Have you ever wondered how sewer water is cleaned at the sewage plant? Jason Lindsey with Hooked on Science shows us how some sewage plants utilize sewer lice to clean sewage water.

 

INGREDIENTS

Raisins

Transparent Container

Mountain Dew

INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1: Inform those in the audience you stopped by the local sewer plant for a sample of sewer lice to observe how they clean sewage water.

STEP 2: Fill the transparent container half of the way with sewer water (Mountain Dew).

STEP 3: Drop several sewer lice (raisins) into the sewer water and observe.

 

EXPLANATION

Your audience will eventually realize what’s floating inside the Mountain Dew is not sewer lice. Inform them that once enough carbon dioxide bubbles in the Mountain Dew collect on the sides of the raisins they “swim” to the surface. Once at the top, the carbon dioxide bubbles pop and the raisins “swim” back to the bottom. Inform your audience that sewage is cleaned at a sewage plant through one, two, or three stages and not sewer lice. Go to hookedonscience.org for more experiments.