Clean Water Availability
Clean Water Availability
Jennifer Tapolcai, Bothwell Middle School, Marquette, Michigan
Jennifer Tapolcai, Bothwell Middle School, Marquette, Michigan
Students will observe several water bodies near our school and generate questions about water quality and water scarcity.
Students will learn about their local water quality, but also culminate all of this in a project on environmental justice concerning freshwater water availability worldwide. The language arts teacher will support the learning by reading lLinda Sue Park's novel A Long Walk to Water about a young man and young woman's journey to find safe, clean water for their tribes in South Sudan. Students will read the novel in their Language Arts classroom.
Who: You, the students, will read the novel A Long Walk to Water in Mrs. Tapolcai and Mr. Thoms' classrooms (Science and Language Arts).
What: The students will read the novel and accompanied informational texts on clean water, wells, and the conflict in Sudan from Newsela and other sources. The focus will be on the guided inquiry questions below.
Where: In our classrooms at Bothwell, the pond in the woods south of BMS, Whetstone Brook, Orianna Creek, ditches near BMS, Lake Superior, and water samples taken from local inland ponds and lakes within Marquette County.
When: Beginning Sept 18 with the novel, ending sometime around the end of the first quarter/mid-November.
Why: Students will complete this project to give them a better understanding of the quality of our local water resources, to describe and define the bacteria present in water and the dangers (or lack thereof) that are present in the water, learn about how wells are created and how they work, and studying who does and does not have access to water and how this global problem can be solved.
How: Students in our classrooms will use gathered experimental data, their book, informational texts, science notebooks, and online resources to demonstrate their learning and create a project focused and centered on the guided inquiry questions.
1 Empowered Learner
Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
2 Digital Citizen
Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
3 Knowledge Constructor
Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
3a
Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
3b
Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.
3c
Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
3d
Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
1. A day of MEECS ¨Where is all the water in the world?¨
Read aloud ¨All the Water¨ by George Ella Lyon. Class discussion about book. Quick write in notebook
2. Look at Water Quality Usage website. https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/visualization-water-use-united-states Use 7 bulleted Write to Learn Strategies.
2. QFT Day!
Introduce students to wetland by school. Have them make observations in their notebooks.
Follow protocol of QFT with whiteboards and small groups. Come up with some testable questions with guidance of teacher.
3. Macroinvertibrates day 1. Students will collect samples of pond water and collect macroinvertibrates. Specimen will be brought into the classroom for observation and documentation.
4. Introduction to the idea of macroinvertibrates as indicators of pollution. Discussion about how to compile data and use it to create concensus about water quality. Board meeting and concensus building. Reflection on the day will be a write on how they would collect data more effectively/accurately, etc.
5. Art day- Wet on Wet Watercolor Critters. Students would start by making their paint spots. While they are drying we would continue with loose ends from the previous day.
6. Art day continued. Finish macroinvertibrates from the previous day and write an artist´s statement.
7.
https://michigancleanwater.org/ Connect with songwriters (Seth Bernard, etc) to visit the classroom
https://superiorwatersheds.org/ Have guest presenters talk about water quality monitoring done in the area, present the idea of watershed