Water Education

1. Water Education Lesson One Lesson Two Text Set: A Drop Of Water Choiceboard Games and Water Info

2. Why Water Education? • “Over the past quarter-century, global water problems have continued • to escalate. Every day, the quality and quantity of water resources • affect the health and well-being of nearly seven billion people on the • planet. Yet one in eight do not have access to clean and abundant water. • Water education has never been more critical. As schools, homes • and businesses “go green,” • water education has a major role to play. • Through water education, individuals: • identify their watershed address. • discover their role in the hydrological cycle. • Use environmental inquiry to discover ways we can protect our water • recognize that water knows no boundaries—flowing through and • connecting us all. • Our future is tightly bound to water. • Global water issues must be addressed through greater public • involvement at all socio-economic levels, among all water users and • across all borders. People must be provided a deeper understanding • of our complex environmental issues and the skills necessary to • undertake the challenges of this century. Sustainable water • management is crucial to secure social and economic stability, as • well as a healthy environment – achievable only as a result of • cooperation and a commitment to education……………………

3. Why Water Education? • Water covers more than 70%% percent of the Earth’s surface • A picture of Earth, From space, shows it as a blue planet because of the • vast amount of water • the continents we live on are really huge islands set in one vast sea • that flows around the globe • Water sustains all life today • Water cycles about endlessly • Water makes up 65 percent of our bodies and connects us to this • endless cycle • Our fresh water comes from lakes and rivers • we depend on water • we drink it • we clean with it • we cook with it • we fish in it • we eat from it • we irrigate with it • we transport on it • we splash in it • we like being near it • andddddd • we also pollute it…

4. What is a Watershed? A watershed is a precipitation collector A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, and national boundaries. In the continental US, there are 2,110 watersheds; including Hawaii Alaska, and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds. We all live in a watershed -- the area that drains to a common waterway, such as a stream, lake, estuary, wetland, aquifer, or even the ocean – and our individual actions can directly affect it. Working together using a watershed approach will help protect our nation's water resources. Posey County Watershed

5. When looking at the location of rivers and the amount of streamflow in rivers, the key concept is the river's "watershed". What is a watershed? Easy, if you are standing on ground right now, just look down. You're standing, and everyone is standing, in a watershed. A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes into the same place. Watersheds can be as small as a footprint or large enough to encompass all the land that drains water into rivers that drain into Chesapeake Bay, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean. This map shows one set of watersheds in the continental United States; these are known as National 8-digit hydrologic units (watersheds). • A watershed is an area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet such as the outflow of a reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel. The word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with drainage basin or catchment. Ridges and hills that separate two watersheds are called the drainage divide. The watershed consists of surface water--lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands--and all the underlying ground water. Larger watersheds contain many smaller watersheds. It all depends on the outflow point; all of the land that drains water to the outflow point is the watershed for that outflow location. Watersheds are important because the streamflow and the water quality of a river are affected by things, human-induced or not, happening

6. A Watershed

7. More info and activities http://www.dcwater.com/kids/index.html

8. Activity: Build Your Own Watershed Build a Watershed

9. Our Role in the Hydrological Cycle The Blue Planet

10. Activity: How will You Influence the Cycle? Scoot around the room and read each scenario (scenario cards follow this slide). You must give an alternative (better solution) for each scenario. Each of your solutions must be backed up with a FACT! Remember, you are wanting to protect our watershed, so all solutions and facts should relate to conserving water and pro- tecting our watershed. http://www.chnep.org/moreinfo/water_conservation_facts.htm Let's scoot!

11. The hydrologic cycle begins with the evaporation of water from the surface of the ocean. • As moist air is lifted, it cools and water vapor condenses to form clouds. • Moisture is transported around the globe until it returns to the surface as precipitation. • Once the water reaches the ground, one of two processes may occur; • some of the water may evaporate back into the atmosphere or • the water may penetrate the surface and become groundwater. • Groundwater either seeps its way to into the oceans, rivers, and streams, • or is released back into the atmosphere through transpiration. • The balance of water that remains on the earth's surface is runoff, which empties into lakes, • rivers and streams and is carried back to the oceans, where the cycle begins again. WW 2010 University of Illinois

12. Activity: How will You Influence the Cycle? Let's scoot!

18. Reading List • How Trees Influence the Hydrological Cycle in Forest Ecosystems • Miles, Betty, and Nelle Davis. Save the Earth: An Action Handbook for Kids. New York: Knopf, 1991. Print. • Montez, Michele, and Lorraine Bodger. The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to save the Earth. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Pub., 2009. Print. • Wick, Walter. A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder. New York: Scholastic, 1997. Print. • Plastiki An Adventure to Save Our Oceans. Harperstudio, 2010. Print. • Water Facts

19. Games and Water info • Bert and Phil’s Water Busters Game • Bert’s tips for saving water • The Meter Reading Game • Rain Barrels • Water Fun!