It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {TAPS Manual Part 3: Leaky Underground Storage Tanks}

Frannie's friends at the Groundwater Foundation recently published the second edition of the Training About Protecting the Source (TAPS) Manual. The manual guides users through hands-on activities that explore potential threats to groundwater and challenges them to think about what can be done to protect this key drinking water source.

This manual can be used inside the classroom and is aligned to the national Next Generation Science Standards, but Frannie loves just learning about groundwater, no matter where she is. For the next few weeks, you can join her as she works through the different activities. 

Frannie will be using the Groundwater Foundation's Awesome Aquifer Kit, but if you don't have one, you can follow along with materials that might be found around your home. This is the second part of Frannie's exploration of the TAPS Manual. You can follow the link to see what she learned about improperly abandoned wells and the over-application of fertilizer.

Today's activity is....Leaky Underground Storage Tanks.

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An underground storage tank system (UST) is a tank and any underground piping connected to the tank that has at least 10 percent of its combined volume underground. Underground storage tanks can contain fuels, chemicals, and wastes. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency there are over 550,000 underground storage tanks that store fuels or other hazardous substances. These tanks may leak and when they do, they can contaminate surrounding soil, groundwater, surface waters, and even affect indoor air quality.

For this activity, you will need:

• Awesome Aquifer Kit, OR
• Plastic box
• Gravel
• Plastic tube
• Hand pump or Syringe
• Nylon
• Rubber band
• Food dye
• Small plastic container with lid (ex. a film cannister, sprinkles or spice container, etc.)
• 16 oz cup of water

Activity Steps

1. Read through all the instructions first before you begin to build the model. Make sure you have all the needed materials and supplies.

 

2. Fill the plastic box with gravel until it is about ¼ full.

 

3. Add water so that half of the rocks are covered. (This will represent an aquifer.)

 

4. Create a well by covering the end of the plastic tube with nylon, securing it with a rubber band.

 

5. Insert the well, with the well screen on the bottom, near one corner of the plastic box. Push the well down so that it reaches the bottom of the model.

 

6. Add more gravel until the box is about ½-¾ full. The surface of the gravel should be fairly level across the box.

 

7. Dye about 1.5 oz of water with three or four drops of food coloring and use it to fill the plastic container. Seal the container when full.

   

8.Using a tack, carefully poke holes in one end of the film canister or container.

 

9. Dig a small hole in the gravel on the opposite side of the model from the well. Place the canister/container inside the hole. The end of the container with the holes poked in it should be facing down. Cover the container, either partially or entirely, as long as at least 10% of it is underground.

 

10. Pour water on the surface of the gravel to simulate rain. Observe what happens to the colored water inside the storage tank after it rained. 

 

11. Pump the well by inserting the tip of the syringe into the well (plastic tube) or attaching and pumping the hand pump.

Frannie observed that once the water "rained" over her aquifer, the red water, which was contained in the storage unit, leaked out into the aquifer below. As it rained more and more, even more leachate entered the aquifer. Very quickly, the whole aquifer becomes contaminated  and when Frannie tried to pump water up from the aquifer, it was pink from the contaminant. 

Storage tanks are a common and useful way of storing and disposing of toxic waste, but they must be monitored carefully to prevent contamination of our drinking water sources, crops, and livestock.

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {TAPS Manual Part 1: Improperly Abandoned Wells}

Frannie's friends at the Groundwater Foundation recently published the second edition of the Training About Protecting the Source (TAPS) Manual. The manual guides users through hands-on activities that explore potential threats to groundwater and challenges them to think about what can be done to protect this key drinking water source.

This manual can be used inside the classroom and is aligned to the national Next Generation Science Standards, but Frannie loves just learning about groundwater, no matter where she is. For the next few weeks, you can join her as she works through the different activities. 

Frannie will be using the Groundwater Foundation's Awesome Aquifer Kit, but if you don't have one, you can follow along with materials that might be found around your home.

Today's activity is....Improperly Abandoned Wells.

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It's not uncommon to find old wells which are either out or service or no longer usable. These are called abandoned wells. Abandoned or forgotten wells can pose risks to the physical safety of people, livestock, or equipment. They can also become a direct channel for pollutants, such as fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals, to flow directly into groundwater. It is required that these wells be sealed, or decommissioned according to state guidelines, but what happens if they are not?

For this activity, you will need:

• Awesome Aquifer Kit, OR
• Plastic box
• Gravel
• Plastic tube
• Clay
• Nylon
• Rubber band
• Food coloring
• Aluminum Foil (heavy duty recommended)
• Pencil, Pen, or Marker
• 16 oz cup of water

Activity Steps

1. Read through all the instructions first before you begin to build the model. Make sure you have all the needed materials and supplies.

2. Prepare your materials by filling the plastic box with gravel until it is about ¼-½ full and, if you choose, lightly dyeing the cup of water blue.

3. Add 1/5-1/4 of the water to the box. Do not fill water to the top of the gravel. (This will represent an aquifer.)

4. Create an impermeable, or confining, layer using the foil. This should be approximately the length and width as the inside of container. You can use the lid of the Awesome Aquifer kit as a pattern. Use heavy duty foil or make a double layer of foil.

5. Once you have a piece of foil that fits inside the container, make a mark on the foil about two inches towards the center from one of the short sides of the box. Place the foil on top of the gravel being careful not to puncture the foil.

 

6. Roll the clay into a long, skinny roll and use it to seal the edges of the foil to the box. You have now created a confined aquifer.

7. Model a well with the plastic tubing by covering one end of the  tube with the nylon, securing it with a rubber band.

 

8. Insert the well (well screen/nylon end first) at the spot marked earlier on the foil. You 

can use a pencil or pen to puncture the foil in order to get your well inserted.

 

9. Add more gravel on top of the foil and around the well until the container is about ½-¾ full.

10. Apply colored water to the gravel surface evenly. Make sure to pour the same amount all over the surface and the well.

11. Observe where the colored water travels.

Frannie noticed that, even though she had formed a water tight seal around the boundary of the aquifer, when she poured "polluted" dyed water over the gravel it would flow through the hole in the foil that was made by the well.

Frannie imagined that she was living on top of that aquifer, a short drive away from the abandoned well. She imagined that she depended on the aquifer to supply water for her daily needs and the needs of her friends and family. If the pink-purple water actually carried harsh chemicals like those often found in household cleaners, herbicides, and pesticides, she could have gotten really sick once the plume arrived at a well on her property.

Now Frannie needs your help: how can we solve this problem? How can we prevent the pink purple water from entering the aquifer? How can we get the pink-purple water out once it gets in? Do you know?

Send in your answers on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and we'll share those ideas next week!

BLOG: Groundwater Education that Works

by Jennifer Wemhoff, Groundwater Foundation

Groundwater can be a tricky subject to teach. After all, you can't go outside and look at groundwater the way you can a lake or river. It's hard to visualize something so abstract, let alone understand and appreciate it.

That challenge has driven the Groundwater Foundation for 35 years to find innovative, hands-on, brains-on ways to teach kids - and adults - about groundwater.

Over the past couple years, the Groundwater Foundation has implemented a wide-ranging project, Recharging Groundwater Education: Tools for Engagement and Action. Through the project's pilot in Nebraska, over 300 educators learned how to use various teaching tools in their classroom, including:

• Awesome Aquifer Kit
• Hydrogeology Challenge

Both the Awesome Aquifer Kit and Hydrogeology Challenge enable students to investigate groundwater, a vital natural resource that plays a critical role in sustaining life but cannot be experienced directly. The tools also allow educators to point out issues specific to their local community (i.e. lithology from local well logs, existing contamination threats, etc.), which is an important feature to making the lessons pertinent to students' lives.

These tools have been used with great success in elementary, middle, and high schools across the state, and thanks to online training and resources, throughout the country and world. Educators told us: "I now feel prepared and motivated to teach about groundwater and its role in life and our role in protecting it to my students."

Some educators first utilized the groundwater education activities in the classroom, but then moved beyond into local action. "In-classroom learning went great, and it became a three-week unit including an onsite field trip based on the reported hydrogeology of the area. The students were engaged the majority of the time and were challenged to determine outcomes from the classroom learning."

The Awesome Aquifer Kit is a hands-on model-building kit that promotes cooperative learning through inquiry. Because groundwater is hidden in aquifers below the earth’s surface, the unique format of the Kit allows students to “see” groundwater and how it moves. As students build their aquifer model, they increase their environmental literacy and understanding of groundwater’s role in their lives. The versatility of the Awesome Aquifer Kit enables educators to challenge students of different grade levels with varying levels of complexity. 

A high school teacher who used the Kit in the classroom told us: "The activities are fun and easy to follow. They explained groundwater and how to translate it to the classroom."

The Hydrogeology Challenge is a data-driven computer-based groundwater simulation tool that challenges students to investigate groundwater flow, contemplate the difference between modeling and reality, and apply the calculations to identify solutions to real-life threats to groundwater. The Hydrogeology Challenge is a highly regarded teaching tool by educational and water industry professionals and can be adapted to many grade levels. An assistant professor in Geology and Geological Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology stated: “It is a great tool for introducing groundwater modeling.” And a student who used Hydrogeology said: “Hydrogeology is my favorite part of science and using it in conjunction with computer modeling is an interesting new way to study it.”  

Groundwater education is necessary to foster the next generation of groundwater industry professionals, managers, and stewards. Get started in your classroom or community: www.groundwater.org/kids or get in touch at info@groundwater.org. 

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Video Learning Series: Doing Good by Doing Good}

This is the third blog in a series of video learning opportunities from the Groundwater Foundation. Click to see the previous blogs on the Groundwater Foundation and the Groundwater Guardian program.
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The Awesome Aquifer Kit is a great tool to teach groundwater concepts to future scientists, farmers, and decision-makers. It's used in and out of classrooms, with young students and adults, demonstrating how water moves through the ground as a part of the water cycle. But just as important as how the kits are used, is how the kits are made.

The kits are assembled at Community Alternatives in Lincoln, NE. Community Alternatives is a vocational site that provides work experience and support for individuals with developmental disabilities. The people who work on the Awesome Aquifer Kits learn work and life skills, earn  money, and see themselves as part of the larger picture of groundwater education.

The Groundwater Foundation is proud to partner with a local organization that does such great work  in the community.  From the people who make the kits to the students who use them, the Awesome Aquifer Kits offer opportunities to include everyone in the protection of our drinking water source.

BLOG: Groundwater Education in Hawaii

by Jennifer Wemhoff, Groundwater Foundation

Earlier this year, in the middle of one of the snowiest winters on record in the Groundwater Foundation’s hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, we received an order from the Groundwater Catalog for 10 Awesome Aquifer Kits and JUG (Just Understanding Groundwater) kits. I was instantly jealous of the kits, as they were headed off to say “Aloha” and help people understand groundwater in their new home of Hawaii.

For the last 33 years, Daniel Chang has been involved in environmental education and outreach, in one form or another, while working on drinking water and groundwater quality with the Hawaii Department of Health. Chang has been instrumental in getting groundwater education tools into the hands of educators. He understands the value of groundwater as a natural resource and its finite nature.

“If we contaminate or waste this resource, we cannot go out and get more, so we need to be good stewards, use it wisely, and protect it from contamination,” he said. “Education and outreach is one way to get the message out. Knowledgeable citizens and students are important in ensuring good quality water now and into the future.”

Although it’s surrounded by water as an island state, Hawaii relies on groundwater as its main source of water for drinking and irrigation. Over 500 million gallons per day of groundwater is used in the state to fulfill domestic, commercial, and industrial needs. Groundwater provides about 99 percent of Hawaii’s domestic water and about 50 percent of freshwater used in Hawaii. Hawaii’s groundwater resources may appear plentiful, but much of the precipitation runs off to the ocean in streams or returns to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration.

Naturally, Chang wanted to help Hawaiians understand this resource. “Working in the State’s  Groundwater Protection Program, we would get calls from schools to talk about groundwater in Hawaii and needed a way to explain how groundwater works to students,” he said.

While looking for possible activities that he and his colleagues could use to present to students, he came across the AAK and JUG through the Groundwater Foundation catalog, and was excited
about how the tools could be used.

“The interesting part of these kits was that they were simple, yet provided several activities that we could do to teach the students about groundwater,” Chang explained. He said they use both the AAK and the JUG to teach students groundwater basics.

The kits have been used in a variety of educational settings that showcase their adaptability. From groundwater displays at Earth Day events and county fairs, Project WET educator trainings, special events like the annual Make-A-Splash Water Festival conducted by the Kauai Department of Water, to direct education in classrooms with students, the JUG and AAK are helping to spread the message about groundwater.

Notably, the Hawaii Department of Health provided funding to the state’s Project WET Coordinating Agency to purchase AAK and JUG kits that were provided to educators that attended the Project WET Educator’s Workshops for use in their classrooms.

They’re making an impact. “Students enjoy the different activities that we teach them using these educational tools,” Chang said. “Many of them ask us when we are coming back to do more activities with them.”

Other agencies have also embraced the kits as teaching tools, including Chang’s Hawaii Department of Health and the Kauai Department of Water, which Chang said has has spurred environmental education beyond groundwater. He points out that in the recently completed Hawaii State Science and
Engineering Fair, personnel from the Department of Health judged 20 projects related to drinking water and groundwater.

“This is a significant increase over the past 10-20 years when we were lucky to see just a handful of projects,” Chang said.

Chang knows his and his team’s work isn’t done when it comes to teaching people about  groundwater. “While the State has made progress in our groundwater education and outreach efforts, there is still a lot more that needs to be done,” he said.

Chang is excited about continuing to find new ways to deliver groundwater education. He knows that new and creative ways of groundwater education come from reviewing existing ideas and activities, creative and innovative thinking, and the sharing of ideas.

“The Groundwater Foundation has been a great resource in our efforts,” Chang said.

Get your own Awesome Aquifer Kit, Just Understanding Groundwater kit, or other useful groundwater education products from the Groundwater Foundation’s online catalog.

BLOG: Free Educator Toolkit

by Jennifer Wemhoff, Groundwater Foundation

The Groundwater Foundation has compiled a variety of educational tools and resources into a convenient downloadable Educator Toolkit, available for free on the Foundation’s website.

The Toolkit is organized by age level, making it easy for elementary, middle, and high school educators to find the tools to best suit their classrooms or extracurricular setting. There are also a series of tools appropriate for all age groups.

The featured tool for both elementary and middle school ages is the Awesome Aquifer Kit. The additional resources can be used to supplement the curriculum.

Elementary resources include fun hands-on activities like the story of Frannie the Fish, Growing with Groundwater, word searches and crossword puzzles, Upcycled Conservation Flowers, Clean Water Challenge, and many more.

For middle school educators, find lesson plans and student worksheets, plus instructions for activities like You Be the Judge, Contamination on the Move, Water Quality Survey, and other free tools.

For high school educators, the featured tool is the Hydrogeology Challenge, a learning tool that introduces students to basic groundwater modeling concepts. Find a guide to Hydrogeology and links to other advanced activities.

There are additional free tools and resources appropriate for all ages - a demonstration of the Awesome Aquifer Kit, the Water1der and 30by30 free mobile apps, and the Groundwater Guardian and Groundwater Guardian Green Site programs.

Find the free educator toolkit, along with other great resources educators can use in the classroom and beyond to help students understand groundwater and how they can take action to protect it, visit www.groundwater.org/kids/classroom.

BLOG: Earth Science Week and Groundwater

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

October 14-20 is Earth Science Week. Organized by the American Geosciences Institute annually, the week helps the public better understand and appreciate Earth sciences and encourages stewardship of the earth.

Groundwater should be an important component and focus of the Earth sciences, and learning about it can be a fun way to celebrate Earth Science Week. Here are a few fun activities to help you discover more about groundwater and how it fits with Earth science.

1. "See" groundwater with an Awesome Aquifer Kit.
Build your own working aquifer model and "see" groundwater. The kit includes six advanced groundwater demonstrations - groundwater terminology, its role in the water cycle, the makeup of an aquifer, contamination, and clean up.

2. Growing with Groundwater.
Create a mini terrarium that demonstrates the different phases of the water cycle, and learn about the four basic elements needed for plant, animal, and human survival (soil, water, sunlight, air).

3. Aquifer in a Cup
Create a mini aquifer model with just some gravel and/or sand, a clear cup, and water. Learn cool groundwater terminology - water table, saturated zone, unsaturated zone.

4. Water Cycle Bangles
Water is constantly moving around, through and above the earth as a gas (water vapor), a liquid, and
as a solid (ice). This never ending process is called the hydrologic cycle. Make a bracelet and learn how water moves.

5. There's No New Water
Learn how much water is on the planet and where it's stored. You may be surprised to learn that groundwater and fresh water make up a very small percentage of the Earth's total water supply!

Want to find more hands-on activities? Check out of online activity library and search by age, topic, duration, and more. Earth Science Week also has an online toolkit with a variety of resources - posters, data, lab activities, and other science-focused tools.

BLOG: 6 Fun Ways to Learn About Groundwater This Summer

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

Are you looking for some fun and different things to do with your kids this summer? Here are six ways to have fun learning about groundwater:

1. Dig in the dirt.
Kids love dirt and getting dirty! Find a good spot for them to go nuts and dig a hole. Have them notice how the soil gets wetter the deeper they dig, and talk about the water table, saturated and unsaturated zones. After they're good and dirty, hose them off and talk about how groundwater is recharged.

2. Make an edible aquifer.
There's not much better than a cold treat on a hot summer day! Build an edible aquifer out of ice cream or sherbet, ice cubes, sprinkles, and clear soda and learn about groundwater while eating your yummy creation.

3. Go on a water drop hike.
Explore a park, recreation area, nature center, or other outdoor space and visualize the path a water drop can take when it falls from the sky. Where does a water drop move to after falling on a tree? Or a slide? A roof? The ground?

4. Try out an Awesome Aquifer Kit.
The Kit comes with instructions and materials to do six cool experiments that teach about groundwater terminology, groundwater's role in the hydrologic cycle, the makeup of an aquifer, groundwater contamination, and clean up.

5. Visit a river or stream.
Talk about the connections between groundwater and surface water and gaining and losing streams while enjoying the river view or safely wading in and splashing around.

6. Pick an activity from our online activity library.
We have a library with a ton of fun hands-on, brains-on activities to get kids excited about water. Search the library by age group, key topic, and category to find the perfect fun and educational activity.

5 Things to Learn About Groundwater with the Awesome Aquifer Kit

by Jennifer Wemhoff, The Groundwater Foundation

The Awesome Aquifer Kit is one of the most powerful and fun groundwater education tools in our arsenal - we just add water! The Kit's design lets users "see" groundwater in ways they can't in reality.

The Kit includes a step-by-step instruction guide, definitions and explanations, and materials to teach youth and adults alike about:

1. The connection between groundwater and surface water.
The kit's gravel is used to "build" an aquifer and a lake, and water is added to it to learn about terms like recharge, water table, saturated/unsaturated zones, surface water, and discharge.

2. Wells and how they work.
By using a hand pump and tubing, the kit teaches about well siting, pumping, drawdown, depletion, and safe yield. Kids (and adults!) love to pump their aquifers!

3. Porosity and permeability.
Experiments explain different materials' capacity to store water, and have water move through them.

4. How groundwater becomes contaminated and can be cleaned up.
This is perhaps one of the most eye-opening uses of the kit - to illustrate how a contamination reaches groundwater. Food coloring and water create a contaminant plume, and the well is "pumped" to show how the contaminant moves. Activated charcoal and coffee filters are then used to "clean" the contaminated water.

The Awesome Aquifer Kit can be used in a variety of education settings, from a classroom to a water festival and everything in between. Get your Kit today!

Video demonstration
Additional Groundwater Information

BLOG: Global Connections

By Jane Griffin, Groundwater Foundation President

The mission of The Groundwater Foundation is to connect people, businesses and communities through local groundwater education and action. These connections happen every day, everywhere. We recently learned through Twitter about a connection in Kenya.

The Kingwede Water Club in Kwale County, Kenya learned about groundwater, how it can be become contaminated, and more by using our Awesome Aquifer Kits. 

Photo credit: Kingwede Water Club Blog

"In Kwale County on the coast of Kenya, a research project called Groundwater Risk Management for Growth and Development (Gro for GooD) is striving to help government and groundwater users find a management approach that balances human health, economic growth, and resource sustainability demands while benefiting the poorest demographic.

Inspired by community demand, Gro for GooD  is developing a programme of engagement to teach young women at Kingwede Secondary about water science, policy and management. The hope if to inspire them to promote better use and protection of water resources in their futures. Student-led activities will promote participation and teamwork and help the members develop their research and communication skills. Furthermore, a major benefit of the club is to showcase career options and pathways in environmental science and management and demonstrate that they are open to women as well as men."

Photo credit: Kingwede Water Club Blog

Read all about their learning experience.

Our Awesome Aquifer Kits are truly awesome – they help connect people across the globe in our effort to protect and conserve groundwater.

Do you want to have some fun learning about groundwater? Starting with our Awesome Aquifer kits is a great way. Find out more about the Awesome Aquifers activity or purchase your own.

It’s Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Awesome Aquifer Kit: Improperly Managed Landfill}

This week in Frannie’s exploration of the Awesome Aquifer Kit is all about why you should care what goes into your landfill.

 

We all know how to pick up litter and throw it away properly, but where does our trash go and how is it taken care of after the garbage truck drives away?

That’s right! The landfill!

All of the gross things we don’t want near are homes are going to a landfill.  When it rains, the water infiltrates the landfill.  In other words, it filters down through all the layers of trash to reach the earth.  Once the water has trickled down through all that trash, it starts to look and smell like a garbage soup.  Scientists call this soup “leachate”.

Leachate then seeps down into the ground where it can interact with our groundwater, the same water we pull from our wells to drink and use in preparing our food.  If we are not careful of what we put in the trash or if the operators of the landfill are not careful to check the garbage trucks for harmful and toxic items, then our wells are in danger of critical pollution.

Luckily, there are special landfills for dangerous chemicals.  These can be underground storage tanks, septic systems, or recycling plants that treat or transform toxic trash until it is useable again.  You can help at home by doing more recycling, even for items like broken electronics, batteries and light bulbs!

You can learn more about landfills here and visit your local landfill to see what they are doing to keep your ground and groundwater safe.

BLOG: Communities and Collaboration: Upcoming Groundwater Foundation Events

by Sara Brock, The Groundwater Foundation

June is an exciting month for The Groundwater Foundation as we bring many of our collaborative projects to fruition.

Working with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) and educators in Western Nebraska, we bring the Recharging Groundwater Education program to a teacher’s workshop in Ogallala. Among the other useful tools teachers can use to enhance student science learning, we’re providing classrooms with Awesome Aquifer Kits and supplementing the traditional curriculum with new and updated activities, worksheets, andtechnologies.

Mid-June is marked by an exciting collaboration with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute with the WELS2 program. It will bring Nebraska’s science educators the HydrogeologyChallenge program with an emphasis on model-based learning. Participating teachers will use the week to prepare and develop a groundwater curriculum that they will use during the 2017 – 2018 academic year. Understanding the concept of models and the Hydrogeology Challenge through Nebraska’s new College and Career Ready Standards for Science will empower teachers to incorporate groundwater education into their science classes, as well as provide students with a modern environment to learn and boost their problem-solving skills.

Finally, the Nebraska Wellhead Protection Network, another partnership with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, will have its quarterly meeting on June 21^st in Hastings, Nebraska.  Beyond sharing updates and ideas for education and outreach programs, attendees will also have the chance to learn about and tour Hastings’ brand new Aquifer Storage and Restoration facility. Begun in July 2016, the nearly-complete project aims to increase drinking water storage and quality and simultaneously reduce the economic burden of clean water on taxpayers. Interested in attending? Register here.