Explaining Dead Zones to children

     Teaching and educating ourselves about Dead Zone is an important role, as well as teaching the new generation about it. It would provide them with a better sense and care to the environment they live in. Educating the young is the  weapon to find better solutions and make stronger impact, because if they got into it, they will try to do something about it even if it was later in their lives.

A simple experiment that could be applied to middle school age class taken from Teach ocean sience website. This experiment is as follow:

     Take three bottles, add tab water to the first, lake or river water to the second, and lake or river water to third. Add fertilizer to the last one and expose them all to the sunlight for few days. Let the students observe and record the changes to the color and smell that occur to each one of them. You could use Vernier lab probe to measure the oxygen readings as well. Keep all bottles in the dark afterwards and let the students observe them after few days again. That could teach them about Dead Zone and how they occur.

  

You don’t have to be a teacher to do this experiment; you can conduct it with your kids, siblings, or relatives. It’s very easy to perform and explain.

Source of the experiment: http://www.teachoceanscience.net/teaching_resources/education_modules/dead_zones/access_classroom_resources/