Nancy J. Schmitt
Chemicals, whether natural or man made that are introduced into our environment affect all creatures, including humans. Depending on the chemical, animals and humans may evolve to coexist with the chemical. Since we all need water to survive, things that find their way into our water system have the possibility of harming or helping us. In some cases there may be no impact whatsoever.
People are being affected by what is in the water. How much and exactly how, no one is sure. One thing has been made clear though, is that there is a greater incidence of infertility and girls are entering puberty earlier. The incidence of boys born with defects in their genitalia has also increased. Is this a result of the increase of endocrine disruptors in our water supply? How this impacts our future is certainly a mystery for now.
Water is monitored, but it is questionable whether such monitoring accurately indicates safety for human consumption. This is clearly a health issue, and it is likely that the particular contamination that is worrisome has to do with endocrine disruptors coming from pharmaceutical, herbicides and beauty product contaminants. Judging from amphibian species declines, especially frogs, humans may be facing severe health issues in the future due to such contamination, and we may already be seeing these effects in terms of rising human infertility rates.
However, much research needs to be done because these issues are controversial, and scientists are not even in agreement regarding frog declines which are intensely studied. Below I present lesson plans relating to this exciting and important topic in biology, which can be used as a central focus in math.