Yorkshire Water

On Thursday the 13th of November Class 4 went on our Yorkshire Water trip. Our first stop off was at the Headingly water treatment site. We started by discussing the water cycle and establishing children's level of understanding as well as discussing harmful things contained in untreated water.

 With hard hats on we ventured out to treatment facility. Our guide explained each part of the process of cleaning water, taken from rivers and streams and turned into fresh drinking water.

 The first stage involved removing 'floc' from the water using a 'flocculator'.

Then the 'dissolved air flotation tank'......

As you can see....it was all quite technical!

Gradually, with each process, the water became visibly cleaner.

We were amazed to learn that there was only one full time member of staff working this whole plant! Also, it was fascinating to realise how quickly the cleaning process worked - a full cycle took less than an hour to turn dirty water to clean water.

Then we went to the classroom area to complete a range of tasks including this one - identifying causes of water wastage.

Then it was off to the Esholt sewage treatment site. The first thing we all noticed stepping off the coach was the foul stench........

We were able to see the water coming directly from the sewers - lucky us! It was actually very interesting though and our guide showed us each step of the journey of cleaning the water (as well as using the waste for energy and recycling it for agricultural usage) ready to return to the rivers and streams.

Finally we got to put on our scientist robes and try out a range of experiments relating to water. These included learning about flood tanks and how they protect our roads during flash floods; how hydroelectricity can be generated; how microbes can be used to actually help clean the water; and other grim things like a tube with some fake poos in it! All can be seen below if you look carefully.

Overall it was a fascinating trip and I am sure we all came away having learnt many things we had no idea about before the visit. This trip also serves as a great launch-pad for our latest Science topic on separating materials.