Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with Mr. Donnelly's 4th graders at RES. We did one of my all times favorite lessons called Sewer Maggots, which is often called Dancing Raisins. The materials we used were a clear glass, Mountain Dew, and raisins.
We began the lesson talking about what pollution is and the various types. We also discussed what scientists do, especially focused on the predictions and observations part. I used the book A River Ran Wild to show some examples of water pollution. And we discussed some of the events in the book as to how the water became polluted.
After that discussion, we told the kids a friend of mine had sent some polluted water they had been working on cleaning in a lab, as well as some new genetically altered insect they were using to clean this water. After I brought in the "polluted water" I dropped in the "maggots" in the water and we observed them sink to the bottom and then ride the bubbles to the top. The class was amazed and totally focused on the experiment. We asked the students what they thought the sewer maggots were doing, and got the response we were looking for of "cleaning the water".
We used this Observation sheet for the kids to keep their notes and record their observations. They were a little disappointed that actual sewer maggots don't exist, but this was a really fun way to kick off science!
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