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Water Resources

Lesson Plan Two: Personal Water Consumption

Overview: Water is essential for human survival. People use water every day to meet basic needs (e.g., drinking, cooking, cleaning). This lesson asks students to provide data about their personal water consumption, which are used as the basis for estimating their daily and weekly water usage. The lesson offers a chance for students to participate in a geographic investigation and presents the full class with opportunities for discussion and comparison.

Estimated Time: 60 minutes (one class period)

Materials:
Worksheet 1: Summary of activities you do that require water throughout the day, at home and at school
Worksheet 2: Summary of calculations for daily and weekly water use
Worksheet 3: Visual Equivalents
Computers and Internet access for students

Learning Objectives: After completing the lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Brainstorm and document their daily water usage in the context of human impact within the hydrologic cycle.
  2. Make mathematical estimations, calculations, and comparisons of their daily water usage.

Opening the lesson:

  1. To begin the lesson, remind students that in Lesson One they learned that fresh water is a limited resource. This lesson focuses on how much of this limited resource they use themselves.
  2. Ask each student to jot down a list of activities when they use water in the morning, afternoon, and evening at home and at school. When they have had some time to create their lists, distribute a copy of the Summary of activities you do that require water throughout the day, at home and at school handout to each student.
  3. Have each student complete the handoutAn extension could be to have students create posters for each water use category. Place the posters around the classroom. Have students visit each poster and add to the content. This way students can imagine water usage as a class., based on the lists they generated, adding other activities that they thought of as they filled in their handouts.

Developing the Lesson:

  1. Distribute a copy of the Summary of calculations for daily and weekly water use handout to each student. Ask students to estimate the volume of waterMATH: Volume is the amount of 3D space an object occupies. The capacity. Units include cubic meters, liters (metric) or fluid ounces, cubic foot, gallons (US Standard). Volume = L x W x H they use daily and weekly, using the equations that appear in the handout to make these calculations. They can show their calculations on another piece of paper.
  2. Have students record their estimates in the handout. Ask them to verify their answers by using multiple calculation methods e.g., by calculator, by hand, mental calculation.
  3. Distribute a copy of the Visual Equivalents handout to each student, so that they can get a senseIt can be difficult to visualize how much is 15 gallons, so by relating it to something students are familiar with can make the concept less abstract. of how much water is consumed in a typical act.

Concluding the Lesson:

  1. Divide the students into groups of 4-5. Lead students to think about their personal dataAn extension of the lesson could include students brining in copies of their water bills, to make comparisons of how closely they estimated their water usage. with the following reflection questions:
    • Compare your water usage with students in your group. Is your water usage higher than other students? Lower? Or about the same?
    • How might you figure out how much water the entire class uses? All the students at your schoolAnother extension would be to conduct a survey at each grade level. This teaches important surey and research skills.?
    • What information do you need to compare your water usage with people in the town or city in which you live?

Lesson Plan One: Fresh Water as a Limited Resource

Lesson Plan Three: Taking Action