Student Worksheet

Water Taste Test - Activity Instructions

Bottled water companies tell us their water is better, cleaner and healthier than tap water. Many people also claim they don’t like the taste of tap water and prefer to buy bottled water. But can they really tell the difference? You’re going to do some market research and blind taste test your family and friends to find out.

Safety advice: Be aware of cross-contamination from people drinking from the same glasses. This might be a good opportunity to learn how to properly clean dishes.

PART A: Testing

Step 1.

Prepare your experiment by putting three masking tape labels on your cups and labelling them A, B and C. You could also use three different coloured stickers to tell them apart.

Put labels on your bottles of water the same way. Make one brand A, and the other brand B. Tap water will be C.

Step 2.

Fill each cup with a sip of the water that matches the label and place them in a row on the table. Hide the bottles of water out of sight.

Step 3.

Ask your first taste tester to come and try each of the glasses. Ask them to rank the water from best-tasting (3) to worst-tasting (1). Also ask them to guess which glass they think is tap water.

NAME	WATER A	WATER B	WATER C	TAP WATER?
Bob	2	1	3	Water #1

Step 4.

Repeat with as many tasters as you can find. Make sure to wash and dry the cups between each tester.

PART B: Data Analysis

Step 1.

Create a column graph of your data. Give 3 points to a water if a taster listed it as their favourite, and only 1 if it was their least favorite. For example:

Step 2.

What is this data telling you? Was there a water that was the clear favourite, or were they all ranked pretty much equal?

Step 3.

What percentage of people could correctly identify the tap water? Calculate this by counting all the people who guessed correctly, and divide it by the total number of testers, then multiple by 100.

5 correct 15 taste testers = 0.33

0.33 x 100 = 33% correctly guessed the tap water.

Would you say it is Highly Likely, Likely, Unlikely, or Highly Unlikely people can tell the difference between water based on taste?

Taking It Further

Perform the same test using two new variables: Coke, Pepsi and a less familiar branded cola. Can people really tell the difference between the recipes?

Grab a camera or iPhone and interview yourself sharing the results of your tests with them. Are they shocked they couldn’t tell which one was tap water?

Water Taste Test (home learning)

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