We're really trying to figure out how they clean the really  dirty water at the wastewater treatment facility.  Comparable cities to Chicago (London and New York) gave us some insight with some promotional videos Mrs. Brinza found on YouTube, but it wasn't enough to really know how they get the water clean!

We went back to our investigation ideas poster and added some new ideas...

Some of new investigation ideas focused on experts who we now feel might actually work in a wastewater treatment facility.  One student in class has a potential family member who works at one...so that can hopefully give us some insight!  Until we hear back from them, we agreed that we will attempt to make and clean dirty water ourselves!  We're officially turning our classroom into a...

WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY!

We spent today brainstorming what we could safely put into clean water to make it dirty, along with things we know would represent everything we know ends up in the sewers.  We also thought about tools we could use to clean the water! Check out the two class' lists...

Now that we've figured out the path that dirty water takes once it goes down the drain, this got us thinking locally about our own wastewater treatment facility.

Doing a little research, we discovered that our local wastewater treatment facility is called the Water Reclamation District.  Using Google Maps, we discovered that there is one not far from us here at school just north of us!

We spent class trying to find out more about this w.w.t.f, knowing we think it's where our water is treated (how they do that, we have no clue...but we're thinking filtering is a part of it).  From Google Maps we snapped some pretty great aerial shots:

There are certainly some big pipes we saw along with these structures that are both circular and rectangular in shape, ranging in color from bluish green to brownish black.  We also see that there is a nearby body of water that we think is a river, since Lake Michigan is much farther away to the east.

One of our original investigation ideas was to go to a water cleaning place, so maybe we can make that happen to really​ see what's going on inside!

All these videos of cameras down the drain and all these pictures of pipes led us to some new discoveries!  We figured out a whole lot more from what students requested and we decided to update our consensus model now that we had more information!  Here are some big ideas we took away from our investigations:

1.  All pipes in houses and businesses connect. That means sinks, toilets, tubs, showers, etc are connected!  The dirty water that goes down the drains of all these things leads to either a sewer or a septic (we're not sure what this is exactly since we don't seem to have these here in Chicago).

2.  The water in the sewer must be NASTY!  If all these pipes are connected, along with all the pipes from all the houses and businesses in the city, that means the dirty water gets really, really gross.

3.  We also figured out that drains outside houses and businesses, along with drains in the streets, also connect to the sewers. Yikes!  Even more gross stuff from yards and roads enters the sewers.

4. We figured out that the sewer does connect to this place called a wastewater treatment facility.  We're thinking that the water is treated, or cleaned there.

All these investigations is leading us to focus on three areas of concern for us:

• What happens to water that doesn't go to the w.w.t.f.?  It seems like the sewer continues on...
• How do they actually clean the water at the treatment facility?  Like how do they get out all the stuff that ends up in the water, even things like chemicals?
• What happens to the water that's treated?  Where does it go?

Goodness gracious, we've got more figuring out to do!!!

So from student investigation ideas, they wanted to stick a camera down the drain. We figured out many reasons why we couldn't do this, and turned to videos Mrs. Brinza found on YouTube  from plumbers documenting their work!

We figured out a whole bunch of things from these videos.
1.  There are lots of pipes from the roof to underground.
2. These pipes twist and turn A LOT!  They even connect to other pipes.  
3. These pipes even lead to the sewer (like some of us thought).

We also looked at some pictures/photographs of pipes and to see lots of new things that are making us wonder even more!

The washing dishes experience caused quite some commotion in class...everyone wanted to help, but not everyone could.  So we generated some lists regarding related phenomena, and with that, we hands down had everyone connected to our experience.  From washing cars to flushing the toilet, everyone has had an experience using clean water and making it dirty.

From here, we established our initial models, thinking about where the clean water comes from and where it goes once we make it dirty. We had a clear understanding from this, and this was that each fifth grade class didn't agree on much!  We only agreed that there were pipes involved in the process, and as a result, built out our first consensus model.

This really got us thinking that we didn't know much (and that's awesome since we have so much to figure out)...so we spent a WHOLE day asking questions we had about clean water, dirty water, our consensus model and our related phenomena lists.  From here, we built out our Driving Question Board, where every student came up with a question!  Check out these awesome questions...by fifth graders!

Then the excitement came...

We began thinking how we could investigate the answers to our questions.  And while research (both online and in books in a useful too), we want to figure out the answers ourselves. So we set the sky as the limit and came up with some amazing investigation ideas!

These students are surely giving Mrs. Brinza some homework...what investigation can we do first to help us figure out answers to our questions?!?!

With the start of the school year, things have been hectic!  So hectic that Mrs. Brinza has been unable to do some typical household chores and clean out all the cabinets in her classroom...

But these new students are great!  They've offered to help!

Help with what you ask???

MRS. BRINZA'S DISHES AND THESE RANDOM CONTAINERS FOUND IN THE CABINETS LEFT BEHIND FROM MRS. ASKUVICH!

We built out our plans to wash the dishes and then went and washed them!  From there, we were thinking about what was similar and different about our experiences, realizing some of us dumped stuff in the toilets first. We all used clean water and soap to get the dishes clean, and all of us made that clean water dirty.  

Tomorrow we'll be thinking about related phenomena...how many other things do we wash/get clean/pour down a drain?  We're off to a great start!

We're up and running here in the 5th grade!  We've spent the first week of school thinking about the norms we will need to establish and maintain for being a successful classroom.  We've engaged in a few activities around team-building (or maybe they were actually science?!?!?) and created thoughtful norms around the following key themes:

1.  Respect
2.  Equity
3.  Committed to Our Community
4.  Moving our Science Thinking Forward

​I am so excited to begin our first unit tomorrow!