Objectives: The objective of the following activities is for students to understand the cycle of water in their community. Students will have roles within a group that ultimately produces a presentation of water in their community.
1- The hydrologic cycle and watersheds
-Lesson-Watershed Mapping
2-Water treatment and Drinking water legislation
-Lesson-Research of a pollutant and dilutions
3-Waste water treatment and sources of pollution
-Lesson-Filtration Activity and Pollution Detectives
4-Protection of the water supply-Community action
-Lesson-Create a “plan of action” to reduce pollution
Student Task: You are embarking on an in-depth investigation of water in your community! You, with help from your group members, are creating a water protection agency-New Haven Student’s Water Protection Agency. As a new civic group, you must gather all the information you can about water in New Haven. You need to have experts on the watershed of New Haven, experts in drinking water legislation, and experts in water treatment.
Challenge: You need to create a presentation answering four questions-where does your water come from, what is in your water, where does it go when you are done with it, and what you can do to protect your water.
Teacher Information: Create groups from 4-6 students and either have students choose their role within the group or choose for them. Each group needs to have “experts” in watershed science, water legislation, and water treatment. Each group is responsible for creating a presentation that answers the above four questions and a plan of action to reduce pollution in New Haven. Students will become experts in their role and teach this information to the other students in their group. Basic information packets should be given to the group for a planning session. At this point the students only have basic information and during this planning sessions the students should come up with questions or make a list of information they will need to become experts in their field. The students should then begin their research. Allow the students time to jigsaw and meet with other experts from different groups. While the students research their area of expertise there will be Discovery Activities that give the students hands on experience.
Student Roles:
Watershed Expert-This role will explore the watershed science, specifically the Quinnipiac River watershed. The expert in this field should understand how water moves through a watershed and be able to recommend a location for a landfill.
Legislation Expert-This role will examine the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. This expert will explore a chemical that threatens our drinking water supply. Examples-atrazine, mercury, lead, MTBE, petroleum products, herbicides and pesticides, etc…
Water Treatment Expert- This expert should understand basic water treatment techniques. This expert will also investigate various disinfection techniques and recommend the technique they think is best.
Discovery Activities
