We've been talking about peeing and pools in chemistry the last two days. And Mikey too.

I swear Denis Sheeran made me do it. I started reading his book Instant Relevance and took it quite literally. Though Denis is a math whiz and uses many real world math examples in his book, he's inspired me to bring as much real world science into my chemistry classroom as possible. I want to #MakeItReal for my students.

So, while we're not peeing in any pools or while going down slides at our local water parks, we are learning about why urinating in chlorinated water is really bad for your health.

The Lesson Plan

We're talking about solutions in chemistry now and swimming pools are solutions of chlorinated chemicals, sweat, urine, and other excrement... It just made sense.

First, we watched this video (hook and dopamine).

Second, we did a quick pre reading activity.

Then, we read the article Study finds chlorinated pools and pee are a match made in harmful gas heaven to get our facts.

Finally, my students wrote and sent emails to the area businesses, such as water parks and gyms. The task was to explain the harmful effects of urinating in chlorinated water has on human health and to politely ask if the management would consider taking steps to make the public aware of the hazards it causes.

I realized that this ended up as a lesson in chemistry and communicating effectively. As adults, we communicate via email for professional reasons and need to be able to get our point across as well as convince others to hear our point of view or fulfill our requests. For these reasons, practicing writing emails may be the more important lesson in all of this. Just a thought...

Here's the entire lesson plan if you want more specifics or would like to use it somehow.

So, as my students were emailing vicinity pools and water parks, I crafted this gem to the source of the problem.

Dear Michael Phelps,

Stop hitting the bong bro, because it makes you say crazy shit kids listen to and believe. Then, they pee in pools unabashedly, which leads to formation of trichloramine and cyanogen chloride. Trichloramine!?!? Cyanogen chloride!?!? Those sound really bad! They are. Stop it Phelps! Or else!

Sincerely,

Those of us who don't like lung diseases, heart defects, and nervous system disorders

You have the power to make school real and change the world. Do it often.