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How Do We Get Drinking Water From Fog?
Welcome to NSTA's Daily Do
Teachers and families across the country are facing a new reality of providing opportunities for
students to do science through distance and home learning. The Daily Do is one of the ways NSTA is
supporting teachers and families with this endeavor. Each weekday, NSTA will share a sensemaking
task teachers and families can use to engage their students in authentic, relevant science
learning. We encourage families to make time for family science learning (science is a social
process!) and are dedicated to helping students and their families find balance between learning
science and the day‐to‐day responsibilities they have to stay healthy and safe.
What is Sensemaking?
Sensemaking is actively trying to figure out how the world works (science) or how to design
solutions to problems (engineering). Students do science and engineering through the science and
engineering practices. Engaging in these practices necessitates students be part of a learning
community to be able to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, give and receive critique, and
reach consensus. Whether this community of learners is made up of classmates or family members,
students and adults build and refine science and engineering knowledge together.
Introduction
In today's Daily Do, How can we find the water?, students engage in science and engineering
practices and use patterns as a thinking tool to make sense of a phenomenon to solve a problem.
Students have an opportunity to apply physical science ideas about gravity to Earth's processes
namely, the water cycle. This task has been modified from its design to be used by middle and high
school students school students, families, and teachers in distance learning. While students could
complete this task independently, we encourage students to work virtually with peers or in the
home with family members.
Before you begin the task, you may want to access the accompanying How do we get drinking
water from fog? Google slide presentation.
What phenomenon am I exploring today? (Introduce Phenomenon)
Begin by showing students a regular water bottle with a lid. Say to students, "What if I told you
there was a way to fill this water bottle just by letting it sit here on the counter ‐ what would you
think? Where would the water come from?" (Slide 2)
Ask students to make a prediction about where the water might come from and record it in their
science notebook. Next, have them share their ideas in small groups along with their reasoning
behind their idea.
Next show students the video below: Nets Turn Fog Into Drinking Water (Slide 3)
As students watch the video have them document what they notice and wonder.
Ask students to share what they noticed. Students may share the following (Slide 4):
They can get water from fog.
They use nets to collect water from the air.
The net isn't all the same.
The net looks like it is in the desert.
The nets are placed on a hill where there is wind.
The water is desalinated from the sun.
Transition students to thinking about what problem this technology could help solve. Have students
get into small groups and brainstorm ideas about how this technology could be used (Slide 5).
Next, have a whole group discussion to share student ideas. Many students will bring up the idea
that this technology could be used to provide clean drinking water and water to crops to people in
undeveloped/underdeveloped countries. Prompt students to think about if this technology would
be beneficial to people right here in the United States and have them share their thoughts. Ideas
that surface here usually have to do with watering crops during a drought. However, there are
many people living in the United States that do not have access to clean drinking water. If this idea
does not surface, ask students, 'Do you think everyone in the United States has access to clean
drinking water?' Explain that there are still several parts of the United States where people live that
do not have access to clean drinking water. Again, prompt them to think about if this phenomena
could help solve that problem.
Additional Guidance: Many students may be surprised that not all communities in the US have
access to clean drinking water. Consider using this as an opportunity to discuss issues of equity
across different communities in the United States. Examples students could look at is the Navio
Nation of the American West or the Appalachian communities of West Virginia.
Now that students have some ideas about what kinds of problems this technology could solve, ask
students what questions they have about the video. In a whole group, have students share their
questions. As they share, document the questions on the board, common questions could include:
How do the nets work?
What are the nets made of?
Why would people need to pull water out of the air?
How do they know where to put the nets?
Could they put the nets anywhere to pull water from the air?
Does taking the water out of the air hurt the atmosphere?
After students share their questions have a discussion about what they would need to figure out
next to help solve the problem of clean water access. If students don't come to the conclusion that
they need to figure out where to put the collection nets, use prompts such as:
We know water is in the atmosphere (prior learning) so can you put these anywhere?
We have evidence that these collection systems work, so what would be our next step?
What information would we need?
What data do we need to make an informed decision? (Building
Consensus)
Have students get in their small groups and ask them, 'Do you think the nets would work anywhere
or is there certain criteria to consider?' Tell them to think about what information they would need
to decide where to place the nets to have the best chance at collecting the most water.
Have groups share their ideas with another group to compare ideas, then have a building
consensus discussion. Have groups share the criteria they came up with and have other groups
weigh in on agreement. Criteria should include:
They would have to be placed where it is humid (water in the air) or foggy.
Probably somewhere not too hot, because the air gets dry and the water that is collected
could evaporate.
Where there is wind (this is from the video).
Cost (optional and would need to include more research)
Decide that the most important criterion is placement. Nets would have to be placed where there
is water in the air. Ask students what data they would need to figure out where those places are.
Common student responses include gathering data on the aquifers, fog, humidity and temperature.
Show slide 8 and explain that scientists have studied and tracked groundwater reserves (aquifers)
for many years. Researchers know and keep track of groundwater as it is a main source of fresh
water. Now ask them how they think scientist keep track of water in the air. Have students share
their ideas then show slide 9. Ask students if they have seen a picture like this before and have
them explain what they think it is. Many students will tell you this is a 'heat map' and they would be
right, but this heat map doesn't represent temperature variation, it is showing variations in the
Earth's gravity field which indicates water mass changes. Ask students how knowing where water
masses are and how they change could help inform our decisions about where to put the water
collection nets. Students should come to the conclusion that knowing the pattern of water mass
change would allow them to place the nets in places that indicate there is a high potential for water
in the atmosphere.
Optional Video: To explain how this system works to measure the changes in water masses in the
air consider playing the following videos:
Middle school: Crazy Engineering: GRACE‐FO
High school: Tracking Water From Space ‐ The GRACE‐FO Mission
Making data‐driven decisions
Tell students you are going to watch a video on how scientist have tracked water mass changes in
the United States. Have students watch the video on slide (slide 10) then lead a discussion for
students to share out what the noticed.
Next have students break into partners or groups and assign each group a year from the video in
order to analyze the data more in depth. Share the link to the GRACE
data (https://youtu.be/nJVmBiAgVco) for the years 2003‐2012.
Have students look for patterns in the data that would help them determine the best places to put
water collection nets. After they have analyzed the data for their year, have them share the
patterns they noticed with the class. As students share document the data trends on the board.
Patterns that should be surfaced are (slide 12):
Water masses fluctuate throughout the year.
Water masses fluctuate from year to year.
Some parts of the US show little increase in water storage
Some parts of the US show a lot of increase in water storage
Many places in the US have similar patterns of increase and decrease of water storage.
Next have each group make an argument for where they would build their fog‐capture system.
Students should cite evidence and use reasoning in their argument.
What did we figure out? (Making Sense)
Transition to thinking about our predictions from the beginning of class. Remind them of the initial
question, "What if I told you there was a way to fill this water bottle just by letting it sit here on the
counter? Where would the water come from?" Have students share what they think now.
Next circle back to recap what we learned and how we used that information to potentially solve a
problem (slide 13).
Water is found in many places in various states (solid, liquid, and gas).
Groundwater has been tracked for many years.
Scientist use gravity to track water masses in air by satellite.
Nets can be used to harvest water from the air that can be used for drinking.
Many people worldwide do have access to clean water, including some in the United States.
Next Steps and Extension Activities:
Go back to the original questions from the first video (Slide 14):
How do the nets work?
What are the nets made of?
Why would people need to pull water out of the air?
How do they know where to put the nets?
Could they put the nets anywhere to pull water from the air?
Does taking the water out of the air hurt the atmosphere?
Ask students what questions they have answered and what questions would they like to investigate
next?
Students should be able to answer:
Why would people need to pull water out of the air?
How do they know where to put the nets?
Could they put the nets anywhere to pull water from the air?
To continue learning about this topic, consider having students investigate how the nets work. They
could also investigate other ways water can be harvested. Using the Teen's Invention Makes Water
Out of Thin Air clip (slide 15), have student compare the teens invention with the nets. What
similarities and differences do they have? Do you think they could both work?
NSTA Collection of Resources Today's Daily Do
NSTA has created a How do we get drinking water from fog? collection of resources to support
teachers and families using this task. If you're an NSTA member, you can add this collection to your
library by clicking Add to My Library (near top of page).
Check Out Previous Daily Dos from NSTA
The NSTA Daily Do is an open educational resource (OER) and can be used by educators and
families providing students distance and home science learning. Access the entire collection of
NSTA Daily Dos.
Acknowledgement
This Daily Do is inspired and uses materials from the Tracking Water Using NASA Satellite Data
Activity .NASA's educational resources are an open educational resource that can be used by
families and teachers to implement student‐driven learning.