See also:
Water Fables
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Water Laws
Who Owns Your Water?

Return to Troubled Waters artifact page

With the growth of urban populations,  increases in per capita water usage, and the drought conditions covering most of the United States in 2002, some communities face potential water shortages. In this lesson, students learn to identify how much water is used each day in a community, what activities consume the most water, and how waste and overuse can threaten to leave some users without this essential resource. They also engage in team problem solving to halt a water emergency and plan for long term water management and community education.

Grade Level: Middle School

Subject Areas: Science, Math, Language Arts

Skill Areas: Reading, math computation, mathematical reasoning, problem solving, cooperative behavior.

Vocabulary: Water scarcity, water stress (drought), water emergency, flow rate.

Class Time: 3 Class Periods

Goals & Objectives:

• Students will develop a knowledge of how much water a community uses each day.
• Students will develop a knowledge of what activities use the most water.
• Students will work as a team to produce a plan to deal with an impending drought emergency.
• Students will work as a team to produce a long-term water use plan.
• Students will produce materials to educate the public about how to conserve water.

Materials needed:

Access to computers connected to the Internet.
    Note: If the class cannot be provided with Internet access, the teacher may copy Web pages from the resources to hand out to students.

Procedures:

1. Have students watch the video Troubled Waters and listen to the NPR Audio (http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1143708) report  about the Georgia drought problems. After a preliminary discussion of the issues of water scarcity, divide them into teams. Present students with the scenario in the activities section.

2. Have each member of team select two or three of the Websites to visit to gain information on the topic. Then have students meet to discuss a plan that will save the most water in an emergency. 

3. Have students compute how many gallons of water they can save using their water conservation plan.

4. Have students create a public service advertising campaign that will alert the public to the emergency and educate the public on the emergency measures taken. Students may use PowerPoint, audiotape, videotape, TV news simulation, etc. to present their plan.

5. After presenting their plans to the class for discussion, have the teams meet again to make a water management plan that is more fitting for long term prevention of water emergencies.

Activities:

Water Emergency Scenario:
The members of your team are the leaders of Altamont, a community of 11,500 people. On another sweltering July day,  you have just been informed by your Public Utilities Commissioner that your community will be running out of water in a matter of days at the present rate of use. He says that you can expect to run out if your community uses three million gallons before relief comes in the form of rain. The weather forecast shows no likelihood of rain in the next week. 

As community leaders, it is your responsibility to come up with ways to conserve water until rains come to refill the community water source. Since you don't know how long this will take, you may need to take drastic measures to meet the community's needs. You will also need to prepare community service announcements for radio and television to inform the public of the plan. Keep in mind that every conservation measure will affect the way members of the community live and work. You have an important task ahead. Waste no time. A list of Web resources follows so that you and your team can gather information with which to make you decisions.

After coming up with your emergency plan, do you think your water problems are over? Will the return of the rains be the end of your water conservation plan? After the emergency has past, how will you change your water management plan to prevent further water shortages?

You will need to do the following activities:

• Meet as a group to discuss your plan.
• Research the problems of drought and water usage.
• Develop your water-saving plan and determine how many days you will be able to make the current supply of water last.
• Alert the public to your water conservation plan with a public service radio/TV campaign.
• Develop a long-term plan for using water to prevent further water emergencies.

Resources:

What is a Water Shortage?

• Water Scarcity definitions  (http://www.thewaterpage.com/drought_water_scarcity.htm)
• Hydro-illogical Cycle
• Check rain levels for the local areas in the Southeastern U.S.  (http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/water/climate/sercc/climateinfo/cumulative_graphs/cumulative_map.htm)
•  

Where the Water Goes:

• How We Use Water in the U.S.  (http://www.epa.gov/water/you/chap1.html)
• Water Science for Schools  (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/index.html)
• Water saving facts  (http://www.harwichwater.com/resources/resources4.html)
• Water audit   (http://www.co.broward.fl.us/oes/foi00600.htm#audit)
  Estimate the amount of water usage for you household.
• Water use calculator  (http://www.tampagov.net/dept_water/conservation_education/Customers/Water_use_calculator.asp)

Water Saving Tips

• 100 Water saving tips  (http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/staging/regions/100tips/se_index.html)
• Albuquerque, NM Water saving program
  Indoors   (http://www.cabq.gov/waterconservation/indoor.html)
  Outdoors  (http://www.cabq.gov/waterconservation/outdoor.html)  
• H2ouse  (http://www.h2ouse.net/index.cfm)
  Water saving tips and estimates of amount of water savings.