Water testing

[cheltie]

Hi Everyone,
We currently have a new teacher and a casual teacher taking year 12 chemistry classes (lots of fun for everyone). Can anyone tell me what experiments they do for water testing? Neither of the teachers seem too sure and I can't remember what they did last year. We have turbidity tubes but don't know what else they need.
Any help would be appreciated.
Helen

[rae]

Do the basic things like temp, pH, conductivity, turbidity. I think the important one is the dissolved oxygen. We use the streamwatch kits to do this. I think the kids need to know the winkler method for dissolved oxygen.
Hope this helps.
Lorrae

[RosalieM]

Tell them to look it up - should be on the board of studies website somewhere with all the 'essential' pracs ect. Compulsory pracs can be used in exam questions for the HSC so it's really important to get them right. Not trying to scare you or anything...

[RosalieM]

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/sy ... g6_syl.pdf

Try this link. Water is topic 8.4 so if you search for 8.4 you can jump to it fairly quickly.
Hope it helps you out.

[cheltie]

Thanks.
I think they are working it out between them and I found some old streamwatch stuff which is useful.
Helen

[laurena grieger]

Due to living on the river and the ever changing river system, we are our students to collect water samples from various areas of the river in our area. Some between locks and some after lock 1. The students are then asked to perform tests on turbidity, ph levels, salinity (very interesting), temperature, phosphates and nitrates. Our students work in different groups on one water sample collecting this data, and then we come together with the other groups and record all the data. This can be graphed and we can send this information to the Riverland Water Watch.

Do you have any creeks, lakes, ponds, fish tanks, water tanks from schools. Compare the water sources within your area. The students love it, especially when we do an excursion to some nearby creeks and they put on their waders, boots etc.

Have a great time. Experiment and investigate any water you like.
Goodluck.
Laurena