Water Quality
Life as we know it depends on water. Yet, we often take it for granted. The convenience of having 24/7 access to clean water can come at a price. Did you know that bottled water costs on average 10,000 times the cost of tap water? Or that water discharged from a dishwasher can contain up to 1,000 times the EPA's recommended level for phosphate?
What goes up must come down. And what goes in must come out? We’re talking about the drain, of course. Every time we take a drink of water, we have an impact on the environment—whether we choose to drink water from the tap, or from a fountain or bottle, our actions have impacts. And what about what we’re sending back down our drains? And not just us—factories and agriculture pollute water for aquatic life and human use downstream. Drawing on fuels to transport bottled water is an extravagant use of energy, while the bottles themselves are an ever-increasing pollutant. What can you do?
Students all over the country have already joined the Anti-Bottle movement and created dozens of other projects to clean up what comes out and what goes in. The Out the Spout and Down the Drain Action Guides and related lesson plans, videos, and other resources will highlight some of those projects, as well as shine light on some of the most important water quality issues. Take a look.
Download the Out the Spout Action Guide
Download the Down the Drain Action Guide
Lesson Plans
- Teacher Background
- Where Does Your Water Come From?
A sip of bottled water costs 10,000 times that of tap water. But repeated surveys have found no consistent benefit of bottled water. In this activity, students use online mapping tools to investigate the differences in the sources of bottled versus tap water, to draw striking conclusions about the environmental cost of bottled water.
- Compare Methods of Waste Processing
When fresh, clean water splashes from our taps, we rarely give thought to how it gets there. The feat requires a combination of science, engineering and technology. A key step is filtering unwanted substances from water. In this activity, students investigate water filtration by comparing how different materials filter water. The aim is for them to understand the tradeoff between the rate of filtration and the effectiveness of a filtering material.
- How Much Acid Can Change Water Chemistry?
We typically think of pollution as “point source”—from a particular place or time, such as dumping waste. But much pollution is “non-point source,” or spread across a wide area and originating from many sources. In this activity, students investigate this distinction by simulating the effect of acid rain on a pristine water body.
- Comparing Levels of Phosphates in Dishwasher Detergents
Our daily activities have a profound impact on water chemistry. One of the most pervasive chemicals in the products that we regularly use is phosphorus. It’s in fertilizer and cleaning agents. But excess phosphorus in aquatic ecosystems is a serious pollutant. In this activity, students estimate the amount of phosphorus in water discharged from a dishwasher and relate that to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limits on phosphorus in lakes and streams.
Related Resources
- Water Quality Resources
Comments
- @Leah Scoville (EarthEcho International)
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Leah,
So glad to hear that a water resource and conservation conversation fit into your Earth Day study. Thank you for bringing these issues into the classroom!
- May 16, 2011, 1:38 PM
- @Cat Barton (EarthEcho International)
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Cat,
Gasland is such a powerful film- it's great to hear that you are using it as a teaching tool and that it has prompted an interest in fracking. We will be providing educators and students with more resources related to fracking in the coming months and thank you in advance for any work you do in your community around this issue. It's an important one. Thank you!
- May 16, 2011, 1:36 PM
- @Lisa Moser (EarthEcho International)
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Lisa,
It's great that you are exploring pollution and water issues with your Life Skills class- thank you!
- May 16, 2011, 1:33 PM
- @Teresa Swiger (EarthEcho International)
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Teresa,
Best of luck using these and other Water Planet Challenge materials next year!
- May 16, 2011, 1:31 PM
- @Lind Barrand (EarthEcho International)
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Linda,
Did you have a good experience with your purchased ground water model? If so, would you mind sharing some more information about it (the brand, where you bought it, cost, etc.) here? Thanks! I would also be interested in learning more about what materials your students used to clean their "polluted" water. Thanks so much!
- May 16, 2011, 1:27 PM
- @Kerri Poniatowski (EarthEcho International)
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Kerri,
If you and your students are interested, we would love to find a way to share their presentations and/or persuasive speeches with other students and educators. Please contact Kyra Kristof at kyra@earthecho.org if you would like to discuss this. Keep up the great work!
- May 16, 2011, 1:25 PM
- @Brian Davis (EarthEcho International)
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Brian,
It's really interesting (and wonderful!) to hear that you used these resources in a U.S. Government lesson. Thank you!
- May 16, 2011, 1:22 PM
- @Christie Volpenhein (EarthEcho International)
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Christie,
This sounds like a fantastic learning experience! Please keep us posted on the outcome of the budget meeting. Whether or not any of the students' recommendations are adopted (although we hope they will be!), might one or more of your students be interested in being interviewed about this process? If so, please contact Kyra Kristof at kyra@earthecho.org. Thank you!
- May 16, 2011, 1:20 PM
- @Jessica Blanks (EarthEcho International)
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Jessica,
I'm so glad to hear that you found the videos useful. While the lesson plans were written specifically for middle and high school classroom, you may find the Action Guides can be adapted for younger students. Best of luck!
- May 16, 2011, 1:17 PM
- @Teresa Vermillion (EarthEcho International)
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Teresa,
Thank you for engaging your students in such an important discussion. Would you be willing to share some of the ideas your students generated for protecting ground water resources from pollution here? Thank you!
- May 16, 2011, 1:14 PM
- @A. McDonough (EarthEcho International)
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A. McDonough,
I would be very interested in learning more about the conference you described- what topics it covered, how students were engaged, and the outcomes of the event. If you would be willing to share more information, please contact Kyra Kristof at kyra@earthecho.org. This event sounds amazing- thank you for providing this learning opportunity for your students!
- May 16, 2011, 1:00 PM
- Leah Scoville
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We talked about how there is not clean water everywhere and ways that we can help conserve water. This tied into our earth day study. (Forgot to respond earlier).
- May 8, 2011, 11:32 AM
- Cat Barton
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Having watched the film, GASLAND, we are very interested in waste chemicals being released into water, and are watching your videos and hoping to learn more about water filtration.
- April 27, 2011, 6:19 PM
- Lisa Moser
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I taught my Life Skills class how the items we use everyday can pollute the water. We used the action guide to lead the lesson and to get more ideas. We also used a video from Bill Nye the Science Guy on Bathroom Stuff. This showed the students how they can save water in the bathroom as well as look for more green items to help save our planet. The students also started collecting plastic water bottles because of this lesson to recycle them since they learned how many of those bottles end up contaminating our water sources. The students also learned to filter their own water instead of buying bottled water. As you can see, this lesson was very informative.
- April 27, 2011, 6:12 PM
- Teresa Swiger
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We just finished this years science fair and we are doing curriculum mapping for the future. I love these activities to use in my science classroom as a learning tool. I plan to use each lesson with a different grade level as our class science fair project training. I really appreciate all the lesson plans and help Discovery Channel lends to my classroom.
- April 27, 2011, 5:07 PM
- Linda Barrand
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I left out that we will be doing the bottled water challenge next week. I think the kids will be very interested in it.
- April 27, 2011, 4:17 PM
- Linda Barrand
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My seventh grade class used a (purchased)ground water model to see how pollution spread easily. They then did a lab on point source pollution that had them determining where the pollution started and where it spread. My class also created their own ground water model. Next they had different materials that each group used to clean their "polluted" water.
We also watched several of your videos. Thank you.
- April 27, 2011, 4:13 PM
- Kerri Poniatowski
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My students used this guide along with doing research on how much water they use in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year. We also used the other guides about realizing what goes down your drain and into your water supply. We discussed the water cycle and how these pollutants change our world, our lives, and the lives of plants , animals , and future generations. The studets are in groups creating a power point as to their water usage, how to aviod pollutings out environment, also including a persuavie speech as to why you should monitoring your water usage.
- April 27, 2011, 1:29 PM
- @Carmen Cruz (EarthEcho International)
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Carmen,
I didn't know that lego made a wind turbine that allows you to charge batteries- what a fun teaching tool. Could you please share some more information, such as the model number? Thank you.
- April 27, 2011, 10:02 AM
- @Stephen Chin (EarthEcho Interntional)
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Stephen,
Thank you for suggesting the connection to hydroponics and aquaponics. This isn't something we've considered before, but makes a gread deal of sense. Are there any instructional resources you could recommend? Thank you very much.
- April 27, 2011, 9:54 AM
- @Jill Weaver (EarthEcho International)
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Jill,
I would be very interested to know how your students' attitudes towards water changed as a result of these learning experiences, also, more about how you structured your mock town hall meeting and what came out of that. If you have the opportunity to post more, I think we could all benefit from learning more about your work. Thank you!
- April 27, 2011, 9:52 AM
- @Lisa Foil (EarthEcho International)
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Lisa,
This work sounds amazing! We would love to know more. Is there any chance you and your students might be interested in having your work profiled on the Water Planet Challenge and/or its sister website, STREAM? If so, please send Kyra an email at kyra@earthecho.org. Thank you and keep up the great work!
- April 27, 2011, 9:49 AM
- @Kathy Eross (EarthEcho International)
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Kathy,
Thank you for suggesting that we make an explicit connection to the water cycle. We will definitely explore this for future content updates. Your lesson on the global travels of a single drop of water sounds fascinating. If you would be interested in sharing this lesson or your experiences with other teachers on the Water Planet Challenge site, please send an email to Kyra - kyra@earthecho.org. Thanks!
- April 27, 2011, 9:46 AM
- Brian Davis
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I incorporated the water resources in my U.S. Government lesson today, to illustrate steps that citizens can take to enact social change. My students were unaware of many of these facts about our water supply, and they were very motivated to contact their representatives to improve policy.
- April 27, 2011, 9:20 AM
- Christie Volpenhein
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With budgets being tight, I loved using the idea of having the students review the school's water bills and go on an investigation for leaks and other issues throughout the building. I gave them cameras to film their findings. Students then analyzed and reported their results to our principal. Hopefully these will be reviewed at our next budget meeting. Going green, saving money, and learning provides a winning situation for all.
- April 26, 2011, 9:56 PM
- Jessica Blanks
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My students are too young for the lesson plans (elementary) so I showed them the video clips. We then discussed them in greater detail.
- April 26, 2011, 7:43 PM
- Teresa Vermillion
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I taught my student about ground water and the effects that pollution has on that resource. They were able to come up with many ways to help prevent pollution and after teaching the lesson, they were able to recite and implement many more.
- April 26, 2011, 7:33 PM
- Greg Longstreth
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I used the information to teach my students about water conservation and keeping our water sources clean.
- April 26, 2011, 6:45 PM
- A. McDonough
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After comparing the data from the average water use for our student body our students carried buckets of water around the school grounds before entering into the auditorium to participate in a conference on the challenges of getting clean water in African villages. The short distance of carrying water helped them to realize the value of water. The Action Plan resources are an excellent way for students to set goals for turning their concerns into action. The resources and video clips are varied enough to streamline their use into diverse curricular goals.
- April 26, 2011, 6:16 PM
- Carmen Cruz
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I taught my class about energy efficiency by building a wind turbine with a lego kit that we have and we were able to charge the battery and show them how wind can create rechargeable energy and in addition how we can save the environment by reducing the amount of light needed in a room. Energy efficiency and Conservation were the focus and now every time we leave our classroom, they never forget to turn the lights off and many come back and say that they practice this at home as well.
- April 26, 2011, 6:15 PM
- Stephen Chin
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The materials on water processing/filtering, water chemistry, plant/algae nutrients (phosphates/nitrates) work well when students are introduced to the concepts needed to build, understand, and maintain either hydroponic systems (for growing plants, or simple algae) or more complicated aquaponic systems (where the waste nutrients from the fish is converted by bacteria into nitrates which the plants/algae can consume). Students who are focusing on genetics/biotechnology can search for oil eating bacteria in the context of "Gulf Oil Spill".
- April 26, 2011, 5:25 PM
- Jill Weaver
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I used the activity guide for Where does your water come from to supplement a unit where we research our local water supplies and trace them to the watershed/aquifer that they come from. We then try to track them through the water cycle back the our one world ocean. We studied a local water quality issue that the EPA has been investigating and held a mock town hall meeting where the students had a chance to role play. We also connected the information globally by studing water borne illness and what measures should be taken to protect our water supply worldwide. It was a real eye-opener for my students. After our short water haul I don't think they will ever think of water the same way again.
- April 26, 2011, 4:41 PM
- Kathy Eross
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I absolutely loved every video segment, (although a few were repetitious). I wish there was a connection to the water cycle. We are doing a cross curricular lesson on a singular drop of water and how it travels around the world.I know we will use all of these videos!
- April 26, 2011, 4:39 PM
- Lisa Foil
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We teachers in the eighth grade have taught our students all year about water quality and stewardship. We have discussed the oil spill and the effect upon wildlife and completed a lab activity. AmeriCorps has come to our school to teach the students each week. We have done stream analysis, chemistry of the water, benthic studies, Ten Mile Creek cleanup, and have raised money to build a rain garden at our school. We began work on it this week and hope to plant 1/4 of the plants next week. This will continue in our curriculum for the coming year as we teach our students about impervious surfaces and run off pollutants.
- April 26, 2011, 4:20 PM
- jeannie kearby
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I taught my class on ways not to polute the water . and how to save water enegry. We talked about what polutes the water and what we can do to fix it.
- April 26, 2011, 4:08 PM
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