Pollution Puzzlers

Objective: Identify sources of groundwater pollution and possible solutions.

Materials: Pollution Puzzlers cards (one set per group)

Procedure:
Make copies of the game cards (you will need one set per group).

This card game is played just like Old Maid.

Divide the class into small groups of 3 students.

After all the cards are dealt, students take turns laying down a match which consists of
"Problem/Solution" pairs. Each Problem card has a Solution.

After all pairs are laid down, the child to the left of the dealer goes first. He must draw a card
from one of the other children. If it is a match, he/she discards the pair and draws from the
other player. If it is not a match, the turn is over and the child to his/her left then draws from
one of the other children.

Play alternates until all cards are matched and one player is left holding the "Groundwater
Gobbler" card.

Extensions:
Have students write a letter to the American Groundwater Trust for additional information on
how to protect their local groundwater resources.

Have students make posters to display around the school using Pollution Puzzlers cards as
samples of groundwater pollution problems and solutions to those problems.

Have students write and direct a puppet show on pollution and its consequences and present
it to another class.

Vocabulary Glossary:
Contamination: An impurity, that causes the air, soil, or water to be harmful to human health or
the environment
Feedlot: Confined areas where livestock are quartered and fed, often these are holding areas
where animals are fattened-up prior to being shipped to market.
Fertilizer: Any one of a large number of natural and synthetic materials, including manure and
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium compounds, spread or worked into the soil to increase its
fertility
Filter: To remove contaminants by using a porous material such as paper or sand
Groundwater: Water that infiltrates into the earth and is stored in usable amounts in the soil
and rock below the earth's surface; water within the zone of saturation
Impurities: Substances that make another substance unclean
Lagoon: As a wastewater treatment method, an animal waste treatment method which uses a
deep pond to treat manure and other runoff from a livestock operation
Landfill: A large, outdoor area for waste disposal; landfills where waste is exposed to the
atmosphere (open dumps) are now illegal; in "sanitary" landfills, waste is layered and covered
with soil
Leachate: The liquid formed when water (from precipitation) soaks into and through a landfill,
picking up a variety of suspended and dissolved materials from the waste
Pesticide: Any chemical or biological agent that kills plant or animal pests; herbicides,
insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, etc., are all pesticides
Pollution: Contaminants in the air, water, or soil that cause harm to human health or the
environment
Runoff: Water (originating as precipitation) that flows across surfaces rather than soaking in;
eventually enters a water body; may pick up and carry a variety of pollutants
Septic Tank: A domestic wastewater treatment holding area into which wastes are piped
directly from the home
Source: Where something originates
Water Table: The top of an unconfined aquifer. The water table is the level of water below the
soil and rock

Activity adapted from The Watersource Book