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Educating for Sustainability
CURRICULUM LIBRARY
Part of a series of lessons in a unit called Wastewater Context for Matter and its interactions. Designed for middle school physical science, students will overcome the misconception that boiling is part of the wastewater treatment process.
Lesson Specs
Suitable for Grades
8th Grade
7th Grade
6th Grade
Satisfies Academic Standards:
Sustainable System Focus:
Water
Academic Subjects
Science
Submitted by:
Jeffrey Burgard
Last Updated:
June 11, 2020 at 8:17:08 PM
Content Connection
In wastewater treatment, many students may believe that boiling the water is a good option to making pure water. The misunderstanding that causes this is boiling purifies water. Although it may kill some harmful bacteria, it will not separate out the impurities without distillation. Distillation, although a good idea for small quantities of water, is not good for large municipal treatment plants because of the time and energy involved in heating the water.
Scientific Principle(s)
- Boiling and freezing points are a unique property of a substance
Application
- Water has a high heat capacity, so takes a lot of energy to heat it
Community Relevance
Lesson Plan
Materials
- Teacher
- Powerpoint slides
- Video: Janike Omniprocessor
- Video: Janake Omniprocessor in Senegal
- Student
The plan
- Time needed: 10 min
- Have discussion with students about the practicality of boiling water for municipal water treatment. Then, share that on a small scale, it is being done.
- Share the Janake Omniprocessor video. Discuss the benefits to the villages where it is being used, as well as the feasibility for scaling the tech up to the size needed for municipal level water treatment.
- After the lesson activities are completed have students add the Principle and Application to their notebook
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