Sustainability

The Essential Question How does my water consumption impact my world?

Overview It is a simple fact of life: we need water. Water is essential to life on earth. We need it to drink, keep clean, generate power, and grow the food we eat. We are using up our planet’s fresh water faster than it can be replenished naturally. You can make a difference by improving the use of water in your home, school, and community.

The Challenge Improve your home, school, or community use of water.

Guiding Questions Guiding questions direct the research of the challenge topic. Examples • How do we use water? • How much do we use? • How is water wasted? • How much water is wasted? • How can water be conserved?

Guiding Activities These activities assist students with answering the guiding questions and set the foundation for them to develop insightful and realistic solutions. They can be student or teacher directed. The student teams may begin with these activities but will need to seek out new ones to answer their questions. The goal is not to create a prescribed path to a solution but to provide guidance when needed.

Examples • Setting the Foundation Student groups brainstorm everything they know about water, then search the Internet for basic water information and the top water issues. See “Guiding Resources” for websites to start this research.

• Calculate Your Individual Water Footprint Students determine how much water they and their families use with the H20 Calculator available from the National Wildlife Federation.

• Water Source Scavenger Hunt Students use the Surf Your Watershed site provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to locate the community’s watershed. If available, they use the data in the site to identify local groups or experts to interview about the watershed.

• Where Does Your Water Go? Students research how much water is used to brush their teeth, flush the toilet, and water the yard. The U.S. Geological Survey provides a web-based water calculator that gives a general overview of water use. They can also use a spreadsheet to track the use of water in their household.

Guiding Resources This is focused content that supports the activities and assists students with developing a solution. The ingredients include websites, videos, podcasts, experts, and other resources.

Examples • Indoor Water Use in the United States This site from the Environmental Protection Agency provides statistical information about indoor water use. www.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.htm

• Water Science for Schools This U.S. Geological Survey site includes a wide range of resources about many aspects of water and includes pictures, data, maps, and an interactive water knowledge test. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/mwater.html

• Conserve and Protect Water This site from the National Wildlife Foundation provides a personal water calculator and other water-awareness activities. www.nwf.org/water

• WaterSense Quiz This activity from the Environmental Protection Agency is designed to help raise students’ water awareness. The site includes many other resources. www.epa.gov/watersense/water/text.htm

• Surf Your Watershed This Environmental Protection Agency site identifies your local watershed and any citizen-based groups that are active in your area. http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/index.cfm

• Water Drops: All About H20 This series of 90-second podcasts from renowned hydrologist Peter Black provides comprehensive information about water. http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/esf.edu.1520520292

• Water for Tea In this 12-minute video from NASA, Star Trek star Patrick Stewart hosts a voyage to better understand the “bigger picture” of water on earth. http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/lifeonterra.com.1525139207

Solution/Action The challenges are stated broadly enough to allow for a variety of solutions. Each group of students will base its solution on what students have learned as they moved through the guiding activities. Any solution must be concrete and actionable.

Example Students researched and recorded all of the ways that water was being used in their school. They checked all fixtures for leaks, looked at student and teacher use, and explored how water was used for landscaping. They determined that one of the largest sources of water use was the school landscaping. The students went about determining the amount of water necessary to sustain the current landscaping, the source of that water, and alternative landscaping options. They designed a plan for changing the school landscaping that included a plant palette, a forecast for the amount of water saved, and a budget and prediction of the district’s return on their investment. To explain their plan, students created public service announcements as well as brochures. All of this information was then presented to the school board.