It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Macroinvertebrates}

Water quality is very important to Frannie. One way the quality of lakes and rivers can be determined is by exploring the type of macroinvertebrates that live in that body of water. A macroinvertebrate is an organism that is large enough to be seen with the naked eye and does not have a backbone. Some macroinvertebrates are pollution tolerant and can live in polluted water. However, some macroinvertebrates are pollution sensitive and cannot survive in an environment that is polluted. Thus, the macroinvertebrates can be split into three classes based on their sensitivity to pollution: 

Class 1 - Pollution Sensitive 

Class 2 - Moderately Tolerant

Class 3 - Pollution Tolerant 


Frannie and the Girl Scouts had fun exploring a river for the various types of macroinvertebrates that lived there. They used nets and buckets to search for the tiny organisms!

Once a water sample was taken, Frannie and the Girl Scouts were able to look at the macroinvertebrates using magnifying glasses to help them identify which class they were from.

Check out this video of a Damselfly Naiad Frannie and the Girl Scouts found! A Damselfly Naiad is a young damselfly, and it is completely aquatic. It is a Class 2 (moderately tolerant) macroinvertebrate!

Have you ever explored a body of water for macroinvebrates with your Girl Scout troop? Tell us all about your experience here!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish {Reusing Towels}

Frannie is always looking for new ways to save water, so she took note of a sign she saw the last time she stayed at a hotel. 

This sign got Frannie thinking, "What if I reused the towels I use at home?" 

So the next time Frannie was filling her bath, she reminded herself to hang up her towel when she was finished so she could use it a few more days. 

At the end of the week, Frannie noticed she had half the laundry she usually has so she saved a LOT of water by reusing her towel a few times! 

You can also save water by reusing other laundry items like hand towels or lightly used jeans and sweaters.

Do you have any water saving laundry tips you use at home? Share them with us at http://www.groundwater.org/kids/share.html.

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Turn off the Faucet}

Frannie brushes her teeth twice a day according to the recommendation of the American Dental Association.

Many people let the water run when brushing their teeth, but not Frannie! Frannie knows that letting the faucet run can waste a lot of water. For example, letting the tap run for two minutes, twice a day in a faucet that runs at a rate of 2.5 gallons per minute can waste up to 10 gallons of water! That's 300 gallons a month or 3,650 gallons a year for just one person!

Turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth can save a lot of water. Imagine only running the faucet for 10 seconds while filling up a glass of water to wet your toothbrush and rinse your mouth. That's a savings of more than 9 gallons of water a day or 270 gallons a month or 3,285 gallons a year!

So, remember to always turn off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth just like Frannie! Do you have other ways you like to conserve water? You can share them here!

It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {The Ogallala Aquifer}

Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in the soil, sand and rock. It is stored in and moves slowly through geologic formations called aquifers. 

This week Frannie is going to help you learn about one of the world’s largest aquifers: The Ogallala Aquifer!

The Ogallala aquifer (pronounced OH-GA-LA-LA) is an aquifer located beneath the Great Plains of the United States. It stretches about 175,000 miles and covers eight states! Those states are Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.

About 95 percent of the water pumped out of the Ogallala is for irrigation [that mean watering crops and other plants]. The aquifer also provides drinking water to 82% of the people who live within the aquifer boundary.* That means the water in the Ogallala is VERY important because it helps grow our food and gives us clean water to drink! 

Do you live in one of the Ogallala Aquifer states? Think of some ways you use the aquifer and make a poster for your community that explains why the Ogallala Aquifer is so important. You can share it with us too! Just go to www.groundwater.org/kids/share.html .

*[Information from the Natural Resources Conservation Service]