Wetlands and the Water Cycle

So to go along with a trip to the sanitation district, we did a couple experiments that have to do with water. Here is the first one.

Here we see a wetlands. The sponges represent the waterlogged soil. Here is what we did. First we put a puddle of water at the bottom of the paint pan. We gave the upper land some animals and put the spongy soil inbetween the land and water. Then we poured on some pollution (hole punches and powdered cocoa). Then we let it rain. (Water falling from a watering can). The sponges held a lot of the powdered cocoa from reaching the water. AND only one hole punch got in.

Here we let half the land be wetland and half be non-wetlands. The cocoa powder all got in, along with the hole punches. You can see that the wetlands area is "less poluted" than the non wetlands however it is infiltrating into the wetlands.