Why is water important?
In this lesson, students will discover the many ways that we depend on water in our daily lives.
How much water is available to us, and how do we use it?
- Learn basic vocabulary terms associated with water
- Explore the water cycle
- Discover how much of Earth’s water is useable by humans
- Identify and quantify different sources of water usage
- Investigate water scarcity and water quality issues
- Learn about the global distribution of Earth’s water resources
- Explore Nebraska’s water resources and how they are used
How do living things biologically depend on water?
- Learn about the biological effects of dehydration
- Investigate whether they are drinking enough water
- Research water-borne illnesses
- Explore how poor water quality is affecting the health of Nebraskans
How do water scarcity and water quality impact our environment and our economies?
- Learn how water scarcity and water quality disrupt ecosystems
- Investigate how water scarcity and water quality affect economies
- Explore how water scarcity and water quality affect human culture (migration, conflict, religion, lifestyle, etc.)
Discipline: Science
Grade level: 9-12
Summative Performance Task
Description: Having just explored a number of topics related to the basics of water, the students will write an essay about what they learned during this lesson.
Assessment method(s): Essay
Assessment criteria:
- Did the student offer multiple reasons why water is important?
- Did the student explain why clean freshwater is scarce?
- Did the student describe the many ways humans depend on water (biologically, economically, culturally, etc.)?
- Did the student explain how ecosystems depend on water?
Taking Informed Action
Description: In this activity, the students will work together to measure and reduce their school’s “water footprint.” Afterwards, they will write an essay about the experience.
Assessment method(s): Essay
Assessment criteria:
- Did the student provide a summary of what the class did to try to measure their school’s water footprint?
- Did the student provide a summary of what the class did to try to reduce their school’s water footprint?
- Did the student identify both strengths and weaknesses of their chosen course of action?
- Did the student identify skills they learned while completing this project, and did they defend their claims with specific examples?
- Did the student provide an adequate analysis of the long-term impact of their project?
- Did the student explain multiple ways that they could continue their project?
Types of activities featured in this lesson plan...
Next Generation Science Standards
MS-ESS2-4 Earth’s Systems Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
MS-ESS3-3 Earth and Human Activity Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
HS-ESS2-2 Earth’s Systems Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
HS-ESS2-5 Earth’s Systems Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
HS-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Interdisciplinary Connections
Give your students a more integrated educational experience
Overlapping standards and skills
- Geography: Multiple activities in this lesson offer students opportunities to practice analyzing maps.
- Geography: One key theme of this lesson is exploring the unequal distribution of water resources – and economic wealth – throughout the world. Another key theme is human-environment interaction. The students will learn about how water influences different human cultures, as well as how it plays a role in our conflicts.
- English: Both the summative performance task and the taking informed action task for this lesson involve writing an essay. In addition, many of the activities in this lesson provide opportunities for students to practice their writing skills.
- English: Some of the activities in this lesson – like the activity that requires them to write a short story, and the one that requires them to write and perform a play – provide students with opportunities to practice their creative writing skills.
- Art: This lesson gives students a chance to express themselves artistically by creating infographics, PSA posters, and more.
- History: During this lesson, students will learn a little about how water has shaped our history. For example, they may complete an activity where they have to create a timeline of water-related conflicts. This activity could easily be expanded into a more thorough historical investigation. They may also complete an activity about the legacy of the Colorado River Compact, which requires them to analyze a primary source.
Relevant lessons from other disciplines
English Lesson: How do we write an effective paragraph using CREW?
Part of the "Exploring Community Water Quality Problems" phase of the project
Geography Lesson: How does surface water contamination in our local area impact downstream environments?
Interdisciplinary Lesson: How are we and our communities affected by water quality?
Science Lesson: What is geoscience, and how can it help us explore local water quality?
Civics Lesson: How does Nebraska’s current legislation address the issue of statewide water quality?