Throughout this unit, students will be handling water. Although these experiments are safe to conduct, it is important that the students know that the water is
not
for drinking. They will be doing visual assessments of the success or failure of the filtering processes, not taste tests!
Activity One: Introduce the unit with mentor texts
Part One
Materials:
The River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
, t-chart on chart paper with question, chart to track content from text (examples below), and student science journals.
To introduce the unit on the need for environmental engineering in the field of safe and clean water, students will learn about the need for clean water for our health and safety. They will hear the story,
The River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
by Lynne Cherry as a foundation text. The story talks about the native people who lived on the Nashua river which, by the 1960s, showed the negative impact of industry on the environment. It shows one way that water is affected and needs to be treated.
Begin by asking some questions to activate background knowledge: Have you ever been to a river or a stream? What kinds of things did you see there? What kinds of benefits do people get from rivers? Have you ever seen evidence of pollution at a river or a stream?
Ask students the question posted on the chart, “How do we keep our water clean?” Record any answers and ideas on the left side titled “What We Know.” Read aloud
The River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
.
Prepare T-Chart
How do we keep our water clean?
|
What We Know
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What We Have Learned
|
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Prepare text content chart
The River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
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Positive water qualities
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Negative water qualities
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Changes to the river
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On the 2
nd
chart, track the positive and negative aspects of the river with the third column for recording changes in the water quality of the river and how they occurred.
Return to the t-chart of responses and on the right-side section titled “What We Have Learned.” In their science journals, students should transfer the information from each completed chart.
Part Two
A second introductory resource is the picture book,
The Water Princess
by Susan Verde. This story will help shed light on the struggle that exists around the world, clearly defining a problem that students can address, and instilling hope in the future of access to clean water for children everywhere. This story is based in an African village and illustrates the issue of girls in the village having to walk miles each day to collect clean water for their families. Students will use this story as foundation in Activity Five of this unit.
Questions to ask before reading:
Why do we need water?
What would happen if you drank dirty water?
Questions to ask after reading:
Why do you think these children need to travel so far for water?
What happens if the children and their families can’t get water?
How do you think Gie Gie feels about traveling so far each day for water?
What do you think is Gie’s Gie’s wish?
Compare your day with Gie Gie’s day. How is your day different?
Does Gie Gie have time to play? Why or why not?
Is Gie Gie happy in the story? Why or why not?
Do you think Gie Gie gets to attend school on daily basis? If not, please explain why.
At the end of the book, there is an informational section with photographs about the girls and women of Goundi in the village in Burkina Faso who take long walks to collect water from the well. The photographs show the women and children collecting the water (that still needs further cleaning), walking with it back to their village which is far away and others celebrating with their new well that was recently built in their village by the Georgie Badiel Foundation.
From these two resources, my students will develop fundamental vocabulary and conceptual understanding to begin the hands-on work that will come later in the unit.
Activity Two: Environmental & Engineering Terms
Students will be using a new set of vocabulary to discuss the concepts within this unit and it is important to have this available through anchor charts. Prepare two charts (or word walls) to ensure the students will have access to these Tier 3 words they discover throughout the unit. This will be an ongoing, interactive process.
Engineering, design process, observation, problem, solution, improve, data, materials, create, form, shape, model, analysis, investigate, control, diagram, patterns, predict, reflect, evidence, filter
Water, pollution, health, conserve, climate, sanitation, recycle, protect, plant, pond, river, green, regions, desert, evaporate
Activity Three: Experiments with Student Ideas
Students will use inquiry and experimentation to design a water filter.
Materials: trays with raised edges or cookie sheets, tubs, buckets, pitchers, funnels, cups, jars, scoops, various of types of paper, cheesecloth, coffee filters, scissors, beads or small stones, spoons, several 12-oz plastic cups
The goal is to filter the small stones or beads out of a 12-oz cup of water. Students will use what they have learned from their previous activities in this unit. Additional challenges could include using silt, which mimics the particle size necessary to remove bacteria or using water from a river or pond to see if the water can be made clearer with their filtration models.
Prepare bins of materials for groups of students to use to build a water filter. With a collection of materials, the students will design their filter on a tray or in a bucket to collect spills. They work as teams to create and test their design and document their findings. Students will “go back to the drawing board” and try a new design. They will use one of their “successful” models in Activity Five.
Activity Four: Transporting Water
Students will practice carrying water from one location to another. The objective is to demonstrate to work involved some people need to do to provide clean water for their families. Students should have selection of several different sized containers, some with handles, some without.
The goal will be to fill a five-gallon bucket, a total of 40 pounds of water! Teams of five students will work to find the best method to complete the task. Each group will keep track of the vessels they use and how many trips it takes to go from the water source to the bucket.
In their science journals, students will document, through writing and drawing, their experience compared to Gie Gie’s experience in
The Water Princess.
Activity Five: Comparing Filtering Systems
Polished stones, large and small; clean gravel; play sand; various containers; funnel;
glass jars, several coffee filters, several liters of “dirty” water, plastic cups with a hole in the bottom, commercial filter system such as Brita pitcher
Begin with a jar of dirty water. This can be tap water that has some added debris.
In the plastic cup, line the bottom with the coffee filters. Then place a layer of clean sand followed by a layer of gravel and topped with a layer of polished stones. Place the cup into an empty jar. Pour the dirty water into the cup so it can filter down through the stones, gravel, sand and coffee filters. Have students describe what they see and what they think happened. Repeat this process several times to see if the results are consistent. Students can use this process to compare tap water with bottled water to determine any differences in the results.
With the same water (control), pour water into the top of the pitcher and observe what happens as the water is filtered. Have the students notice the similarities and differences between the two filtering systems. The students should document both examples of filtering and answer the following questions through writing and drawing.
What does the water look like before filtering?
Why do we use the same water for both experiments?
Why don’t we have to do this every time we want a drink?
Activity Six: Visit Edgewood Park
Adjacent to our school is an amazing and accessible resource, a 120+- acre city park with six ponds and the West River running through it. These water sources will be the focus for student inquiry and research. Students will collect samples to bring back to the classroom for filtering. They will use systems they have designed as well as the commercial systems used for comparison in Activity Five.
Activity Seven: Host a Fundraiser to Support Area in Need
The students will invite their families and students in our building to participate in a fundraiser. The students will share their work from the unit on water filtration and present an argument for the raising money to send to an organization that supports water issues in developing countries. List of suggestions include: Georgie Badiel Foundation, Ryan’s Well Foundation, The Water Project.