On this day, we adults<\/em> ended up just as surprised as the children by how many new insights bubbled up. The children collected three kinds of water (from Izumikawa Farm, the Ponnukibetsu River, and local spring water), then tested them with their own hands\u2014smell, color, pH, temperature, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using off-the-shelf test kits and strips, they observed everything with the seriousness of little researchers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n We adults laughed it off\u2014\u201cNo way, sausages?\u201d Nature\u2019s smells can be surprisingly distinctive\u2014the kids taught us that instead.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWater upstream is always colder, right?\u201d\u2014that\u2019s what everyone assumed. The kids reminded us how important it is to learn from actual data<\/em>, not assumptions. Parents joined in too, taking on the tests as a family. \u201cWhich color does this match?\u201d \u201cHuh, looks like it has less iron than our tap water at home.\u201d Some even said, \u201cCan we take a kit home and test our tap water?\u201d In the second half, everyone summed up the day\u2019s findings in an \u201cobservation notebook\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt smelled like sausages. It was clear, but it didn\u2019t look tasty.\u201d<\/strong> Using their notebooks, the children gave short presentations. The proud faces behind those badges said it all. Hello there!Out in the great outdoors of Rusutsu, Hokkaid\u014d, we held a workshop where kids learned all about \u201cw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jinr_url_youtube":"","_jinr_pip_youtube":false,"_jinr_time_youtube":"","_jinr_thumb_youtube":"","_jinr_media_youtube":"","_jinr_category_edit":false,"_jinr_category":"","_jinr_title_display":false,"_jinr_snsbutton_display":false,"_jinr_ads_display":false,"_jinr_thumbnail_display":false,"_jinr_profile_display":false,"_jinr_representations_display":false,"_jinr_relatedpost_display":false,"_jinr_sidebar1col_display":false,"_jinr_sidebar2col_display":false,"_jinr_seotitle_display":"","_jinr_description_display":"","_jinr_keyword_display":"","_jinr_hastag_display":"","_jinr_canonical_display":"","_jinr_noindex_display":false,"_jinr_paidpost":false,"_jinr_paidpost_product_id":"","_jinr_headtag_article":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workshop-en"],"views":"10","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions\/767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Here\u2019s a little peek at what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udca7 Water is this fun!? A five-senses water-quality survey<\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_1579-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udc43 Surprise #1: \u201cThis water smells like sausages!\u201d<\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
But when we actually sniffed it\u2026 well, it did<\/em> have a faint sausage-like aroma!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83c\udf21\ufe0f A plot twist in the temperature checks!?<\/strong><\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
But when we measured the temperatures\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udccf Surprise #2: \u201cWait\u2026 the downstream is colder!\u201d<\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Even the teachers said, \u201cLet\u2019s re-survey this,\u201d with serious faces. Future researchers\u2014fearsome indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udc68\u200d\ud83d\udc69\u200d\ud83d\udc67\u200d\ud83d\udc66 Parent\u2013child challenge: getting hooked on water-quality kits<\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Together, they used droppers to add water, then read the components from the color changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rusutsu-sustainable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_1661-2-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The room filled with the focused buzz of a hands-on science class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a few families, the parents got more into it than the kids (true story!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83d\udcdd Jotting down personal discoveries<\/em> in observation notebooks<\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
\n
\ud83d\udcd6 From one child\u2019s notes<\/strong><\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s so honest it made us chuckle\u2014but that kind of viewpoint is exactly what matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\ud83c\udf93 Wrapping up as certified \u201cWater Scientists\u201d!<\/h2><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n
Each one shared what they felt and learned, then received a completion certificate and a Water Scientist<\/em> badge!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a day when their \u201ceyes for observation\u201d grew a whole lot sharper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"