Students have the option of comparing the quality of water from more than one tap in a building. This might be especially interesting if some taps are filtered and others are not. This post shows how to add a tap.

Taps are part of the record for a Building. Observations about water chemistry, quality, and total dissolved solids are always associated with a tap. If students sample water from just one tap in a building, that one tap is called the “primary tap.” Additional taps need to have separate Tap IDs so that that database knows which water data goes with which tap.

Coming Up With a Tap ID

If you have read the write-up about adding a new building to the database, you will remember that it is important to give some careful thought to setting up a system for assigning and keeping track of Building IDs. The reason for this is that you and your students might eventually have data about many buildings, especially if you continue the project over a number of years. Assigning a Tap ID is much simpler because Tap IDs only need to be unique within the building. For example, it would be perfectly OK if many buildings all have a tap that is identified as “Kitchen.” Tap IDs such as “Outdoor,” “Outdoor #2,” “Upstairs Bath,” and so on are all acceptable.

Instructions to Students

As with all of the other information that students collect in CTTM, the Tap ID ultimately needs to be entered into the Anecdata Crowd the Tap Maine project site. However, as with the other datasheets, we suggest that students begin by filling out a paper copy of the datasheet and then enter it to the online system later.

Here is the paper version of the Additional Tap Datasheet. Instructions for students about how to fill out this datasheet are included at the end of the instructions for the Building Datasheet. We suggest that all students also have copy of this General Instructions handout because it gives students a place to keep track of important information such as their Observer ID, Building IDs, and Tap IDs.