Help me give my students clean and clear water to drink. Students will receive water testing kits and a demonstration of how dirty water can be filtered into drinkable water.
My students are located in southeast Missouri. Our school is a small, rural town with a population of approximately 2,000. The voters have passed the last two bond issues with a very high percentage of the vote.
In addition, student activities are well attended by students, parents, grandparents, and community members.
Our school has an active PTO and several parent volunteers. Because the people of our community stand behind our school staff and students, we truly are achieving excellence together.
Our school's motto is "Achieving Excellence Together" and this has been demonstrated by the continual support of our community and our students.
My Project
Over the past year our town has had a water quality crises. We have had boil water notices several times. Other times people have been uneasy about the quality of water, even though we have been told it is safe to drink. Social media shows people all around town with tan to dark brown water. Children are afraid to take baths, parents are afraid to do laundry, no one wants to drink it. Many have complained about whole loads of laundry being ruined. This has lead many students to want to study the problem further.
Many students are bringing samples of water to the school for testing and are designing their science fair projects around making clean water for their homes.
I have encouraged the observation and testing of the water with all of my students. We have some water quality kits but these kits are designed for pool water or simple acid versus base testing. The students want to test chlorine, nitrate, ammonia, and heavy metals. Students are concerned about the iron levels as well as the concentration of cleaning products used to make the water “safe.”
After interviewing city employees we have found that the water filtration system has not been maintained for years. Usually water is sifted and filtered through varying layers of rock, dirt, and sand to purify it to drinking ability. This system needs to be cleaned out regularly. Our home town’s filtration system has been neglected for years and now if is said to look like sludge.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. B. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
