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created by Aurora E. Tyagi,
Math/Science Teacher

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Unit Lesson: Bottled Water Mania...Its anwhere, everywhere and you want it.

Bottled water has been so popular in every vending machines, store shelves, many retail stores; even while driving the street, vendors sell bottled water for a buck. It seems to be a trend that symbolizes a healthy choice of bottled drinks versus the "its the real thing " beverages. Bottled water comes in different brand name, hefty advertisements, and slogan to identify them as mountain fresh, crisp, refreshing, and pure. How about the word "natural"? Well, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not defined natural, so find out if you come across with the word. The main goal of this unit is to be able to analyze what we drink the most, compare the bottled waters advertisement claimed, and conduct a test of five selected brands for mineral content. In addition, students will use the internet resources to compare the global bottled water consumption and to further analyze the current trend, perception, and the changing lifestyle that may contribute to bottled water mania.

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Student Task:

1.Students will search the internet, to search for Standardized Definitions for Types of Bottled Water?

Artesian water/artesian well water

 
Drinking water  
Mineral water  
Purified water  
Spring water  
Sparkling water  
Well water  

Related vocabulary words:
International Bottled Water Association (IBWA)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

2.Students will list five brand of water bottled, the names and the following: Product label description, carbonated, method of purification, product packaging, collection source on label,and marketing claims. Student will create their own table using excel to organize their data.

3. Students will conduct a lab experiments to test the mineral content of five bottled water available in Chicago area. Use the lab safety procedure (add links) and lab experiment materials and procedures.

4. Students will submit a formal lab report and in addition to power point presentation of bottled water data and facts they gathered from internet resource for the unit " Bottled Water Mania.. Anywhere, Everywhere You Want It."

 

Laboratory Experiment:
(Consumer Experiments Chem File, Holt, Rinehart & Winston)

 

Title: What's So Special About Bottled Drinking Water?

Objectives: Student will conduct audit of various brand of bottled water; and compare the mineral content of various brands of bottled waters.

Introduction: Laboratory Safety Rules discussions.

Materials:

Sodium polyacrylate
Balance
7 oz. Plastic cups
100 mL graduated cylinder
micropipet or medicine dropper
wax pencil
weighing boat

Procedure


Part 1
1. Students will be group in five group, each group will write the name of each water sample. See Data Table1.
2. Using the standard definitions for types of bottled water, identify the product label type.

Data Table1
  Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 Sample 5

Product label description

         

Carbonated

         

Method of Purification

         
Dissolved solids (mg/L or ppm)          

Product packaging
         

Collection source on label
         

Marketing claims

         

Size of carbonation bubbles
         

Volume of water absorbed (mL)
         

 

Part II Compare the mineral content of the bottled water samples.

3. Use a was pencil to label a set of five transparent plastic cups 1 to 5.

4. Add 0.1 g sodium polycacylate to each cup.

5. Carefully open each sample bottle. Note the size and number of gas bubbles formed, if any. Record your finding in the Data Table.

6. Fill the graduated cylinder to the 100 mL mark with water from the sample bottle 1.

7. Using micropipet or medicine dropper, remove water from the graduated cylinder and add it drop wise to the polymer in a cup 1. Keep adding drops until the while powder is no longer visible. You may need to observed the underside of the cup to make sure.

8.When the white powder has dissolved, empty any water remaining in the micropipet or medicine dropper into the graduated cylinder, Record the volume used in the Data Table.

9. Repeat steps 6, 7, and 8 for each of the remaining water samples.

10. On the grid provided, graph "Volume of water absorbed (mL)" versus "Amount of dissoved solids (ppm)" for each sample tested. Distilled water has 0.0 dissolve solids. Draw the line of best fit through data points. Use this graph to estimate the amount of dissolved solids for the samples that do not indicate a value for dissolve solids. (links Excel)


Analyzing Data:


1. How is the volume of water absorbed, know as absorbency, related to the amount of dissolved solids?

 


2. Inferring Conclusion.
If your data is used to determine compliance with labeling regulations, would any of the water samples tested be misbranded? Justify your answer.


General Conclusions:

1. Inferring Conclusions Spring water tends to be the predominant type of domestic and regional bottled water. Very few domestic brands are labeled mineral water; most bottled mineral water is imported. Suggest a reason why domestic companies do not market mineral water even though FDA regulations permit them to.



2. Analyzing Data and Inferring Conclusions
Examine your packaging data. Which type of water comes in colored containers? Suggest a reason for the color. (Hint examine the method-of- purification data)

 


 

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