This activity has been designed to help students understand a variety of concepts related to water use, efficiency, and student's own impacts on their watershed.
Grades(s) 3, 4, 5
Subjects(s) Language Arts, Math, Reading, Science, Social Studies
Objective
To help students understand the connections between the source of the water they use; the ways their water use habits affect the environment and human health and ways to reduce their impacts by pledging to take steps to use water more efficiently.
Materials
1) A Day in the Life of a Drop: Worksheet #1
2) A Day in the Life of a Drop: Worksheet #2
3) Water Use Table
4) Student and Family Pledge to Filter Out Bad Water Habits
Lesson
These lessons are intended for use both in the classroom and at home.
A) Watershed Protection
Ideally this concept will be conveyed in the context of the watersheds in which the students live to enhance understanding of the concept and connection to the places where students live. Students complete exercises to discover which watershed they live in, and its name.
B) Water Supply: Where does it come from?
Once students understand the context that they are working in (their home watershed), the next key concept, understanding where the water they use at home comes from, will be much easier to understand. We hope to bring the level of understanding from the faucet to the actual waterbody within their watershed that is the source of their drinking water. Your local water utility or public works department can tell you the source of your public water supply. During this portion of the lesson, be sure to talk about waterbodies upstream and downstream in your local watershed. Students should begin the activity with an understanding of the ways their local/ regional waterbodies are connected and which direction the water is flowing.
C) Water Efficiency
Once students have a better understanding of where their water comes from, the activity moves on to the concepts of using water more efficiently by investigating how we use or waste water, where it comes from and where it goes after it goes down the drain. The tasks in this portion of the acticity will be most effective with family participation, although they can be completed by the student alone. (You may want to consider sending home a notice about the activity ahead of time so families are aware of their expected participation).
Assessment
Discussion throughout the activity and upon completion of the worksheets will determine if the students understand the concepts of watersheds, water supply, and water efficiency.
Additional Resources