Failed experiment has real life application
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:57 pm
I am one who tends to get stressed out if an experiment doesn't work. Today our failed experiment ended up having very real life application. Today we were making a edible ground water contamination model. Noah had been so excited about doing this because my dh is an environmental engineer that manages projects that have to do with cleaning up contaminated ground water. My ds worked very hard on getting it right. He placed his ice cream containment layer and added his top soil and then he took his contaminated ground water and when he poured it on it went straight through the containment layer instead of staying on top like it should. He was disappointed, but went ahead and put his "well" (a straw in ) and pumped the ground water and saw how the contamination would go down there if it wasn't already there. My dh came home and Noah told him what happened. My dh said "Actually what you just discovered is very real life". Turns out he is going to the state EPA next week and explaining to them why the containment layer on one of his projects isn't working and why putting the well in it isn't working because the aquifer is already contaminated. Well Noah's face just lit up that something he did was exactly what his dad was going to have to show the EPA. It really made me realize that there is application in all science experiments even if they don't go as planned. My dh is very pleased with what Noah is learning right now. He said the things with the ground water and water table etc is a pretty complex topic and was impressed how much Noah could tell him about it.
What great timing.