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Testing Electrolyte Drinks

A 4th Grade STEM Lesson

Rachel Charette

July 2023

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Notes for Teachers

Students can work in small groups

Note what unit your tool measures in and make sure you use the same unit throughout the project

Rinse off the probe between each sports drink to make sure there are accurate readings and no contamination

The distilled water should have a voltage of zero, but measure it once at the beginning to make sure

List of Materials:

A wide variety of sports drinks and energy drinks in multiple flavors as well as regular drinks (coffee, lemonade, milk, etc) at room temperature
distilled water
plastic cups (1 per drink sample)
Electrolyte Sensor Kit (ideally one per each small group)
2” piece of plastic straw
graph document

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Standards

Physical Science:

4.P4U1.2

Develop and use a model that explains how energy is moved from place to place through electric currents.

Math:

4.MD.B.4

Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit.

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Objective(s):

I can measure the amount of electrolytes in a variety of sports drinks using a voltmeter.

I can use a graph to record data and compare electrolyte levels to determine what drink is best for electrolyte consumption.

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Agenda (45 minutes)

5 minutes: Introduction

What are electrolytes?
Why do we need them?
Where do they come from?
How do they work?

5 minutes: Set up and label drinks

1/2 c of each drink at room temperature

10 minutes: Set up voltmeter kit

10 minutes: Measure and record date of drink voltage

5 minutes: discussion and reflection of what drinks had the highest electrolyte content

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Intro/Driving Question/Opening

What are electrolytes? What do they do for our body and why do we need them? Where do they come from?

How can we measure the amount of electrolytes or the quality of electrolytes in specific drinks?

What drinks can we purchase that are the most beneficial for electrolyte repletion?

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Wrap copper wire around the ends�of a straw piece and leave 5” of�tail. This will be dropped into the�drinks you are testing.

sciencebuddies.org

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Using the electrolyte sensor kit, use the provided materials to create a set up using this diagram.

You can visit here to get detailed directions for set up.

You can create your own “kit” by purchasing the materials separately.

sciencebuddies.org

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Set the multimeter to 200m (could be mA if you’re using a different meter). This will measure in milliamps.

Submerge the straw into various drinks and record the milliamps recorded on the multimeter. Putting the straw and copper wire into the drink will add electricity to the circuit which will trigger a reading on the multimeter

Hint: drinks should read under 100mA if done correctly.

Rinse the straw with distilled water between each liquid to make sure the reader is cleared out and the wire does not erode.

sciencebuddies.org

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

Record the data on a graph.

Assist students in labeling the graph as needed. Remember to indicate specific flavors if applicable.

Discuss outcomes and interpretation of experiment.

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Assessment

Students can correctly read a voltmeter and graph the data.

Students can correctly interpret data to determine which drink contains the highest level of electrolytes.

Students can explain the purpose of drinking specific drinks high in electrolytes.

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Differentiation

Have students compare only tap water and Gatorade to simplify the testing process. This will show them if a sports drink is actually that more beneficial than just drinking water.

Have the graph axis labeled already with titles and units to help organize and guide data collection.

Provide key vocabulary with images.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Have students test one brand of drink (i.e. Gatorade) except various flavors. Is there any difference in the electrolyte content on individual flavors?

Have students test each drink three times then find the average reading to use as the data point.