TeachRock

Preparation:

1. Cut the 2-liter bottles in half horizontally, and place the top half face-down in the bottom half.

Motivational Activity:

1. Play Vic Mensa’s song “Shades of Blue” for students (Note: after 0:23, strong language is present. Teacher discretion is advised. The link will open to the official song on YouTube, we suggest loading the video before class to avoid showing advertising during class.)
2. Display Image 1, “Shades of Blue” Excerpt. Ask students:
   • What story is Mensa telling in these lyrics? Do you think he is rapping about an actual event? If so, what event might it be?
   • What might Mensa mean when he says “poor people get the shorter end of the stick”? Can you think of an example where this might be the case?

Procedure:

1. Tell students that Mensa is referring to a specific and ongoing event: the contamination of the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, otherwise known as the “Flint Water Crisis.” Ask students:
   • How might have the drinking water in Flint gotten contaminated? (It was not treated properly.)
   • What is water treatment? (Water treatment is the process by which water is cleaned and disinfected for healthy consumption.)
   • Why is water treatment important? What might result from ineffective water treatment?
2. Tell them they will be creating and experimenting with their own water treatment systems. But first, they need to create “dirty water” which will represent water from a natural source that hasn’t been treated. As a class, prepare a large pitcher (around 2 liters) of dirty water by mixing tap clean water with various pollutants such as dirt, liquid detergent, vinegar, and/or food coloring.
3. Divide students into groups, and have each student group to go to a station containing:
   • A 2-liter soda bottle, split in half
   • 5-6 coffee filters
   • Cups full of various filtering components: small pebbles, large pebbles, sand,  cotton balls, activated charcoal
   • 2 empty cups to collect filtered water
4. In their groups, ask students to place the bottleneck face down into the other half of the bottle. Then, ask students to choose one of the filter materials they have available, and place it in a coffee filter. Place the coffee filter into the top half of the two liter bottle, and place the entire filter contraption on top of an empty cup (a Youtube video of this process can be found here. ) Go around to each group a pour a little bit of the dirty water into each group’s filter.
5. After the water filters into each cup, ask students to write with a marker the type of filter material they used (sand, pebbles, cotton balls, etc.) on the cup. Then, ask each group to bring their cup to the front of the class. Let the entire class observe the results of each group’s filter, and ask students:
   • Did the different filter materials affect the water in different ways? What observations can you make about the different ways the water looks?
   • Which filter material seemed to be the most effective? Which seemed to be the least effective?
   • Did any groups use the same filter material? Are their results similar?
   • Why might different materials filter the water in different ways?
6. Give each group one copy of Handout 1 – Water Filter Schematic. Tell them they will now be creating a more advanced filter, based on the observations they made. Ask students to first throw away the old coffee filter with the previous activity’s material in it. Then choose three materials, placing each material into a separate coffee filter. Then, layer the three coffee filters of materials into the bottle, taking careful note to write down the order in Handout 1. Again, pour the dirty water into each group’s water filter.
7. In a central location, have each student group present their sample of filtered water alongside their filled-out copy of Handout 1 – Water Filter Schematic. As a class, observe the results of each filter. Ask students:
   • Which cup seems to contain the clearest water?
   • What materials did the group who filtered the clearest water use? What order did they place these materials?
   • Which beaker seems to contain the dirtiest water?
   • What materials did the group who filtered the dirtiest water use? What order did they place these materials?
   • Based on the results of the experiments, what was the most effective water to filter water? Why might that be?
   • Would you be comfortable drinking any of the water from these beakers? Why or why not?
   • Based on these experiments, do you think filtering is the only step to treating water? Why or why not?
8. Show Image 2, Water Treatment Diagram. Read aloud as a class each step in the water treatment process. Ask students:
   • How many processes in this diagram did the class cover in the experiment? Which process was covered?
   • Why are all these steps required to treat water? What might they each accomplish? What might happen if one of these steps is eliminated?
9. Tell students they will now watch a video about what occurred in Flint, Michigan that led to the water crisis. Play SciShow’s clip The Science of Flint’s Water Crisis from the beginning to 3:30. Then ask students:
   • When did the Flint Water Crisis begin? (If needed, play back the beginning of the clip, which mentions the city began using its own river to supply it water.)
   • What is “Orthophosphate?” What role does it play in water treatment?
   • Based on the clip, what happens when orthophosphates aren’t included in the water?
   • Why did lead end up in Flint’s drinking water?
10. Show Image 2, Water Treatment Diagram once again. Ask students:
    • What component of the water treatment process keeps lead from entering water? (Note: teachers may help students by reminding them that orthophosphate is used to stop corrosion.)
11. Pass out one page of Handout 2 – Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning (CDC) from the Centers for Disease Control to each student group. Have student groups read the document together. Then ask the class:
    • How might led exposure harm your health?
    • What are the long-term effects of lead poisoning?
    • Where might lead be found in the household? How can it get into the body?
    • Is lead exposure still an issue today in the United States? How do you know?
    • What are some of the ways a person can prevent lead poisoning?
12. Show Image 1, “Shades of Blue” Excerpt once again. Ask students:
    • According to Mensa, why was Flint’s water source switched? (Note to teacher: Mensa correctly identifies that the water source was changed as a cost-cutting measure.)
    • Why might have the city chosen not to add Orthophosphates into the water to treat corrosion? (It was another cost-cutting measure).
    • Elsewhere in the lyrics, Mensa says “The people with the least always gotta pay the most/We the first to go when they deleting them budgets.” How might this sentiment apply to the situation in Flint? Why might people in that city be frustrated?
    • Besides writing a song, how else might someone increase awareness about the Flint Water Crisis?
13. Play “Meet Mari Copeny” here. (The link will open to YouTube, we suggest loading the video before class to avoid showing advertising during class.) Ask students:
    • Who is Mari Copeny?
    • Is her account of the Flint Water Crisis similar to what you learned in class?
    • What were some ways Copeny spread awareness of the Flint Water Crisis? Who did she reach out? What other projects did she pursue?
    • Are water bottles a sustainable solution to Flint’s water problem, or is something else needed?

Summary Activity:

1. Split students into groups. Ask them:
   • Why did the Flint water crisis occur? Was it a problem that required new scientific research or technological innovation to solve? Or was it something else?
   • Imagine one day you begin to notice a strange look and taste in your drinking water. As a group, brainstorm an action plan of what you would do to make sure the drinking water is tested and safe, and present your plan to the rest of the class.
2. Share student’s action plans with info@teachrock.org!

Extension Activities:

1. Research an environmental concern in your city or state. Write a short summary of the problem, and suggest ways the problem might be addressed by governments, businesses, or individual citizens.
2. Choose one of the people profiled in the article “Women of Water.” Read the portion of the article about the figure you chose, and summarize their contribution fighting the Flint Water Crisis. Could their actions be defined as scientific, civic, or something else?

Explore Further:

The following websites offer more information on what is being done to ensure clean water in Flint and throughout the United States:

Clean Water Fund

Clean Water Action

Flint Kids Fund

Handout 1 – Water Filter Schematic Handout 2 – Prevent Childhood Lead Poisoning (CDC)