Snowshoe students learn about water well science

Don Campbell's class at Snowshoe Elementary has been working on a science unit this year that involves ground water and pollution. Our class thought the unit was very educational and fun. We had a few guests come in from several companies.

They explained to us about how wells work, and then we made a huge groundwater flow model. It was made out of Plexiglas, tubes, glue, a special tape and eight layers of our ground. There was silt, gravel and clay. Did you know that any kind of liquid would sink faster into the ground than any other solid? Plus, the deeper your well is, the better quality of water your well has.

One of our experiments involved some things called PPH, PPT, PPM and PPB. That means parts per hundred, parts per thousand, parts per million and parts per billion. Another project was when we had five wells and they were full of water then we put one dot of pollution in well number one and sucked one drop of that and kept on cycling it until we got to well number five. That was clear but it still had pollution.

On another experiment we took a graduated cylinder and three tubes -- one with fine sand, one with course sand and the last one with gravel. We put a few drops of water in each tube and timed how long it took the water to reach the bottom. The gravel only took eight seconds, the course sand took 24 seconds, and the fine sand took 34 seconds. That was because the types of ground have different sizes of cracks and holes.

Through these projects, not only did we learn about wells and science, but we also learned we need to cooperate and use teamwork. Our class would like to thank the following people and businesses for their dedication and effort in making this project a success -- Alaska Science & Technology, Alaska Rim Engineering, Certified Aircraft Composites, L&B Color Printing, M&P Cabinet Crafters, Ray George, Chris Jacobson, Shelly Logsdon, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Speedy Auto & Window Glass and Wheaton Water Wells.