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Wonderful Water!
 No matter how you say it, water is vital to life on Earth! We can’t live without it! Survival of all plants, animals, and people on Earth depends on quality water! Water is one of the most essential elements to good health -- it is necessary for the digestion and absorption of food; helps maintain proper muscle tone; supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells; rids the body of wastes; and serves as a natural air conditioning system. Health and nutrition experts emphasize the importance of drinking at least eight glasses of clean water each and every day to maintain good health.
The more you learn about water, the more fascinating it becomes. These lessons incorporate science, social studies, math and language arts in fun activities that stimulate critical thinking in students of all ages.
Lesson Ideas
Below are lessons from Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development Growing in the Garden (GITG, Grades K-3) and Where We Live (WWL, Grades 4 – 8) curricula to help your students understand one of our important natural resources - water.
Kindergarten:
GITG Unit 2, Lesson 3: Water and Light. Like people, water and light are vital to the growth and development and plants. Using simple experiments, children will understand the effect of too much or too little water on seed germination and plant growth.
GITG Unit 2, Lesson 4: Sun, Soil, Water and Air. There are some things that we depend on every day that are all around us but are not man-made nor or they renewable. Children will learn about the need for the sun, soil, water and air through critical thinking activities and song and movement.
Third grade:
GITG Unit 2, Lesson 3: Photosynthesis. Water is a very important part of the equation for photosynthesis and life on earth. Through a clever skit, chefs demonstrate the process of photosynthesis as if they were baking a cake.
Where We Live: History of the Land, Unit 2, Lesson 3: Rock Bottom. Iowa is rich in natural resources below the Earth’s surface. Minerals and water have been a very an important part of Iowa’s economy. Using food to represent rocks and minerals, Iowa geography and history are introduced while the children learn about the various subsoil resources.
Where We Live: Living with the Land, Unit 2, Lesson 5: Water Quality. How is it possible that we could be drinking the same water as the dinosaurs? Where would you locate your farm, home, or business on the Iowa landscape? Would you drink the water where you live? Who’s responsible for clean water? Through thought-provoking and fun hands-on activities, the activities in this lesson cover the water cycle, water sheds, dilution, and water quality issues in Iowa.
Featured Lesson #1: Don’t Use It All Up! (Adapted from Project Food, Land and People. 1998. For more about FLP, go to learningandliving.org)
- Grades K – 12
- Subjects: math, science, social studies
Materials:
Clear glass bowl – 2 quart or greater capacity
Unused sponges, cut into 1 ½-inch square pieces
Masking tape
1 to quart of water
1 quart liquid measuring bowl
Blue food coloring (optional)
Unused toothbrush
Toothpaste
Students will realize some steps that individuals and communities can take to conserve and preserve one of our valuable natural resources – water.
Background information:
The Earth’s population has grown to six and a half billion people and continues to grow at an alarming rate. The strain placed on natural resources increases along with the population growth of people, animals, and plants. Water is essential to all living things. People use water daily in many ways, often in surprising amounts. A single family home that has no water conservation fixtures may use as much as 64.6 gallons per person per day (gpd). We also use water in many indirect ways, such as in the production of manufactured items and food, irrigation of lawns, food crops, preparation of food, cooling, and heating.
Even though there is an abundance of water on Earth, much of it is unusable for consumption by people or animals in its present form. More than 97 percent of Earth’s water is salt water. Of the freshwater supply, most is inconsumable. Glaciers and icecaps hold more than 2 percent of Earth’s water – leaving less than .5 percent of Earth’s water as fresh water available in lakes, groundwater, and streams.
Water is naturally recycled through the hydrologic (water) cycle. (See WWL 6th grade lesson – Water Cycle Boogie activity.) The water we use in our homes, schools, businesses, and industries is cleaned and treated (recycled) so it can be returned to the environment and reused.
DO:
1. Measure one quart of water and pour it into the clear glass bowl. Tint the water with blue food coloring (optional). Mark the water level with a strip of masking tape on the outside of the clear glass bowl, lining the top edge of the tape with the water level. This water represents all the available fresh water on our plant Earth.
2. Ask the students “How have you or your family used water in the last two days?" Have someone write the uses on the black board. Each person who volunteers or shares a new and different water use will get a sponge piece. They should remember what they said.
Examples: flush toilet, wash hands, brush teeth, shower, drink, wash dishes, wash clothes, wash car, bath a pet, fix a meal, clean or wash something, swim, water plants, water pets or livestock, etc. Distribute as many of the sponges as possible.
3. Have the volunteers come to the front of the room and, one at a time, repeat their water use and drop the sponge into the bowl of water. If the students say the following uses, tell them how much water it takes per person for each activity:
Uses:
Toilet flushes (18.3 gallons per day or gpd)
Clothes washes (14.0 gpd)
Showers (12.2 gpd)
Facet uses: Hand-washing, drinking, cooking, dishwashing (10.3 gpd)
A dairy cow must drink four gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk. So, even when you eat something, water is a valuable part of the production and processing of that food.
Allow the sponges to soak up water for a few minutes.
4. Ask for a volunteer to remove the sponges WITHOUT squeezing them out. Mark the new level of water with another piece of masking tape. What happened to our water supply? Pour the water back into the measuring bowl. Record the level. Determine how much water was soaked up or used, then, if possible, calculate the percentage of the total amount that was used.
REFLECT:
What will happen if we keep using water at this rate?
Water can be conserved by reducing our demands on it. What are some ways you or your family can reduce your water consumption? Reduce, recycle, and reuse.
(Don’t leave water running when you brush your teeth; don’t take long showers; fix leaky faucets; mulch around landscape plants to conserve moisture reducing the need for frequent watering; consolidate loads of laundry or use the appropriate amount of water compared to the size of your washer load, don’t run the dishwasher until it is full, etc.)
If you and your family reduce and recycle water, we can put some of the water back into our water supply. Ask a couple of volunteers to squeeze the water out of the sponges back into the measuring bowl. Note if there is an increase in the amount. Are we back to the original amount? Why not? Where did that water go? It could have evaporated, went into another water source, as consumed it and it has recycled yet, etc.
APPLY:
Everyday we use water to brush our teeth. Raise your hand if you leave the water running while you brush your teeth? Let’s calculate how much water can be saved by turning off the faucet while you are brushing your teeth.
Ask for a volunteer to brush their teeth. (If you don’t have a sink in your classroom, have a couple of children go to the bathroom for this activity.) Place the measuring bowl in the sink under the faucet. Turn on the faucet at a moderate flow rate while the student brushes his/her teeth and keep in running into the bowl until he/she is finished. Shut the faucet off when he/she is done. Record the amount of water in the container.
How much water can be saved by turning off the faucet when you're brushing your teeth?
Multiply that number by two since you (should) brush your teeth twice a day.
How many gallons is that?
Hint:
Four cups = One quart
Four quarts = One gallon
Sixteen cups = One gallon
How many gallons of water a year (hint: 365 days are in a year)?
Tell the student how many people live in your town, city, or county. Have them calculate how much water could be conserved per year in your community if people simply shut off the facet while they brushed their teeth.
If the average cost for water supplied to a home in the U.S. is about $3.00 for 1,000 gallons (about 3 gallons for a penny), how many gallons of water would your family run down the drain in a year if every family member left the water running while brushing their teeth? How much money would they save by shutting the water off while brushing? Calculation: number of gallons per person per year (based on classroom experiment and first calculation) times the number of people in their family. Divide that number by 3 to get the number of pennies it cost per year; multiply that number by 100 to determine the dollar value of the lost water.
FEATURED ACTIVITY #2: Water has Many Looks, Grades 1-3
Water is unique because it has many forms. Technically it has three forms – liquid as water, solid as ice, and vapor as steam or water vapor. It can also be found in small clusters of ice crystals we call snow. Water vapor is all around us but visible as steam coming off a hot cup of coffee. Water vapor attaches to small bits of dust in the air to form raindrops in warm temperatures. In cold temperatures, it freezes and forms snow or hail.
- Young children can learn by observing and making their own forms of water. Show the three forms of water and discuss where they are found. Have them cut out paper raindrops out of blue construction paper to show liquid water; cut out white paper clouds to demonstrate water vapor, and have them make a snowflake using the simple instructions by clicking on the word “snowflake”.
To make a hexagonal stellar snowflake:
1. Take a sheet of paper and fold it in half the long way.
2. Fold the two sides (right and left) toward the center so that the edge of the right side lines up with the fold of the left side and the edge of the left side lines up with the fold on right side – the new right edge.
3. Cut straight across from corner on the right side.
4. Cut a “V” or small triangle out of the center of the triangle. Cut triangles or half circles along inside edges of the “V”.
5. Unfold.
(click on image to enlarge)
Read and discuss Joanna Cole’s:The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over: A Book About the Water Cycle (See list of recommended books)
- Read and discuss The Snowflake – A Water Cycle Story by Neil Waldman. (See list of recommended books)
Grades: 4 – 6: Water Conservation and Protection
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an excellent on-line activity and coloring book that can be downloaded. It is called “Thirstins’ Wacky Water Adventure”. It discusses protecting and conserving drinking water and includes many activities such as word-finds, mazes, crossword puzzles and word scrambles. It can be found at this web site.
More activity pages and lessons can be found on The Groundwater Foundation website
Grades 5 – 9:
Water Jeopardy Game
Materials and supplies
This game is similar to the popular television show; except the game moderator or leader will ask the question and the teams will give the answer. The questions may require a “yes or no” or “true or false” response, the correct answer from a group of answers (multiple choice) or a brief explanation.
Select a moderator (question reader and timer) and score keeper. Divide the class into 2 to 4 teams, depending on the number of students. Each team will work together to determine the correct answer to the question.
Make three columns on the board and title each column with the category heading: characteristics of water, water quality and use, and water on Earth. Write the point values or levels on the board – 10, 15, 20 - under each heading. (The higher the point value, the more difficult the question.) There will be 5 questions in each level of each category. Draw 5 circles under each point level. The scorekeeper will keep track of the number of questions asked from each category by putting an “X” in the circle so that the teams know how many questions remain unanswered in each category and level. A question can only be asked once. The game is over when all the questions in all the categories have been answered.
The teams will request a question from one of 3 categories, each with 3 levels or degrees of difficulty. The group has 15 seconds to come up with the right answer. If they answer the question correctly, they get to select another category and level. They lose their turn if they give the incorrect answer. If they do not answer it correctly, the other team gets a chance to answer that question. If they chose to answer it and their response is correct, they get the points and a can continue to select questions. If they answer it wrong, they lose the selected number of points but get to continue with a new question in the category and level of their choice. If they chose not to answer the question, they proceed to select a question from any category and level. Once a question has been asked it cannot be asked again so if the correct answer was not given by either team the moderator should give the correct answer and the class can discuss it.
Grades 7 – 12:
Go to the Earth Day Network website to find various local and international topics to research and discuss regarding water quality and conservation. These lessons will supplement geography and social studies activities.
References and Resources:
http://www.lenntech.com/water-trivia-facts.htm
American Water Works Association
National park service: http://www.nps.gov/rivers/waterfacts.html
http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/kids/waterfactsoflife.html
EPA: drinking water and groundwater kids stuff
“Water Facts” CD-ROM with over 150 facts on ground water along with games and trivia – Groundwater Foundation
Videotape: “After the Rain: Urban Runoff” (29 minutes) produced by Oregon State University. (You may “check out” this video for two weeks by contacting Janet Anderson, ISU Extension 4-H Youth Development, janeta@iastate.edu. State your name, mailing address, phone number, description of your audience, and when you need it.)
GO TO THE BOOK REVIEW PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE FOR SUGGESTED READING RELATED TO WATER. |
