Plan
- What body of water will you look at? If you look at a major body of water in your community (e.g. a lake or river), you will probably find more data available.
- What do you want to learn about the water?
- What can you test using supplies that you can easily get?
- What do you already know about your local waterways?
Do
The Water Rangers website has a ton of great information gathered by people just like you! Volunteers go out in their communities and track different information about their local waterways.
- Head to the data platform on the website and see if you can find a site near you with lots of observations – big bodies of water in central locations will often have lots of data!
- How does the data change over time? What might impact the data? Consider things like weather (rain), temperature or even time of day.
- Try to find a location near you – look at the data. If you were to test the water there, what do you think your measurements might look like?
- If you can, go out and test the water! You may not be able to test everything, but you can use a thermometer to get a reading of the temperature and pool test strips to test the PH.
Review
- Did anything surprise you? Why?
- Will you go back and collect more data in the future? What changes might you see?
- What human activities can have an impact on the health of water?
Materials
- PH test strips (can be found in a pool supply store or aisle)
- Thermometer
- Notebook or other way to write down observations
Keep it Simple
- Start out simple by learning about water’s PH and how easily it can be changed.
Take it Further
- Become a water tester for your local camp! Next time you visit a camp, see if they have a water test kit, or bring your own. Use the test kit to measure the water data – then, make sure to record your observations. Each time you visit camp, make new observations.
