Guide and Links for Water Conservation Unit

Our most excellent IT geek, Ms. Lynch, has exterminated all bugs and we are ready for action. Thanks, from all of us!

This week both 7^th and 8^th grade will begin a Water Conservation Unit in Science.

We will spend one day a week (Fridays) on this unit in science class, and you will access this blog in LRC to direct your online learning about global water issues. We will complete some activities in class, you will do research and writing in LRC, and you may want to spend some time at home on material for your water portfolio. By the end of the unit, you will help to design and create educational materials about this topic.

Students in LRC right now – let's get started! Take some notes on whatever you find interesting, and try to answer some of the questions below while you learn some basics about water use.

Plug in your headphones and watch the TED Ed video about "Water Scarcity” at

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/fresh-water-scarcity-an-introduction-to-the-problem-christiana-z-peppard

There is a quiz after the video that might be fun to take (you don't have to) and useful links at the end of the quiz if you want to look around some more.

Go to USGS.gov site http://maps.waterdata.usgs.gov/mapper/index.html to find your own water source. Enter your location. Click on the triangles (what do the triangles represent?) for some information; click on the Map tab and click Principal Aquifer. Where does your water come from? Look up “our” aquifer and see what you can learn about it.

Look into drought conditions in the USA at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/data/pngs/current/current_usdm.png

Where do drought conditions exist in the USA? Can you figure out how long the drought has lasted?

What impact can you imagine on the rest of the country, from the areas that are still too dry? 

How is Illinois doing? Go to http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/ and see what the outlook for water is for us going forward. Under Programs and Services, click on Illinois Water Supply Planning. What factors will influence our water supply in the future?

Go to http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ and take the water conservation quiz. You should be able to skip “registering” one time to take the quiz, but not twice. Ask your parents if you can register (or if they can) for NationalGeographic.com. It's a great website with tons of interesting information about everything.

Learn more about our local natural water resources at http://www.epa.gov/ Click on Learn the Issues Tab (far left) and then Water. Find your Watershed. What is a watershed?!

Go to http://school.discoveryeducation.com/ Click on Students, Homework Help, Science. Explore the information about water that you find there. Write down something new that you haven't seen on any other site so far.

Next week, we will begin to explore Water.org, and you will begin researching specific conditions in a developing country. Just look around today and take some notes on the questions above, so we can discuss them Friday in class. It will also give you the first page (or two) for your Water Portfolio!