Water is life! (HS)
The overarching theme of this project is to project the critical issue of ‘Water Scarcity’ to the forefront of humanity’s current and future grand challenges. The lesson aims at first and foremost making students fully aware of the seriousness and the implications of ‘not having enough water’ for present and future generations. Of immediate concern to be addressed in this project is the issue of our individual, societal, and organizational levels of water consumption (water footprint), activities and processes imparting damage to our small fresh water reserves, and mitigations and technologies being developed to preserve and treat available water and make it accessible and safe for human consumption.
objectives
1. Help students cultivate awareness of the local and global water scarcity
2. Assist students to bring into perspective the central role water plays in other activities beyond household usage and drinking. Activities, for example, include agriculture, industry, and recreation.
3. Help students assess the implications of their and the other activities ‘water footprint’ on the natural water cycle.
4. Motivate the students to develop an understanding of the various human activities adversely affecting water natural properties and its pollution.
5. Educate students on existing and future remedies and technologies destined for water treatment and purification.
Topic(s)
Water, climate change
type
High school lesson from Sunday Academy
9-12
Grade(s):
time needed
6 hours
author
Sunday Academy
national next gen standards
north dakota standards
• Performance Standard HS-ET1-1 - Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
• Performance Standard HS-ESS3-1 - Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
• Performance Standard HS-LS2-7 - Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
• Performance Standard HS-ESS2-5 - Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
• Performance Standard K-2-ET1-1 - Ask questions, make observations and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.