How much water is there on Earth? part 2

The children the examined the globe, to get an idea about how much land and water there is in their world.  Orin, Lysander, and Tai were adamant that there is more land than water.   Pippa, Alexis, and Ava thought that there was more water, Jeffery was undecided, and Pauline believed that land and water "are the same amount."

To learn more, we watched a video called GOOD Water. about the planets water and how it is being used.  Inspired by the video, we did a science experiment to illustrate how much fresh drinking water is in the world. 

If all the water on the earth is like a bucket of water, only one spoonful is fresh water that people can use. 

They all tried to scoop a spoon of water. I asked why we can't use the rest of water. Why can't we drink the water from the ocean? What does it taste like?Pauline said "the water tastes salty at the beach!" And with that, the children tasted saltwater. Orin said it won't help when people are thirsty. Pippa, Ava and Lysander even needed to wash their mouths with fresh water. At the end, we concluded that drinking salty water is not helpful when we are thirsty.

As this unit progresses, I wonder whether the idea that water extends beyond their immediate surroundings will help the children be curious about other things that exists beyond what is most familiar.  While it is easy for us to access fresh water through the faucet, perhaps together we can start to wonder whether all children around the world have access to fresh water.