Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

AP Chemistry Service Learning Project: Water Conservation, Preservation, and Water Audit

By Ella
Santa Monica, California

I live in Santa Monica, beach community located on the Southern California coast. I attend Santa Monica High School, a public high school of approximately 3,500 students, located only four blocks from the beach. As I've grown up near the beach and use this public facility often, beach and ocean preservation has always been at the forefront of environmental concerns. Beach clean ups are constantly advertised by local businesses, and, to this day, I check the Heal the Bay pollution index before heading out for a swim. Many of my peers also share this experience, so when my AP Chemistry class started a service learning project, the topic of water conservation and preservation presented itself as a natural choice for research.
As a class, we wanted to develop a project that spoke to both the community's needs and related to chemistry. We decided two things were important to us: we wanted to create a project that dealt with water as a natural resource, and we wanted to improve the quality of student bathrooms on campus. With a few days of brainstorming and very little teacher intervention, we fused these ideas and created a project that addressed both water conservation and preservation, and facility improvement. In order to tackle these issues, we decided to separate our project in the initial stages of development, with the intention of combining later and creating one united project. This, we split into two groups: initial research and community outreach.
The purpose of the initial research group was to identify a problem in the community. We split into subsequent specialized subgroups to develop a broad base of information in order to better understand these issues. There was a survey group, a research group, and a curricular connections group.
The survey group, of which I was leader, conducted school wide surveys to more clearly identify the students' attitudes towards water conservation and preservation. We developed our own surveys that included multiple choice questions like "how many minutes is your average shower" and "do you leave the water running while brushing your teeth" to gauge how water conscientious students considered themselves. We also distributed surveys with similar questions to local hotels, homeowners, restaurants, and businesses. Overall, our results indicated that people were generally very conscious of their water usage, and of water's existence as a precious, finite, natural resource, but most people still felt that water conservation and preservation could afford more public attention.
Another group, the research group, was responsible for background research. They investigated the city's existing water legislation, building codes, and the process that Santa Monica water undergoes before it arrives in our homes.
The curricular connections group dealt with the chemistry- of which there is plenty- of Santa Monica water. They performed litmus testing in the lab to test for pH, solubility tests, titrations, and precipitate tests to determine if the chemicals that the Department of Water and Power claimed were in the water, were actually in the water. They also tested the efficiency of various water appliances.
After these subgroups presented the collected information and developed a sound informational foundation, the class began to focus on taking action. Again, we split into subgroups: community outreach and education, and water audit.
The community outreach and education group created a video to share with the elementary and middle schools in the district. It promoted water conservation and preservation, and provided kids and parents with ways to preserve, conserve, and get involved. By sharing this information with younger students and parents, we were able to raise awareness regarding water conservation and preservation throughout the community.
The water audit group was created as a direct response unit to the many leaks in our school's water fixtures. I led the group throughout this process to better the school. Just as the name describes, the purpose of the water audit group was to conduct an audit of the entire school. We inspected hundreds of fixtures- water fountains, showers, sinks, toilets, hoses, and sprinklers- and recorded their functionality on a map of the school. After ranking the fixtures' functionality, we plotted each one on a school-wide map, and created an enormous work order. We submitted both to our school's principal, maintenance staff, facilities director, and district superintendent, with hopes of making our school more water efficient- and economical.
In culmination, we compounded all of our research and presented our efforts to a panel of professionals from the Department of Water and Power, the school board, and education specialists. In presenting to prominent community members, we were able to share our work with even more people, and, more importantly, work towards further collaboration and implementation of our ideas.
Not only did our presentation impress these professionals, but it also exposed me to the professional world. This opportunity opened my eyes to occupations that combine environmental studies, conservation, and preservation, and business. This experience has definitely inspired me to pursue some environmental studies classes at Brown University, where I'll be studying next year.
Ultimately, I hope that through our efforts, we were able to help our school conserve water, raise community awareness regarding the importance of water conservation and preservation, and influence others to care about this pressing issue. This project helped me understand the amount of work that goes into bringing clean, drinkable water into our homes, and has allowed me a heightened appreciation of water as a precious, natural resource. Now, I'm even more motivated to conserve water, and I hope that through this project, I was able to inspire others to feel the same sense of obligation to preserve our planet and its water sources.