Learning Guide: Earth Focus - Clean Water

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EARH FOCUS: CLEAN WATER Content Learning Objective: 1. Students will understand the fundamental importance of having clean water in their communities. 2. Through role-playing, students will examine the problems that affect communities, especially in developing countries, that lack access to sanitation facilities. 3. Students will examine the nature of water as a limited resource. 4. After viewing the Link TV film segment, students will write a fictional diary entry from the perspective of two people—one who lives in a developing community with limited access to clean water, and one who lives in a community that uses water abundantly. GRADES: 6-8, 9-12 SUBJECTS: Earth and Space Science, Life Sciences TIME REQUIRED: 1 class period, with optional extension (homework and additional class period) MATERIALS: Online media (internet access, projector/Smartboard), plastic cups, jars, crackers Goal: This lesson will review how clean, unsalted water is essential for living, and introduce the various problems and injustices that follow when communities lack easy access to this fundamental resource. Prerequisite Knowledge: NONE

This lesson plan created by Naila Siddique, Oakland, California

Activities Prior to watching Earth Focus: water simulation activity 1. Teacher brings class together as a whole group and asks the question: “Is water essential? What do you and your family use water for?” Teacher writes down answers on the board. 2. Teacher divides the class into groups of 4-5. Each group is considered a family with at least one girl per family. Each group has a jar of water on their table, and a small plastic cup for all students at the table. The groups are divided in half. One side of the class will be called a U.S. middle-class community; everyone on that side has easy access to water. 3. The other side will be labeled a developing community, where the girls have to travel long distances to get water for their communities. 4. Teacher passes out crackers for everyone to eat. 5. Teacher says: “We’re all a little thirsty, right? Everyone share the water with your families.” Teacher liberally pours water into the jars of the middle-class side. The developing communities, however, only have a small amount of water in their jars and quickly run out of water. 6. Teacher says, “The girls on the developing community side have to go to a well about ten miles outside the village to bring water to their families. So the girls on this side won’t be able to help their parents, or go to school, or work outside the family. They may be gone up to four hours per day.” 7. Teacher continues: “Something terrible has happened. The water that was brought back by the girls is unclean, which means that many of the children in your community have died from a water-related disease.” 8. Teacher brings class back together as a whole and asks: “What injustices do you see here?” Teacher writes various answers on the board under the label “Problems.” 9. Teacher asks what can be done, and under a separate category writes, “Solutions,” and records answers. Class views Earth Focus episode 10 Note: Episode 10 is devoted entirely to water and sanitation. The lesson plan focuses on the “World Toilet Day” segment of the show at 16:00. 10. Teacher introduces video: “We’re about to watch an Earth Focus video that looks at how improved sanitation facilities can reduce much of the disease that occurs because of a lack of toilets or latrines.” 11. Teacher puts on the first minute (the episode introduction) of the Earth Focus video, which gives an overview of the water scarcity issue. The teacher then fast-forwards the show to the “World Toilet Day” segment (at 16:00), which explains the hazards of open defecation. 12. After the three-minute video, teacher asks the whole class to add to the problems section as well as the solutions. Extended Activities: Students write a narrative in the form of a journal entry from two young people coming from different perspectives. Record the young person’s water consumption for one day including drinks, showers, baths—for pets as well as humans, hot tubs, car washes, gardening—and any other activity that uses water. The other journal entry is written by a girl/boy from a developing

country who is struggling with clean water access. Record their consumption—and lack of consumption. Look at http://www.microsoft.com/education/WaterUse.mspx for an Excel water usage template and at the USGS site for a water consumption computing tool (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sq3.html). To get a sense of how little water is used in the developing world, go to: http://wateruseitwisely.com/blog/?tag=h2o-africa. Here, among other things, you’ll see that by running a tap for about a minute, you’ll use two gallons of water – the total daily amount of water used by an African citizen in a developing country. Ask students to think about things that many children in poor communities would lack: running water, toilets, showers, etc. The following activity is aimed primarily at the 9-12 grade group. Watch the rest of Link TV’s Earth Focus episode 10, which can be found at http://www.linktv.org/video/3449/ . Link TV has a water page: http://www.linktv.org/water with videos and lots of resources for learning more. At the Link TV water page, you can also find out about the YouthNoise Drop campaign: http://youthnoise.com/drop/, an exciting initiative to get young people involved in finding solutions to the water crisis. Read additional articles that highlight water as a limited resource for many people. Articles can be found at: www.water.org, www.endwaterpoverty.org, www.worldwatercouncil.org, www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/index.html. More links to articles can be found as you begin your research. The video ‘Diary of Jay-Z’: http://bit.ly/Pp3jf provides excellent information and solutions. After completing your research write a 2 – 3 page article outlining the problems facing many societies that lack clean water. Also include solutions that may help curb the water crisis.

Taken from McRel Compendium of Standards Earth and Space Science Level III [Grade 6-8] Benchmark 7. Knows that most of Earth’s surface is covered by water, that most of that water is salt water in oceans, and that fresh water is found in rivers, lakes, underground sources, and glaciers Life Sciences Level IV [Grade 9-12] Benchmark 5. Knows ways in which humans can alter the equilibrium of ecosystems, causing potentially irreversible effects (e.g., human population growth, technology, and consumption; human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, and atmospheric changes)