Pollution Lab Activity // Animals and Pollution Experiment

Give students a hands-on experience in the effects of pollution with this engaging lab activity! Students place eggs in "polluted" water (to represent those of amphibians and reptiles), and observe how it affects them. Students analyze the model and brainstorm ways that they can help animals from being affected by pollution.

Materials needed:

• Eggs (hard boiled)

• Paper Towel

• Cups or Beakers

• Tape

• “Pollution” Liquid (food coloring)

• Water

• Ruler or Tape Measure

I use this activity with 6th graders, but it would work excellent with elementary school students as well as middle school. The students are excited to see what they find inside the eggs on the next day! I always hard boil the eggs before I bring them into school. This is also a fun eggsperiment to work in some eggcelent egg puns!

Key Words: ecosystems, pollution, ecology, human impact, biodiversity, point-source, nonpoint-source, hydrosphere, Earth systems, water pollution, lakes, rivers, model, solutions, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, fish, animals, organisms, eggs, laboratory, lab, hands-on, permeable, endangered, extinct, Earth science, Earth Day