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Last month, MPR News launched the Citizen Science Winter Salt Lab with the Science Museum of Minnesota, where kids of all ages were able to do experiments testing the salinity of water samples. We had a great turnout – over 250 kids – so we will be bringing this back with a pop-up lab on the afternoon of President’s Day, February 19th. This is part of The Water Main, a new initiative that aims to bring people together, move conversations forward and create meaningful connections that help sustain clean, abundant water for all. The Water Main has been collaborating with MPR News on a series about road salt and its environmental effects – a perfect topic for this time of year. 

Here’s how it works: kids and adults bring in samples of melted snow or ice to test the samples’ conductivity-- a measure of salinity. Not surprisingly, samples taken from areas with heavy road salt use have high salinity levels. Kids are guided through the experiment by our team, museum staff, plus scientists from the U of M’s Department of Earth Sciences and St. Croix Watershed Research Station. We spend a lot of time talking with the kids and families about the MPR News series, which explains how chloride pollution can cause problems for aquatic life and even drinking water, and why it’s a tough problem to solve.

You can find more details about Monday’s pop-up lab here: https://www.mpr.org/events/3149. With so many having the day off from school on Monday, this offers a great opportunity for learning outside of the classroom.  

A flyer which students may want to take home to their parents, and covers all the details for the event, can be downloaded here.

Kelly Reller

Media Relations Specialist

American Public Media | Minnesota Public Radio

480 Cedar Street, Saint Paul, MN 55101
kreller@americanpublicmedia.org