Water and health

Some students make posters about drink water instead sparkling drinks.

The water experience

My name is Jorge, I am 22 and I am doing the Environmental Chemistry course in the I.E.S. Concepción Arenal in Ferrol. Last week was unusual for the life in the high school, it was the Water Awareness Week and I was in charge of the explanation of some experiments that took place in the high school`s hall. It was such a good experience because we could get closer to the responsible of life in our planet, which is water. This little molecule is too unknown in common life and it has many properties that you can`t believe. This past week was really good to learn about this resource which is not as abundant as we can think; only the 3% of the total water in the planet is fresh water. I had to explain some properties such superficial tension of water and the Arquimedes principle, helped by funny and interesting experiments. I was very glad helping teachers this week.

Ten ways to save water

Another activity for our water awareness week was to aware the students about the necessity of saving  water in their daily life. We summarized it in ten ways to save water: 

1. Use shower instead of bath.

2. Close the tap to avoid unnecessary leaks.

3.  Repair the taps if they are leaking.

4. Use cisterns with a device which allows to select a big or small water flow.

5.  Don’t throw solids to WC in order avoid to use the cistern unnecessary.

6.  When you brush your teeth, take a shower or wash your dishes don’t waste the water.

7. Use the electrical appliance in whole charge

8.   Water the gardens with programmed watering and in early mornings or at dawn.

9.    Don’t wash the cars every week and do it in an automatic car wash.

10. If the car is washed by hand, don’t do it with a hose, use only a sponge and a bucket.

After that, we asked the students to show them in a poster. Most of them were made in Arts classes in ESO.  Above you can see a selection of them.

The importance of water in the origin of life.

Last Monday  the last of the conferences programmed in our water awareness week was held. The tittle was: The importance of water in the origin of life. It was imparted by José Miñones Trillo, emeritus professor of the University of Santiago de Compostela. The professor talked about the chemical and physical properties  of water. He also explained that due to these properties life can exist in frozen seas or how plants are fed by capillarity.

Water awareness week

During water awareness week, the hall of our school was full of chemical and physical devices. The teachers and students were showing various experiments related to water. In my opinion, it was a success because during the breaks the hall was full of students trying to understand physical and chemical properties of the water. Also they were trying themselves to do some experiments.

Works about wetlands and rivers of Galicia

Ferrolterra rivers, presentation made by Carlota, María, Andrea, Ruth and Jorge (4º ESO)

Ramsar zone, presentation made by Eva Rodríguez Vilariño and other students ESO 3

The chemical and biological state of the estuary of Ferrol.

This conference was a part of our water awareness week and was held last Tuesday afternoon. It was imparted by Joam Ferreira Caramés - the president of the Galician Society of Natural History in Ferrol and the biologist of the fishermen´s guild of Barallobre.

It was very interesting because this man has been working with fishermen for a lot of years. So, he has firsthand information about the damages that the spills of waste water have been causing in our Ria for a lot of years .