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Becoming aware of the value of water

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Age group

Students ages 8 and 9

When

February and March

Time required

2 hours and 30 minutes

Broad areas of learning

Environmental Awareness and Consumer Rights and Responsibilities (QEP 2011)

Activity summary

Students learn that it’s important to conserve drinking water and that their actions have an effect on the environment. This gets them thinking about ways to promote awareness among their peers about water conservation.

Financial and cooperative skills

  • Understanding the effects of humans on the environment
  • Using goods and services responsibly
  • Prioritizing wants and needs

Subject-specific competencies

Subjects

Competencies

Progressions of learning

Mathematics

To reason using mathematical concepts and processes (QEP 2011)

  • Interpreting data using bar graphs

  • Display data using a bar graph (QEP 2011)

Subject-specific competencies

Subjects

Competencies

English Language Arts

  • To read and listen to literary, popular, and information-based texts (QEP 2011)

Science and technology – Earth and space

  • Describes the various ways in which the quality of water, soil or air affects living things (QEP 2011)

Cross-curricular competencies

  • Cooperates with others (QEP 2011)
  • Uses creativity (QEP 2011)

Preparation

Students learn about the importance of wastewater treatment and uses of drinking water

 

Time required

30 minutes

Task 1

Learning where drinking water comes from

Task 1 objective

By the end of this task, students will learn that water must be treated for drinking, which entails costs

Instructions

Questions to discuss with students :

  • Is all the water in the world suitable for drinking?
  • Is saltwater (97.5% of the Earth’s water) suitable for drinking?
  • Is it safe to drink rain water?
  • Is lake and river water okay?
  • How do we get drinkable water?

 

Time required

60 minutes

Task 2

The uses of water

Task 2 objective

By the end of this task, students will understand that water is consumed for both basic and non-essential needs.

Instructions

  • Lead a brainstorm activity with students about the possible uses of water. Write ideas on a large poster or on the board.
  • Form teams of 4 students.
  • Ask teams to make a list of the essential uses of water.
  • Go over it as a group and ask the teams to share their ideas.
  • Lead a discussion to get a class consensus about the essential uses of water.

Teacher's notes

  • Some uses of water at home: baths, showers, laundry, washing, drinking and cooking, toilet (discuss dual flush toilets).
  • Examples of non-essential uses: washing the car, filling the pool, watering the lawn, etc.

Developement

Students learn about how water is used every day in the world and become aware of the necessity of preserving this natural resource.

 

Time required

45 minutes

Teaching material

Daily Water Use [PDF] - 407 Ko

Task 1

Evaluating daily water use

Task 1 objective

By the end of this task, students will be able to evaluate daily water use.

Instructions

  • Hand out Daily Water Use to students
  • With students, observe how many litres are used for each action.
  • Ask students to fill out the water use sheet for one day.
  • Review it with students to establish how many litres they used in one day.
  • Bring a 1 litre bottle of water to class so students can see what 1 litre looks like. For example, tell them that 10 litres represents 10 bottles.

 

Time required

60 minutes

Teaching material

Daily Water Use Per Person around the World [PDF] - 450 Ko

Task 2

Compare average use per person

Task 2 objective

By the end of this task, students will be able to compare water use in Quebec with other parts of the world.

Instructions

  • Read Daily Water Use Per Person Around The World
  • Ask students to illustrate the data with a bar graph, and add their personal consumption.
  • Lead a discussion about the differences between their use and that of people in other parts of the world.

 

Time required

60 minutes

Learning material

Reducing Water Use [PDF] - 236 Ko

Task 3

Find ways to reduce water use

Task 3 objective

By the end of this task, students will be able adopt more responsible water use habits.

Instructions

  • Make students aware that wasting and polluting water affect the environment.
  • Ask students to calculate how many litres of water are used for each category on the sheet used in Task 1, Daily Water Use Per Person Around The World.
  • For each category, ask students what they can do to reduce their water use and avoid polluting water. Write their answers on the Reducing Water Use sheet.
  • With this information, ask students to make a poster promoting awareness among other students about wasting water.

Teacher's notes

  • Wastewater is a source of pollution and is often directed to a treatment plant for purification and then redirected back into the environment. However, some municipalities send wastewater back into the environment without treatment. Furthermore, freshwater is becoming increasingly rare.

To learn more, go to Environment Canada’s Wastewater Management page.

  • Suggested ways to reduce water use:
    • Refrigerate water to avoid running the tap when getting a glass of cold water.
    • Reduce time spent in the shower. A shower uses approximately 20 litres of water per minute.
    • Take showers, not baths. A bath uses between 150 and 200 litres of water.
    • Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth or wash your hands.
    • Save rainwater to water your flowers or plants.
    • Use a broom to clean your driveway, instead of a hose.
    • Reduce your paper consumption because a lot of water is required to make paper.
    • Avoid bottled water because plastic pollutes.
    • Use non-toxic cleaning prod.
    • Don’t pollute water: avoid throwing products that are harmful to the environment into the toilet or sink.

    Learn about more ways to save water:

    • Environnement Canada: Individual Action - Conserving Water in the Home, Community and at Work
    • Espace pour la vie: Reducing water consumption

Ask students to write at least one water use statistic and one way to save water on the poster. They should use a bar graph to compare Canadians’ water consumption habits, or their own.

Evaluation

Students learn how their actions affect the drinking water cycle.

 

Teaching material

The Drinking Water Cycle [PDF] - 109 Ko

Task 1

Thinking about water use

Task 1 objective

By the end of this task, students will be able to analyze how their water use affects the environment.

Instructions

  • Ask students to think about the consequences of their water use habits on the drinking water cycle. Hand out the The Drinking Water Cycle sheet to students and explain the task.
  • Have students write their answers.
  • Discuss as a group.
  • Ask students to use a different pencil and complete their answers.
  • Collect the sheets to evaluate their understanding of how their water use affects the environment.

The aim of the task is to make students aware that their actions have an effect on the drinking water cycle.