It’s Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish! {Water Works}

Frannie wants to tell you about Conservation this week!  Conservation is the use of water-saving methods to reduce the amount of water needed for homes, lawns, farming, and industry, and thus increasing water supplies for the best long-term economic and social benefits.  Essentially conservation is not be wasteful and using something wisely.  Conservation is very important to the future of groundwater.  Without practicing intelligent groundwater conservation methods, groundwater supplies will run out very quickly.

Supplies

• Four large buckets or containers
• Two rulers
• Two ladles
• Two bowls
• Two cups
• Two soda bottles with holes punched in the bottom (Frannie is using 20 ounce bottles this week, but feel free to use 2 liter bottles if you are using extra large buckets or containers)
• Stopwatch

Instructions

 In advance:

1. Take a nail or other sharp object and carefully poke 4-5 holes in the bottom of each soda bottle. Cut the neck off the soda bottles to make a larger opening. 

2. Find a large open area. Place two large containers on one end of the open area and fill them with water. Place the other two large containers at the opposite end . At the end of the game, the water level in the second set of containers will be measured with the rulers to determine the winning team.

3. Put one soda bottle, one cup, one bowl, and one ladle in front of each container of water.

Activity:

1. Divide your troop equally into two teams.  Have each team form a line behind the containers filled with water. 

2. Give the teams five minutes to move as much water from the containers filled with water to the containers with rulers using the items provided. Only one person from each team may compete at any one time. They may not use the same item as the person in front of them used. 

3. A whistle blow will signify the start and end of the race. At the end of five minutes, the team that has the most water moved wins. If they are close, measure the water levels using the rulers.

Discuss which tool was the best for conserving water as it was transported.  Find out how you can conserve water every day with The Groundwater Foundation’s free app 30 by 30!

Share your experiences with 30 by 30 and the Let's Keep It Clean! Program.