It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Upcycled Halloween Spider}

Halloween is THIS WEEKEND! Frannie will be practicing social distancing, staying home instead of trick-or-treating with her friends, but she's still full of Halloween spirit! Frannie found a fun activity you can do, too - making a spooky, upcycled spider!

Here's what you need:

• 2-liter plastic bottle
• Black acrylic paint
• Scissors
• Glue
• Googly eyes

What to do:
1. Clean out a 2-liter plastic bottle and remove labeling.

2. Pour black paint in the bottle, screw cap on, and shake the bottle until black paint has coated the entire bottle. This may be messy, so make sure the cap is on tight! When you're done, pour the excess paint out.

3. Let the paint dry overnight.

4. Cut the top of the bottle off and recycle.

5. Make legs for the spider by cutting the bottom of the bottle into 8 strips.

6. Bend the legs outward at the base of each strip.

7. Bend the legs inward about halfway down each strip.

8. Bend the legs inward again at the end of each strip.

9. Glue the googly eyes on your spider.

10. Decorate your house with your spooky spider!

Frannie wishes you a safe and fun Halloween!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {5 Ways (You Didn't Know!) You Used Water}

 We all know that water has a very important role in our lives. We use it to drink, to cook our food, to bathe and brush our teeth, and to water our plants or pets.  But water affects our lives in so many other ways we might not think about.  Check out these 5 unique ways that you use water!

1. Heating and Cooling. Many homes and businesses are using something called “geothermal energy” to heat and cool their buildings.  “Geo” means “from the earth” and “thermal” means heat so this type of energy uses the heat from the under the ground to regulate the temperature of a particular system.  Buildings that use this system pump a liquid, often groundwater, through a series of pipes and devices like “heat exchangers” to use the natural heat from the earth to warm up the air inside. During hot summers, a geothermal system can also cool down the air by working in reverse, absorbing the heat from inside and moving it back down into the earth.  This very efficient system costs less than other modern systems and almost none of the energy is wasted.

2. Electricity. 

Hydroelectric power is a clean, renewable, and reliable form of energy that converts the energy of falling water into electricity.  Do you know about the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, Nevada? It’s one of the nation’s largest hydropower facilities, with each wing of the plant rising nearly 20 stories for a length of 650 feet (almost 2 football fields). With 17 main turbines, the average annual generation is about 4.2 billion kilowatt-hours. That’s over 3.1 billion horsepower and enough energy to serve 1.3 million people, all by using the water!

3. Wearing Clothes. Did you know that 2.6% of the water used globally is for cotton consumption?  That cotton t-shirt that you’re wearing required a lot of water to go from growing in a field to being hung in your closet. And that’s not even taking into consideration the amount of water it takes to dye your shirt, or any other articles of your clothing, into the fun colors you like to wear.

4. Reading, writing, and printing. Did you know that in the US, we use about 69 million tons of paper and paperboard (like boxes and folders) each year? In the process of just making the paper, water is used to grow the trees, maintain the tools that are used to cut the trees, turn the trees into a pulp, and maintain the machines that turn the pulp into paper?  And that’s just to make blank paper. Water is also used to make the ink to print 2 billion books yearly or put fun cover photos on 350 million magazines.  It takes roughly 1,160 gallons of water to make a single pound of paper and that’s a lot of paper.

5. Using a computer. If you think using email, the internet, and, in general, going paperless is the perfect solution: think again. The water it takes to make a single laptop is about the same as washing 70 loads of laundry. A desktop? 1,500 gallons!  Every kind of computer and IT product demands vast quantities of “ultra-pure water”, a kind of water that highly distilled from even larger quantities of “regular” water.

So? How many did you know? If you can think of other ways that water secretly helps our lives, share them with us at info@groundwater.org.

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Upcycle: Toilet Paper Roll Bat Decorations}

It's finally October! Do you know what that means? Halloween is right around the corner!

You can make this Halloween fun and sustainable by upcycling a paper towel roll or toilet paper roll into one of Frannie's favorite spooky decorations: flying bats! Hang them in any room in your house and even outside, as long as they don't get wet!

Before you get started, you'll need to gather some supplies: toilet paper or paper towel rolls; black paint; white paint, googly eyes, or other eye-shaped stickers, the creepier the better; brushes; black paper; scissors; and glue. If you would like to make your bats look like they are flying at you, you will also need string and a hole punch.

If you're using a paper towel roll, you will need to cut it into three smaller pieces that are about the size of a toilet paper roll.

1. If you want to hang your bats from your door handle or tree limbs, start by punching 2 holes on either side of the roll and thread your string through.

2. Fold the ends of the empty toilet paper roll in together. You may need to secure the folds with glue.

3. Paint the roll black. While it's drying, cut out bat wings from the paper. You can cut the wings individually or as one whole piece. Either way, make sure to leave some space between the wings or a tab at the end of a wing so you can glue them to the back of the roll.

4. Once the glue is dry, bend the wings back just enough so that they stick out from bat.

5. Now it's time for the eyes. You can either glue on googly eyes, place the eye stickers. If you're painting the eyes, start by painting on small white ovals. When the white paint dries, dab a small circle of black paint for the pupils.

6. Display your bat where everyone can see!

Have a very Happy Halloween everyone!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {The Water Cycle: Part 8 - Runoff}

This is the eighth part of Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle. Please check out her previous blog on the overview of the water cycle and her deep dives into groundwater, discharge, surface water, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.

Welcome back to Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle! The green bead on the water cycle bracelet represents runoff. When rain falls, snow melts, or when Frannie’s friend accidentally leaves the hose running in the garden (oh no!), the water that flows over the land and into the sewers, rivers, and lakes is called runoff.

A watershed is an area of land that surrounds a basin of water, such as a river or lake, that collects the runoff. Watersheds can be as small as the little neighborhood that surrounds and drains water into Frannie’s pond or huge, like the Mississippi River Watershed that drains water from 31 U.S. states and two provinces in Canada.

Runoff often picks up pollutants as it flows over the land. Not only can this affect the ecology in the area, but it can also have serious effects on local surface water and, eventually, the reservoir or ocean where it ends up.

Sometimes, precipitation doesn’t make it all the way down to earth. For example, when it rains in a Frannie’s neighborhood, the rain can be intercepted, meaning it lands on the buildings, sidewalks, streets instead of the grass or garden. The water that flows down the side of the street eventually runs into storm drains, which transport the water to a drainage area. Some water may even seep into the ground in a process called recharge!

Join us next time as Frannie explores recharge, the final stop on her water cycle journey.

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {The Water Cycle: Part 7 - Precipitation}

This is the seventh part of Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle. Please check out her previous blog on the overview of the water cycle and her deep dives into groundwater, discharge, surface water, evaporation, and condensation.

Welcome back to Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle! The yellow bead on Frannie’s water cycle bracelet represents precipitation. Even though it’s a big word, we are all very familiar with many different kinds of precipitation like rain, hail, sleet, and snow!

Precipitation is water that falls from the sky. The tiny water droplets are big enough to form visible clouds but not yet big enough to fall. Precipitation happens when millions of cloud droplets collide together to form a single raindrop or through another process where ice crystals are rapidly formed into snow or hail.

One quick clarification, though: fog and mist are not types of precipitation. They are actually suspensions, which means that the water vapor has not condensed enough to precipitate.

Precipitation is not the only way water can move from the sky to the ground. Back when Frannie was investigating evaporation, she touched on the concept of sublimation, where solid forms of water can become vapor without ever entering the liquid phase.

Deposition, or desublimation, is the opposite of that. In sub-freezing air, water vapor can turn directly into ice. It’s very possible you’ve already seen this process in action. On very cold winter days, water vapor goes through process of deposition to become the frost, also known as hoarfrost, that you can see coating plant stems, spiderwebs, and wires.

Join Frannie next time as she finds out where all that water goes once its back on the ground!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {The Water Cycle: Part 6 - Condensation}

This is the sixth part of Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle. Please check out her previous blog on the overview of the water cycle and her deep dives into groundwater, discharge, surface water, and evaporation.

Welcome back to Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle! Condensation is represented by the white bead on Frannie’s water cycle bracelet. Before we can understand condensation, we have to look at one of water’s coolest properties.

Water droplets have 2 amazing superpowers. The first one is called “cohesion”, which means that the molecules like to stick together. You can see this water property in action with a very simple experiment.

1) Fill a glass of water to the rim.
2) Once it looks full, continue to add water drop by drop.

Even though the water is technically over the rim of the glass, it isn’t spilling because the drops are cohering to each other.

A water droplet's second superpower is known as "adhesion", which means that molecules like to stick to other things. You can see this water property in action in another very simple experiment.

1) On a warm day, fill up a glass with ice and water.
2) Leave it out on a table for a few minutes.

Observe the water that collects on the outside of the glass. The glass isn't leaking - water vapor from the air is cooling down and sticking, or adhering, to the outside of the glass.

After water vapor rises into the air, it starts to cool and seek out non-gaseous particles, known as Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCNs). When water vapor makes contact with CCNs, it adheres. It then cools and transitions from vapor to liquid droplets, as clouds would have in low and intermediate elevations, or solid ice crystals, as clouds would have high up in the atmosphere. Clouds grow when more water molecules cool and cohere together in the process known as condensation.

Condensation is an exothermic process, which means it releases heat. Convection, which is movement of a fluid in response to heat, and advection, which is the movement of a material that is suspended in a fluid such as a CCN, are two other important processes at this stage in the water cycle.  They are responsible not only for carrying clouds over the ocean and land, but also for our next step in the water cycle – the precipitation of water from the clouds.

Join Frannie next time as she heads back down to the ground with precipitation!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {The Water Cycle: Part 5 - Evaporation}

This is the fifth part of Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle. Please check out her previous blog on the overview of the water cycle and her deep dives into groundwater, discharge, and surface water.

Welcome back to Frannie’s deep dive into the water cycle! The dark blue bead on Frannie’s water cycle bracelet represents evaporation. Evaporation is the process of a liquid being heated up until it turns into gas. As Frannie described before, we can actually see the process of evaporation happen when we hold a cup of hot chocolate and see the steam rising from the cup. On a larger scale, when the sun heats up surface water, some of the water molecules on the very top layer turn into gas and rise into the air.

Evaporation doesn’t just happen in surface water, though. Soil moisture is an important measurement in agriculture and environmental science. Plants draw moisture up from the ground to use in photosynthesis and water vapor and oxygen are released from plant leaves as by-products of that process. Water that is released from plants is called transpiration.

Farmers and scientists alike calculate total soil moisture loss by combining moisture evaporation from soil and transpiration to find a total rate of evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration tells farmers when they should irrigate their crops and helps scientists understand and anticipate droughts.  Many factors can affect evapotranspiration such as temperature, humidity, and the type of plant that is transpiring water.

There is still another way that water can move from the ground into the sky. When Frannie learned about glaciers and their role in the water cycle during her deep dive in surface water, she also learned about a process called sublimation. Sublimation is when a solid becomes a gas, totally skipping the liquid phase and it occurs at low air temperatures and pressures.

We can easily see the progress of sublimation if we look at dry ice. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, which wants to be in its gaseous state at our normal air temperature and pressure. If Frannie wears gloves and carefully places a small chunk of dry ice in a cup and leaves it out in a room, she will notice that it gets smaller after a few hours even though there is no liquid carbon dioxide in the cup.

Glaciers that are located high up in the mountains can do the same thing as dry ice, but it takes a lot longer. They slowly reduce in size through a combination of sublimation and melting then evaporation. Together, scientists describe the process of glacier volume loss as ablation.

Join Frannie in the clouds next time as she explores condensation and water’s amazing property of adhesion!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {The Water Cycle: Part 4 - Surface Water}

This is the fourth part of Frannie’s exploration of the water cycle. Please check out her previous blog on the overview of the water cycle and her deep dives into groundwater and discharge.

Welcome back to Frannie’s deep dive into the water cycle! Today’s focus is surface water. Frannie knows that groundwater refers to water under the ground, so surface water must refer to the bodies of water above the ground, on the surface of the earth. Streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans are all examples of surface water.

Frannie’s experiment with the Awesome Aquifer Kit and her deep dive into the discharge process taught her that surface water is connected to groundwater. Streams and rivers can exchange water droplets that flow with the main current with water droplets that make up the subsurface flow, or flow beneath the streambed.

While Frannie wasn’t surprised by her research into streams and lakes, she was surprised to find surface water hiding in wetlands and glaciers! Wetlands, like marshes and swamps and bogs, are very important locations for groundwater recharge, which Frannie will talk about more later.  Wetlands near the sea or ocean can be flooded and drained by tidal activity and become salt marshes. All kinds of wetlands are incredibly important to prevent flooding and protect water quality.

Frannie has never seen a glacier, but in her research, she learned that she could think of it as a large river of ice that flows downhill under its own weight. When areas have a lot of snowfall in the winter start to warm up, the snow begins to melt and compress itself. If an area receives more snow than it can melt away, the melting snow turns into ice and grows with more cycles of snowfall and partial melting, eventually forming a glacier. Glaciers have an enormous effect on the topography, or layout of the land, in a region as well as its quantity and quality of available water.

Join Frannie next time as she follows the water cycle from rivers, wetlands, and glaciers to the sky. See you then!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Water Cycle Bangles}

Water cycle bangles have become popular accessories at recent science fairs and environmental festivals. Today, Frannie will help you make your own.

The water cycle describes all the pathways a water drop can move through the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere (air, land, and water systems). There are many steps to the water cycle, so making a water cycle bangle will help you remember them all!

Here's what you will need:

• A Pipe cleaner (or string, twine, strip of leather, etc.)
• 7/8" pony beads in eight different colors (2-3 beads of each color)
• A Water cycle illustration (there is one provided below)

Instructions:

1. Review the water cycle vocabulary.  Each word represents a different stage of the water cycle.  Check out Frannie's water cycle post to get familiar with vocabulary terms.
2. Assign each vocabulary word a different color bead.
3. Pick a place in the water cycle illustration below to begin your journey.
4. Twist a loop on one end of the pipe cleaner or tie a knot in the end of your string. This will prevent the beads from sliding off the end.
5. Add a bead to your pipe cleaner and decide where to go next.  Use the water cycle illustration above to help you decide.  Remember if you start in a cloud you can't directly go to the lake, you must first become rain (or another form of precipitation: Can you name one?)
6. Each new place traveled will earn you a new bead.
7. After you have completed the water cycle a few times, connect the ends of your pipe cleaner to create a bangle bracelet to wear!

Frannie loves her bangle!  Now if someone asks her about it, she can share what she learned about the water cycle!

This activity is featured in the Let's Keep It Clean - "Brownie" Girl Scout Patch guide book. By completing two activities from the booklet you earn your Ask Me About Groundwater patch.  Get inspired and do more to earn your Let's Keep It Clean patch!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {World Water Day 2019}

World Water Day is celebrated annually on March 22nd.  Water is essential to life and our society.  It quenches our thirst, grows our food, and even provides social and economic opportunities.

According to the United Nations, there are over 662 million people in the world today who live with little to no access to clean, safe water. By 2050, it’s predicted that 1 in 5 developing nations will face water shortage.  That’s why it’s so important to take this day to learn about water in the world. The theme of this year’s World Water Day is “Water for All”.

Whoever you are, water is a human right. Over 2 billion people in the world live without clean water in their homes. One in four primary or elementary schools worldwide don't have a drinking water system or service and students must use unprotected sources or face going thirsty.

Frannie talked with her family and friends about why access to safe, clean drinking water is important. Overwhelmingly, it's rural and agricultural communities that have to travel great distances to get water or pay to have pipes installed to get clean water from miles away. Many people with disabilities also face difficulty in accessing clean water.  Frannie took her Girl Scout friends on a trip down a nearby stream recently and they discovered easily water can become contaminated and unsafe to drink. Frannie's community has a very good water treatment system to clean up drinking water, but other areas aren't as lucky!

You can check out The Groundwater Foundation's website or Frannie's previous posts for fun ideas of ways you can protect and conserve groundwater for all.

World Water Day emphasizes the importance of water to every one of us.  Water is one shared resource.  We must all do our part to ensure the world's freshwater is taken care, used wisely, and is available to all of us!  Share how you will help protect water resources and be sure to tell your family and friends about protecting and conserving water every day!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Girl Scout Groundwater Patches}

National Groundwater Awareness Week is coming up next month, March 11-16th. One way Girl Scout troops can celebrate is by earning the Girl Scout Groundwater Patches! There are patches and guide books for every grade level so you can keep learning more about groundwater, the water we drink and the water that grows our food.

To earn your “Ask Me About Groundwater” patch, all you need to do is complete two activities from different steps within the booklet. These steps can include anything from upcycled crafts to meeting with water professionals or even conducting your own experiments. Seem too easy? Show everyone that you’re a groundwater expert by completing more activities listed in the book and earn the “Let’s Keep It Clean” patch!

Girl Scout Troop 20605 from the Spirit of Nebraska Council earned their Brownie level groundwater patches while exploring the “WOW!: Wonders of Water” Journey. You can read more about their story or start your own water journey by finding your patch booklet on the Groundwater Foundation's website!

Don't forget to share your progress with Frannie on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Good luck!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {5 Minute Shower Challenge}

Frannie knows how important it is to save water every day, so she limits herself to a 5 minute shower. A quick shower uses 20-30 fewer gallons of water than taking a bath or a 10 minute shower!

Frannie wants YOU to take the 5 Minute Shower Challenge. It's easy! Just follow these directions:

• Take a timer and set it for 5 minutes. 
• Make sure you are finished with your shower when the timer goes off. 
• Use the 30by30 mobile application, available on Android and iOS platforms, or start a journal to track how much water you have saved!
• Challenge your family members to do the same. Encourage your family to use the 30by30 app to track how much water your entire family has saved!
• Share the results of your 5 minute challenge with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We'd love to see how much water you've saved! 

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Christmas Trees Everywhere}

Christmas is past and it’s time to start thinking about putting away the decorations. There are boxes and bags for all of Frannie’s ornaments and strings of lights, but what about the Christmas tree?

Don’t worry Frannie! Real Christmas Trees are biodegradable, which means they can be re-purposed into other natural products very easily.  Christmas trees can add a lot to our environment in ways you might not expect. Check out these unique ways you can re-purpose your Christmas tree!

1) Mulch. Ok, this is an easy one. Many communities and businesses may have a drop off site where you can take your Christmas tree or some kind of tree pick-up service.  Mulching your garden with your old tree will help you save water and money in the summer months ahead.  If your city or county Parks departments have a drop off site for trees, then they might be using the mulch as a natural, renewable trail-lining material that works well for the environment and hikers.

2) Bird Feeders. String up popcorn and fresh orange slices and prop up your old Christmas tree outside. Winter is an especially hard time for birds to find food, so take this opportunity to turn your backyard into a bird sanctuary.

3) Fish Feeders and Refuge. Does a local lake have a drop off site for old Christmas trees? You might not realize it, but they could be throwing your old tree into the lake.  The densely needled branches provide shelter, a safe feeding area, and even food for the fish.

4) Soil Erosion Barriers. The heavy logs are a natural and renewable material that make an excellent foundation for deteriorating lake and river shores.

5) Zoo Animal Enrichment. Re-gift your Christmas tree to your local zoo! Zookeepers are always looking for new ways to make the animal enclosures more interesting for their occupants. The animals can climb, hide in, feed from, or destroy the trees, providing them with physical and mental exercise.

To learn more about how Christmas trees are reused or recycled in your community, reach out to your local zoo, parks department, or arboretum. Share what you find with us on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram pages!

Happy Holidays!

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {#TBT: Let's Keep Winter Clean!}

It looks like winter is finally here to stay! Have fun, stay warm, and enjoy this post from last year on how to be a good steward of the earth while staying safe on the slippery sidewalks.

With so much snow and ice on the ground, it’s important that we stay safe on our way to work or school.  Many cities use big trucks carry loads of salt and sand to spread on the roads and sidewalks.  This mixture melts ice and prevents it from forming again so that we can travel around without slipping.

Once the ice is melted, though, the water mixes with the salt and the runoff can cause the groundwater and surface water to become contaminated.  Here’s some ways you can help limit contamination from your home this winter.

1. Shovel early and shovel often. Frannie thinks its fun to shovel snow when it's not too thick and heavy.

2. To limit salt pollution, don't use too much salt or ice-melt. You only need about a handful for each square yard of concrete and using more doesn't actually work better.

3. Sand and kitty litter can stop you from slipping, but they don't melt snow.  Too much of it can even clog sewers, so remember to sweep up and throw away any extra that is left after the ice is gone.

4. Try an eco-friendly alternative to ice-melt and sand such as cracked corn, alfalfa meal, or beet juice.  While you should still be careful not to over-use them, these ingredients are shown to be less harmful than traditional ice treatments.

We can have fun, stay safe, AND keep winter clean together!