co-water

Celebrating biodiversity: collaborating for water

Co-water is a citizen science kit designed for children between 7–11 years old. It aims to raise awareness about water and water pollution and create empathy for the non-human animals living under and around water through unobtrusive research methods and cultural probe kits.

The kit consists of a carrier bag to store sampling tools; a syringe, a camera and sample bottles, as well as a cooler bin to send the samples to the scientist for further research. There is also a desktop analysis unit for the child user to examine water and parameters of water pollution back at home.

In order to take samples from a particular natural water source, children and their parents first explore the water surrounding and record it with the camera. The specifically designed big syringe guides the children to sample the water, which they then transfer to the sample bottles. When users get home they can make three types of analyses through the analysis unit, which informs them about the sample water’s levels of nitrogen (N), chlorine (Cl) and pH. Outcomes are saved and printed out. Samples of water are packed in the cooler bin and sent to the scientist. Eventually, the results are utilized to create a database.