Is Every Transparent Liquid Water

The accepted description for water in schools worldwide is a transparent and colorless liquid. Since students in lower grades (ages 8-13) often see warning signs "Do not drink this liquid--it is not water", we believe that presenting experiments that demonstrate the inadequacy of the accepted description for water would be beneficial for teachers and their students to practice in their schools. These activities provide simple experiments that introduce students to important characteristics of different compounds that have similar external appearance. The characteristics presented here include polarity, electric conductivity, color change due to presence of an acid-base indicator, and electrolysis.