Water Pollution Unit Study

We upgraded our observation pond a bit sooner than I had planned to give our critters more space. When we moved them we let the children add some polished rocks they had from old school projects. After a couple days the children were talking about a rock looking like metal. I smiled and told the children about how metals are in many rocks and the tanks light was making it easier to see. To my surprise Saturday morning we discovered the truth. We had pollution inside our aquarium. Join us for this pollution unit study.

Floating at the top of the tank next to the snail was a ball of rusted aluminum foil! The foil had sat so long that a sedimentary rock had formed around it and went off to be polished and ended up in our home. We discussed how trash gets tossed out and ends up in our waterways and destroys the ecosystem. Then the clean up begin We fished out the trash, moved out creatures and did a 100% change of the water scrubbing all of the rocks and fish gravel in the tank.

The hard part was explaining how the trash could have killed our fish and snail and how cleaning up the water in ponds, streams, rivers, and oceans is a lot harder than changing the water and washing things. Then I turned to Pintrest for some fun ideas to learn more about water pollution with our own unit study.