In occasion of the 2011 edition of World Water Day on 22 March, officially held in Cape Town (South Africa), a global chemistry experiment was launched involving the testing of water quality by school children all over the world.

The 'Big Splash', as the experiment is called, represented one of the main activities of the Cape Town event. From March 22 to 25 more than 1,000 15 to 18-year-old students in the Cape region of South Africa tested water quality, measuring salinity and acidity and learning how it is filtered and distilled. All of the results were collected online and used to build an interactive map that will be implemented with the data collected by primary and secondary school children worldwide over this year.

This initiative, launched by UNESCO and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) as part of the International Year of Chemistry, aims to raise school students' awareness of the importance of water as a vital resource.

For further information or to get your school involved in the experiment, please visit the official website.