Harvesting Water in the Classroom

Educational content is consistently adapted to enhance the learning experience of students at all experience and skill levels. Student motivation and accessibility are key factors in teaching science to a broad audience. The presented experiments engage the students by relating the content to that which is immediately relevant to them: the threat of global water scarcity. Through a series of experiments, students discover a potential solution employing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), porous materials capable of harvesting water from the atmosphere, even at low relative humidity. To make this laboratory experience accessible to everyone, the experiments and required equipment are simplified without compromising the performance of the MOF, as confirmed through characterization by powder X-ray diffraction and water sorption measurements. A post-lab assessment indicates that the cutting-edge nature of the materials and related research fuels student motivation and spurs a broader conversation about ongoing scientific research.