Desalination

Mixtures and Solutions:
Students investigate how various mixtures can be separated. While making a mixture of salt and water, connections are made to global water supplies and the amount of fresh and sea/salt water. Students discuss the importance of water conservation, and how sea water can be "purified" for human consumption.

Students investigate the water cycle, and discuss how rainwater tastes, (or the amount of salt in rainwater). They review the water cycle. Students then use this information to create a device (using solar energy) to extract salt from water and discuss how this device can be used on a large scale to desalinate sea water. As an enrichment activity, students will discuss what other energy sources can be used and how they will source sea water, since Arizona dose not have a sea/ocean border.