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Safe water science activity Kits

Assemble your own kit from everyday materials,
or purchase our convienient all-in-one kit.

Safe Water Science's lessons and activities use inexpensive, common materials that can be purchased at local grocery and pet supply stores. However, thanks to our sponsor Arch Chemicals, kits containing supplies to conduct all four lessons with 6 classes of 32 students each can be purchased for only $50 per kit.

E-mail Gail Quinlan for information regarding the purchase or contents of the kits.

Contents of Kit

Lesson 1

• 30-mL bottle of “Typhoid Contaminant” (1 M sodium hydroxide)-
  for refill, contact a science supply company or use Drano
• 30-mL bottle of “Typhoid Detector” (phenolphthalein, a base indicator)-
  for refill, contact a science supply company
• 32 small plastic 5-oz. cups ( reusable)
• 32 x 6 cotton swabs

Lesson 2

• Pulverized dirt
• Food coloring (red or blue)
• 1 large jar or beaker (at least 1 L in size) for mixing dirty water
• 1 long-handle plastic stir spoon (or paint stir stick)
• 9 “Slushie” lids (or 9 plastic 9-oz. cups with hole cut in bottom)
• 9 clear plastic 9-oz. cups to hold student groups’ dirty water (reusable)
• 9 clear plastic 9-oz. cups to collect filtered water (holds inverted slushie lid) (reusable)
• Cheese Cloth for 9 filtering set-ups
• 49 rubber bands
• 49/2 (about 25 ) Coffee filters
• Supply of aquarium pebbles
• Supply of fine aquarium sand
• Supply of activated granular charcoal
• 1 plastic colander sheet for separating filter materials to reuse in future labs

Lesson 3 & 4

• 1 large bucket (holds 5 gallons)
• Pulverized dirt
• 8 clear plastic 9-oz. cups to contain the dirty water for Alum activity
  (can re-use cups from lesson 2)
• 8 clear plastic 9-oz. cups to hold clean filtered water for Alum activity
  (can re-use cups from lesson 2)
• 8 plastic teaspoons for stirring
• 6 tsp. lime powder (calcium hydroxide)
• 6 tsp. alum (aluminum sulfate)
• 16 plastic 2-oz.cups (8 for lime, 8 for alum) (reusable)
• 2 mini spoons, to measure 1/8 tsp. for alum and lime (reusable)
• 32 x 6 Coffee Filters for filtering alum coagulate
• 1 long-handle plastic stir spoon (or paint stir stick) (can use spoon from lesson 2)
• 6 sachets of PUR Purifier of Water
• 1 large jar or beaker for collecting the PUR filtrate (at least 1 L in size) ( can use beaker from lesson 2)
• 32 x 6 small 1-oz. paper sampling cups for drinking clean water from PUR activity

Materials Not Included in Kit

Lesson 1

• Newsprint or poster board for team presentations
• Markers for team presentations
• Store-bought distilled water

Lesson 2

• Empty 16-oz. water bottles for filtering apparatus
  (1 for teacher demo and 1 for each student team)
• Filtering materials from which students will choose when designing and building a filter (cheese cloth, cotton balls, scouring pads, cloth strips, or other materials of teacher’s choice)
• White paper to set as a background for viewing filtered water
• Scissors
• Metric ruler

Lesson 3

• Calculators (2 for each student team)

Lesson 4

• Empty 2 – Liter bottle for dirty water (Part 1)
• White paper to set as a background for viewing filtered water (Part 1)
• Clean cloth/T-shirt for filtering (Part 2)
• Scissors to cut open PUR sachet

All Lessons

• Paper towels
• Goggles
• 1 set of measuring spoons
• 1 set of measuring cups