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INVESTIGATION
- DRIPPING TAPS
This
activity tries to encourage students to think very carefully about
not wasting water. Dripping taps are often sources of great water
wastage. The activity can be carried out within the school to see
how effectively the school manages water and where it could make
improvements.
First
task: Using water in school
1. List all the different ways that your school uses water. E.g., showers,
kitchens, wash basins, etc.
2. Now think of ways in which the school wastes water. E.g., toilets/urinals
continually flushing, hot water taking a long time to come out of
taps, etc.
Second
task: The cost of water in schools
1. Find out how much it costs to supply water to your school. Ask
to look at the most recent water bill and see how it is divided
into water supply and waste disposal.
2. Is there any way of finding out how much water the school uses
in a day? How much water is used every time someone flushes the
toilet or washes their hands? [click
here for a quick flush!]
3. You could organize a visit to the local Water Authority or send
off for materials that may help you in this project.[click here for web addresses]
Third
task: How drippy is your school?
1. Visit as many areas of your school where there are taps and record
how many are dripping.
2. Now try to work out how many litres/pints of water are lost each
year from these dripping taps. You could take one tap or do them
all. The way you would approach this is very simple.
All you
have to do is:
- collect
the water from the dripping tap for just one hour.
- measure
its volume using a measuring cylinder.
- now
do some Maths and calculate how much water would collect in a
year.
Fourth
task: Doing something about it
1. The
students could brainstorm ideas on possible solutions to water wastage
in schools.
- Dripping
taps could be due to worn out washers. How much would it cost
to replace the washers?
- Do
special taps exist that are more efficient than other taps? Visit
a plumbers merchant or DIY store and find out about self-closing
taps. These are taps that you press to start the water flow and
then they stop automatically after a few seconds.
- Which
sort of taps does your school have?
- Which
type of tap costs more? How much more?
2. Students
can write up all possible solutions in the form of a report.
3. This
could be presented to the School Council, Headteacher, Governors
or a year group assembly with the recommendation that action will
be taken.
You never
know, your report may make a difference to water usage in your school.
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