Thinking Deeply About Water in Arizona
Arizona Project WET (APW) developed Aqua STEM to support educators in deepening STEM education in their classrooms using Systems Thinking as instructional practice. Aqua STEM combines a framework for critical thinking with project-based learning to make STEM education real world and relevant to our communities. During the Covid 19 pandemic, Aqua STEM was one of several APW programs to decisively pivot and provide a model for online learning.
Students use models to think through the parts of a system.
Each Aqua STEM Unit embeds a framework for thinking, called DSRP, developed by cognitive scientist, Derek Cabrera, from Cornell University. DSRP involves making Distinctions, looking at parts and wholes of Systems, making Relationships, and taking on new Perspectives.
Right now agencies, consulting firms, and businesses across the U.S. are calling for applicants with STEM skills including collaboration, communication, and perseverance. Aqua STEM offers students opportunities to develop these STEM skills while learning about Arizona’s unique water issues.
Systems Thinking—The Heart of the Aqua STEM Program
Distinctions
What is X?
What is X not?
Systems
What is X a part of?
What is a part of X?
Relationships
How is X related to Y?
Perspectives
Seeing life from different viewpoints.
Helping Teachers with Science Standards
Aqua STEM incorporates the 3-dimensional learning principles outlined in the Arizona Science Standards. The process calls for using science and engineering practices and cross-cutting concepts to drive learning about core ideas. As a result, Aqua STEM lessons and units help teachers do what they need to do to meet the new standards.
Students engage in asking questions and defining problems, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations, and designing solutions. They also begin to recognize relationships between science, water resources, and our community.
All Aqua STEM units are designed to supplement science instruction for 6th - 12th grade students and in some cases to meet targeted Arizona Science Standards.
Activating Learning in Uncertain Times
"The only thing that is constant is change." - Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher
COVID 19 brought unprecedented changes to schools and universities around the world. Most schools have opted to reopen with online or hybrid learning structures which has strengthened APW's resolve to provide engaging online field experiences for students.
Exciting new opportunities for field-based learning online and hybrid activities include:
Interview an Organism - Using videos or pictures, students spend time asking an organism questions to learn more about them.
Cool Organism Convention - Students work in small groups to study an organism and then share their results with other student groups.
Backyard Nature Journaling - What's in your backyard? Students head outdoors to look for life in their own backyard or neighborhood park.
Discovery Journey - Fun with the family starts here. Students visit a local park or riparian area and complete a Discovery Journey activity.
Field Science Scavenger Hunt - Using phones or other devices, students read clues and find organisms and learn about them in the process.
Aqua STEM Units
Riparian Habitat Exploration
Waters of Our World
Rainwater Harvesting Engineering Design
Riparian Habitat Exploration
Unit Driving Question:
Is this riparian area healthy?
The Riparian Habitat Exploration Unit (RHE) is one of our most popular Aqua STEM programs.
In the RHE, students take on the role of a field scientist to explore the inner workings of a local riparian ecosystem. They take their knowledge into the field, immersing themselves in the riparian experience, encountering amazing water places and incentivizing an ethic of water stewardship.
The unit begins with a glimpse into the work of five scientists - an aquatic biologist, a botanist, an entomologist, a soil scientist and a water chemist. Students design and conduct field science investigations to assess indicators of habitat quality using data collection tools engineered by their group, as well as other equipment. While in the field, students dig into the relationships between natural bodies of water and the availability of food and shelter for animals and begin to see how Arizona’s riparian areas support such a large variety of species. Finally, the students compile the data from all their peer group science teams to make a determination on the health of the habitat and ecosystem.
Waters of Our World
Unit Driving Question:
What is your role in Arizona's Hydrological Cycle?
Waters of Our World (WOW) is our newest Aqua STEM unit.
In the WOW Aqua STEM Unit, students learn about Arizona’s unique hydrological cycle and how it personally impacts them. They ask questions and define problems related to Arizona’s major water sources, climate, and long-term water use. Developing and using models, they discover how the Central Arizona Project pumps water uphill and explore how the groundwater system works. By the unit’s end, students use explanations based on evidence to construct a model of their place within the Arizona Hydrologic cycle, acknowledging our arid climate and making important connections between their direct and indirect use of water. They present their personalized model to their peers and make an argument about how these interconnecting systems impact their lives.
Rainwater Harvesting Engineering Design
Unit Driving Question:
How will you design a passive rainwater harvesting system that will provide shade and sustain your plants year-round through the most efficient use of available water?
Rainwater Harvesting Engineering Design (RWH) is taking off in the Tucson area where rebates are offered for schools to install passive rainwater harvesting features.
In this Unit, students learn about the climate predictions for the Southwest region, increasing heat and more extreme storms. They see that the simple principles of effective rainwater harvesting can help to mitigate these factors. They explore where water flows on school property and using observation and inference, they deduce the best possible location to create a rainwater harvesting system.
Learning why they’re harvesting rain is just as important as engineering design. Students study the watering needs of different types of plants (native vs non-native) using online references. They work with detailed spreadsheets to calculate the amount of water their project landscape needs to stay healthy.
By thinking through their water supply and water demand calculations, students learn to make adjustments and eventually hone in on the best sized collection area to meet their project landscape needs. A student gallery walk with constructive peer review helps students to finalize their engineering designs.
Developing Lifelong Thinkers and Problem Solvers
Local Relevancy the Development of Thinking Skills has Students Diving Deep into Discovery
Aqua STEM was developed to help educators move students from "sitting and getting" to thinking and problem solving. Combining a structure and framework for thinking with project-based learning activates interest and inquiry and takes learning to a deeper level. Accessing their framework for thinking, students learn to reflect on our own thinking; metacognition. Learning is no longer superficial, but is driven by the need and desire to know.
