It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {"Let's Keep It Clean" Program Series - Junior}

Frannie’s next stop on the “Let’s Keep It Clean” tour is the Junior level!

Complete two activities from the booklet to earn your Ask Me About Groundwater patch.  Get inspired and do more to earn your Let’s Keep It Clean patch.

The Junior activities focus on investigating the connection between water and energy.  When water flows or falls, energy is generated.  Energy created from water is called hydropower, this energy can be used to generate electricity – hydroelectric power.  This hydroelectric power may be what’s used to power your home!

Girl Scouts will learn that water is always on the move.  The activities for the Junior level feature an emphasis on the scientific method as well as utilizing mathematics to learn about water’s movement.  Through fun, outdoor activities girls can observe that it takes energy to transport water and that there are more and less efficient ways to move water.  Girls will also investigate how far the water travels from its source (an aquifer, river, or lake) to get to their home.  Additionally Girl Scouts can conduct their own research on water and energy’s connection.  Girl Scouts can find inspiration for earning their bronze award through fun and challenging conservation and education actions to reduce their water and energy use. 

Frannie is going to tell you how to have a bucket relay!  There are communities around the world that have to manually transport all the water they use from a single source (well, river, or a lake) to their home.  Collecting and transporting the water they need can be a fulltime job.  Each drop of water is valued and used wisely.

Supplies

• 2 containers of the same size
• 2 small plastic cups or ladles
• 2 buckets
• Water

Instructions

1.  Divide your troop into two teams.

2.  Line the two teams up, side by side, in single file lines, behind the empty container.  This is the start line.

3.  Set a bucket of water a set distance from the start line.  (Tip: change the distance depending on the age of your troop and the space available.)  Both buckets should be the same distance from the start line and contain the same amount of water.

4.  Give the first person in each line a small cup or ladle.

5.  On “go,” the first person from each team will run to the bucket of water, scoop up the water, and travel back to the start line.

6.  They will empty the water they retrieved into their team’s start line container and hand off the cup or ladle to the next girl in line.

7.  The teams rotate through until one team’s start line container overflows with water.

For more fun, you can add obstacles, have the girls walk backwards, only use one hand, or they could balance the cup of water on their head.

For a second activity:

 1.  Spread each team out in a straight line so there is approximately 2 feet between each team member.

2.  Give each girl an empty cup.

3.  On “go,” the team member by the full bucket will scoop a cup of water and pour it into the cup of the girl next to her.  The girls will continue this down the line and the last team member will pour the water into the empty bucket.

4.  The teams continue this until there is no water left at the beginning of the line.

5.  The team with the most water in their end bucket wins.

6.  Discuss which method was faster and which method was more efficient in moving water.  Was there a method that took more energy than the other?

Want to see more Junior activities? Click here!  Are you in Nebraska?  Check with your area's Juliette's Boutique.

Have you done a Junior "Let's Keep It Clean" activity and would like to share?

Next week Frannie will be sharing the Cadette booklet,

 patches, and a fun activity!