Solutions on the Playground?

After three labs of learning about mixtures and solutions, students explored elements on the playground that might be able to be dissolved and made into solutions. From grass, to bark, to leaves and more, students made a mixture of water and the solute. Shaking the bottles vigorously, they tried to dissolve some of the solute into the solvent. Next, groups filtered their mixture. Many groups noticed a coloration to their filtered water. The water is now sitting in evaporative trays. The final test will be to see if some solid material (the solute) is in the tray after the solvent evaporates.