10-12
Team size:
1
Subject area:
Biology
Project type:
Experiment
Project level:
Standard
Project format:
Traditional
Summary:
Water, a necessary part of our lives, can turn deadly without any warning. We assume because it is coming out of our taps that it is healthy. Not so! Even municipal water, as was the case in Walkerton, Ontario and North Battleford, Saskatchewan, can make us sick. Well water can be worse as it is not regularly monitored. In my experiment I showed that water with the chemical chlorine added was safe to drink, however further research will show that this may not always be the safest water either as there can be side effects from the chlorine itself. When camping we always assumed that just bringing water to a boil was enough to kill any bacteria and yet my experiment proved that even boiling under laboratory conditions for two minutes was not enough to kill harmful bacteria. Ever-increasing human activity, combined with lower precipitation rates associated with climate change, are likely to further degrade water quality. Providing Canadians with clean water that is safe to drink thus promises to be an even greater challenge in the future. So the question remains, Are you going to drink that water? Are you sure it is safe?
Thank you for taking the time to read over my project. I hope that it helped you think about what is coming through your tap at home, and ways you can can make the water you drink everyday safer.
Software tools used:
Microsoft FrontPage
HP ScanJet 3400C
Source of the idea for the project:
The Walkerton crisis a few years ago got me thinking about the local water
source.