Aquifer in a Bottle
Michael Janzen
Towanda Elementary
Towanda, Kansas

Overview:
Students will be engaged in making their own aquifers in a two-liter bottle. From this activity the students will gain an understanding of the composition of aquifers and begin to develop an understanding of what aftects ground water quality.

Grade Level: 4-8

Time Needed: 2 1/2 Days

Geographic Themes:
Place, Human Environment Interaction
 
Kansas Social Studies Standards for Benchmark, Grade Levels 8-K:
The student will understand the connections among people, places, and environments in the classroom, local school, community, Kansas, the United States, and different nations in the world.
 
The student will understand the effects of economics, science, and technology in the local school and community, Kansas, the United States, and different nations in the world.
 
National Geographic Standards, Grades 5-8:

#8

 The geographically informed person understands the characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on the Earth's surface.
Outcome:
Students will gain an understanding of the composition of aquifers, begin to understand what effects ground water quality, and make an aquifer.
 
Performance Objective:
The students will construct a model of an aquifer and be able to evaluate the efficiency of aquifers.
 
Vocabulary Terms (see Glossary):
Aquifer
Mined Water
Well Shaft
Recharge
 
Materials Needed:
Two-liter pop bottle (one for each student or group)
Eyedroppers
Rulers
Scissors
Markers
Clear plastic cups or graduated cylinders
Three inch pieces of 1/2" plastic pipe with a groove cut in one end
 
Alternate supplies (for the daring):
Clear plastic cups instead of bottles
Spray bottle top instead of eyedroppers
Plastic straws instead of pipe
 
Procedures:
This is a lab utilizing guided discovery methodology, so I would not post the objective until the second day.
 

Day One

  1. Hand out two-titer bottles.
  2. Have students make two marks on the side of the bottle. The first mark should be made three inches from the bottom of the bottle (or the length of the eyedropper tube). The second mark should be made five inches from the bottom of the bottle.
  3. Have students cut their bottles at the five inch mark.
  4. Instruct students how to place pipe in their bottle with the groove down.
  5. Instruct students that they may fill the bottle with any solid objects they choose, up to the three inch line. Solid objects cannot be larger than pea size and should not float.

Day Two

  1. Tell students that they have made an aquifer. Explain the definition of an aquifer and the other parts of their simulated aquifer.
  2. Using their clear plastic cups, have students fill their aquifer slowly so that no water is left standing on the surface. Students may not pour water down the well shaft.
  3. Allow a set amount of time, e.g. 5 minutes, for the students to fill their aquifers and for the water to travel throughout the bottle.
  4. Have students empty any excess water out of their clear plastic cup.
  5. Using an eyedropper, have students pull as much water out of their aquifer via the well shaft as they can. Have students empty mined water into their plastic cups. Again set a time limit for students to mine water.
  6. At the end of their time limit have students measure the amount of water that they were able to mine out of their well. What is the quality of the water that they mined? Has it changed color, clarity, and/ or smell?
  7. Have students share the information that they gathered from their aquifers with other groups of the class.
  8. As a class, discuss the following. What aquifers held the most water? What aquifers kept the water the purest? What would make up aquifers in nature? What might lead to poor quality ground water in nature?

Assessment:
Day Three

  1. Make three pop bottle aquifers using natural materials.
  2. Make one of them using soil, another using sand, and the last one using clay.
  3. Have students tell which of the three examples would yield the most water.
  4. Which aquifer would have the purest water.
  5. From their day two experiments, students should be able to explain their hypotheses.
  6. Students may then test the aquifers to check their answers. recording their hypothesis and findings
  7. Observe students' participation in the acquifer construction. Note students' ability to evaluate acquifer efficiency.
Extensions:
Students may time how long it takes their aquifer to fully recharge as a way of introducing them to how long it takes nature to recharge an aquifer.
 
Man made pollutants could be introduced in to their aquifer (food coloring, Kool-aid, etc.) to see what effect these have on their ground water.
 
Students may research aquifers in their area or bring in someone from the Kansas water office to discuss aquifers.

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irc staff 11/13/97 (updated kn 06/18/99)
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