Water, Water, Everywhere!

With the current national interest in protecting our environment, involving children in environmental studies is a sure way to get them fired up about learning. While there are hundreds of topics to which teachers could expose their students, one that nearly everyone can relate to is water. 

Most students understand that the majority of our planet is covered with water, but many don’t realize that less than one percent of it is suitable for drinking. In order to help them visualize this concept, fill a graduated cylinder with 100 milliliters of water. Using a pipette or eye dropper, remove about 3 ml (this is the percentage of Earth’s fresh water; the remaining 97% is salt water). Squeeze a few drops from the eye dropper, which represents the fresh water trapped in glaciers and ice caps (and is therefore inaccessible to us as drinking water). You should have approximately one ml of water remaining, which represents groundwater and fresh surface water (such as lakes and streams) that can be used for drinking. 

Teachers can use the above demonstration as a springboard toward units on the water cycle, water quality, drinking water, industrial waste, minerals (such as calcium and magnesium, which are commonly found in hard drinking water), water treatment, and even city planning.

The study of fresh water can also be interdisciplinary in nature. Many people don’t trust municipal sources of water, and they purchase expensive filters or bottled water in lieu of drinking water directly from the tap. In math, students can conduct a survey related to the number of people who drink bottled water, filtered water, or tap water and graph the results. Language arts students might design a blind taste test to determine whether people can tell the difference between tap water and bottled water; then write a news article about their findings. For some great lesson plans related to the study of water, try one of the following.

Water, Water, Everywhere:

Water Lesson Plans  

This is a great collection of lesson plans that cover everything from water conservation to freshwater organisms. The lesson includes hands on activities and labs.

Splish, Splash, I was Takin' a Bath!

In this lesson students learn about water pollution and its effects on the environment by making models and performing scientific experiments. They talk about filtration and aeration processes used to remove pollutants in water.

TE Lesson: How Clean is that Water?

Students talk about the factors that affect water quality. They talk about how engineers make stream modifications in order to ensure that drinking water is clean. They work on activities that relate to water quality.

Splish, Splash: Water's Journey to My Glass

In this lesson students learn about the hydrologic cycle and how we get drinking water in our homes. Students make diagrams to show the process.