Water Contamination

Today, grade 8's discussed the different types of contaminants that are affecting our water supply on Earth. We started by looking at the list (below) to make a prediction about which type of contamination is the "worst". After our discussions today, we realized that we have a lot of work to do to make sure our precious freshwater resources are not irrevocably contaminated.

There are lots of topics of conversation you can have over the dinner table (or in the car) to help build deeper understanding of water contamination ...

• what are examples of each of the types of water contamination?

• what happened in Walkerton in 2000?

• how is fresh water used to separate the oil out of the Alberta Oil Sands?

• what happened in the Sydney Tar Ponds?

• what happens to waste that is washed into our storm sewers?

• why is it so difficult to removed dissolved substances from water?

• what is happening on Midway Island?

• what are gamma rays and how do they affect living things?

• why are cigarette butts a "double whammy" when it comes to contaminating our water systems?

As a culminating task, grade 8's will use the media literacy skills they have been developing through our business venture to develop a public service announcement (video, news release, website etc) to highlight the impacts humans are making on our freshwater resources. Lots to follow on this project.

HIstory

Over the past few weeks, we have been using resources on Edwin.app to build our understanding of Canadian history. Grade 7's are learning about New France, the Treaty of Utrecht and the fur trade. Grade 8's are following what they learned last year and learning about Confederation and the beginning of the industrial age in Canada.

We will be having small group tutorials on Monday February 10 to unpack key ideas from our research.

Everyone is expected to have completed the required readings by Monday February 10. Some time at home will be required to add to the time we have already spent in class to complete all the required readings. A list of required reading topics by grade is shown below.