We centered our celebration around this quote:

"When the well is dry, we’ll know the worth of water." - Benjamin Franklin

Working in groups of 3, the children were asked to list as many uses of water as they can and seek answers to the following questions:

Where does well water come from?

Can this water dry up?

How can well water be replenished?

Can well water be polluted?

How do we protect sources of water?

What happens when well water is over extracted?

To be able to answer the above questions, we performed the following demonstration:

First we collected gravel from the school playground.

Secondly, we set up our apparatus.

Next we modelled an aquifer.

Then using two straws, we made wells.

We slowly drew out water from the wells several times, using the straws without recharging.

Pupils observed how the level of the water table dropped with each extraction.

Can well water be polluted?

We added a drop of food colour on the unsaturated sand on the surface and recharged in the form of ‘rain’.

Pupils observed that as it ‘rains’, the water below the surface begins to change colour and the food colour on the surface is pushed down the aquifer.