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Science and Technology K–6 · Kindergarten

How much water do living things need in a day

Living World (NSW 2017); Science inquiry and Science as a human endeavour (ACARA v9)

PracticalLow risk

The idea

Living things need water every day, and the amount can be measured and compared.

Safety card

Low riskAn adult supervises

Hazards

  • Spills on the floor
  • A class pet is a live vertebrate animal: its welfare, and hygiene after any contact with the cage or the bottle

Controls

  • Cups kept at desks; paper towel on hand
  • Only the adult handles the pet, its cage and its bottle, and only the adult weighs the bottle; learners mark the tape without touching the bottle; hands washed after any contact with the cage

Note

No chemicals or heat. Live animals: the 2017 syllabus Animal Welfare section and the NSW Department of Education science safety and compliance page (which points to the Animals in Schools site) apply. A guinea pig is a vertebrate, so keeping one and using it in a lesson sits under the Animal Research Act 1985 (NSW): schools are accredited as animal research institutions with access to a Schools Animal Care and Ethics Committee, and husbandry carried out in order to teach is covered by the Act, so the teacher checks the school's Animal Research Authority or seeks that committee's approval before the lesson. Record the activity on the school's risk assessment (Primary School RiskAssess, Ecosolve Australia, riskassess.com.au).

What you need

  • 1 identical 250 mL cup per learner (marked at 250 mL)
  • Class tally chart: one row per learner, one tick per full cup drunk during the school day
  • A 1 L measuring jug for the class demonstration
  • If the class keeps a pet with a drinking bottle (for example a guinea pig), a kitchen scale reading to 1 g for the adult to weigh the bottle with (each gram of water lost is about 1 mL)
  • A strip of masking tape stuck up the side of the pet's bottle and a marker, so learners can mark the water level at 9 am and again at 3 pm without touching the bottle

How to do it

  1. Predict how many cups of water you will drink at school today. Record the prediction.
  2. Drink only from your marked cup. Each time you finish a full cup, add a tick to your row.
  3. At the end of the day count the ticks. Pour that many cups of water into the jug to see the total; empty the jug each time it reaches 1 L (4 cups) and keep count.
  4. If there is a class pet, mark the water level on the tape at 9 am and again at 3 pm and look at the gap between the two marks; the adult weighs the bottle at both times and tells the class how many millilitres it drank.
  5. Compare: who drank more, who drank less, did the pet drink more or less than a child.

What you should see

Each learner's total is ticks multiplied by 250 mL: 3 ticks is 750 mL and 4 ticks is 1 L, which fills the 1 L jug exactly. Totals differ between learners, which is the pattern the class discusses; repeating on a hot day lets the class compare days. If there is a class pet, the two tape marks show the class how far the water fell during the day, and the adult's two weighings give the amount, about 1 mL for each gram lost, a quantity too small for marks every 50 mL to show. The learner knows it worked when the jug level matches the tick count.

What changes

This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

  • Plants and pets do not need water every day.
  • Drinking is only for when you feel thirsty.

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

  • Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-22.STe-3LW-STSTe-1WS-S
  • Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.STE-SCI-01STE-PQU-01
  • Australian Curriculum v9AC9SFH01AC9SFI01AC9SFI03AC9SFI05

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

  1. www.scootle.edu.au/ec/search?accContentId=AC9SFH01
  2. www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/curriculum/science/science-and-technology-k-6-2017
  3. primaryconnections.org.au/v84-sequences/staying-alive
  4. primaryconnections.org.au/v84-sequences/growing-well
  5. education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/science/science-safety-and-compliance
  6. education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/animals-in-schools/animals-in-schools-compliance/legislation

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