involvement in their child's completion of the Design Challenge.

The Unit Summary in your textbook lists all the learning expectations you have covered in the unit and identifies the specific lessons in which the knowledge and skills have been developed.

You can use the Unit Summary to help you create a personal study guide in preparation for an end-of-unit test:

1. Copy down the list of learning expectations from your textbook. These are grouped under three headings: Understanding Concepts, Applying Skills, Making Connections.
2. For each learning expectation, locate the appropriate lesson(s) in the unit where the expectation was covered. These are found at the end of each expectation (e.g., 2.1).3. Flip to the appropriate lesson(s) for each expectation and make study notes of the key ideas or skills you learned.