This was a pleasant sunny day in the mountain. The pupils are as passionate as ever. Here comes the final session of environment education in this semester. Today’s topic is water quality inspection and testing. A brief description of where the water comes from, how to purify water, and the distribution of water resources kicked off the lesson. Yet, the pupils here used the natural “”spring water””. The treatment process is different from running water, but still have to be checked and tested regularly for assuring safe use. One pupil shared with me the story passionately that Grandpa said that the water from the mountain spring tastes sweeter. Then I took the bottle and had a sip of the water collected from the drinking machine of the school. But I could not tell the difference.

What impressed me was that, when the pupils and I discussed the result of drinking untreated water, a pupil shouted aloud and told us that the water may contain leech and will make you feel bad and cause a fever once get into your body from drinking. This answer stunned me. We all know that drinking unclean water will cause of problem of excessive virus and germs, or perhaps the living environment is different that their answer will not be the answer that pops up in my mind in the first place. Because of this, the big brothers and sisters of the program shared with the pupils how to treat drinking water. For example, boil the water before drinking, or use filter, to ensure safety.

Then the big brothers and big sisters led the pupils to make a water filter by stuffing clean cloth, coral sand, activated carbon, and hydroton into a cut opened PE bottle in order. Pure water drops out through the filtration of these layers. We can also grow green beans on the top, so make this filter multifunctional. We also let the pupils to test for germs. They are so cute in wiping a little here and a little there with an attempt to find out the dirtiest corner. When the test result came, all were astonished. The dirtiest spot was not the floor and not the sole, it was the electric fan. The pupils’ responses were also very interesting. Their answer was to urge the supervisor to clean the fan.

We have a game on the final moment of the session. A team of two work together to fill the container with water. Each of them held one end of the cord and put the water into the bucket at the finishing point. This game is a test of tacit understanding and cooperation so that the pupils can learn to think with patience and learn how to control the cord to minimize the quantity of water lost. This game lets the pupils know that loss will occur due to a number of factors during the transporting of water. Therefore, we have to save water, as each drop of water does not come easy.

We used the water we collect to shower the flower at conclusion of this program so that resources can be repeatedly used. The activity for this time allows the pupils to learn a lot on water resources with joy. It also reminds us the scarcity of water resources.