ALEX | Alabama Learning Exchange

Water Works

Classroom Resource Information

Title:

Water Works

URL:

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/lesson/water-works/

Content Source:

National Geographic

Type:

Lesson/Unit Plan

Overview:

Students compare their own tap water use in light of global freshwater access to develop an understanding of water security. They learn how watersheds work, locate their local watershed, then turn their attention to the importance of Mount Everest’s watershed and the people who rely on it. They use a variety of resources to learn about key sources of freshwater. Finally, students collect evidence connecting Mount Everest’s ice to water security by exploring maps, analyzing graphs and infographics, reading articles, and more. This lesson is part of the Peak Water: Mount Everest and Global Water Supply unit.

Content Standard(s):

Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 6
Earth and Space Science

16 ) Implement scientific principles to design processes for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment (e.g., water usage, including withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or construction of dams and levees; land usage, including urban development, agriculture, or removal of wetlands; pollution of air, water, and land).*

NAEP Framework

NAEP Statement::
E8.15a: Human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive farming, have changed Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere.

NAEP Statement::
E8.15b: Studies of plant and animal populations have shown that such activities can reduce the number and variety of wild plants and animals and sometimes result in the extinction of species.

Unpacked Content

Scientific And Engineering Practices:

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect

Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth and Human Activity

Evidence Of Student Attainment:

Students:

Design a process for monitoring human impact on the environment using scientific principles.
Design a process for minimizing human impact on the environment using scientific principles.

Teacher Vocabulary:

Habitat
Extinction
Species
Human Impact
Population
Per-capita consumption
Technology
Object
System
Process
Engineer
Engineering Design Process (EDP)
Monitor
Minimize
Solution
Causal and correlational relationships
Criteria
Constraints
Limitations

Knowledge:

Students know:

Human activities have significantly altered the environment, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species.
Changes to Earth's environments can have different positive and negative impacts for different living things.
Typically as human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise.
Technology is anything man-made that solves a problem or fulfills a desire.
Technology can be an object, system, or process.
Engineering is a systematic and often iterative approach to designing objects, processes, and systems to meet human needs and wants.
The Engineering Design Process (EDP) is a series of steps engineers use to guide them as they solve problems.
The EDP may include the following cyclical steps: ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.
Scientific information and principles regarding human impact on the environment must be used to design a process or solution that addresses the results of a particular human activity.
Scientific information and principles regarding human impact on the environment must be used to design a process or solution that incorporates technologies that can be used to monitor negative effects that human activities have on the environment.
Scientific information and principles regarding human impact on the environment must be used to design a process or solution that incorporates technologies that can be used to minimize negative effects that human activities have on the environment.
Causal and correlational relationships between the human activity and the negative environmental impact must be distinguished to facilitate the design of the process or solution.
Criteria and constraints for the solution must be defined and quantified to include individual or societal needs or desires and constraints imposed by economic conditions (e.g., costs of building and maintaining the solution).
Criteria are the principles or standards by which the process or solution is judged.
Constraints are the limitations or restrictions on the process or solution.
The process or solution must meet the criteria and constraints.
Limitations of the use of technologies exist.

Skills:

Students are able to:

Use scientific information and principles to generate a design solution for a problem related to human impact on the environment.
Identify relationships between the human activity and the negative environmental impact based on scientific principles.
Distinguish between causal and correlational relationships to facilitate the design of the solution.
Define and quantify, when appropriate, criteria and constraints for the solution.
Describe how well the solution meets the criteria and constraints, including monitoring or minimizing a human impact based on the causal relationships between relevant scientific principles about the processes that occur in, as well as among, Earth systems and the human impact on the environment.
Identify limitations of the use of technologies employed by the solution.

Understanding:

Students understand that:

A process or solution must meet criteria and constraints, including monitoring or minimizing a human impact based on the causal relationships between relevant scientific principles about the processes that occur in, as well as among, Earth systems and the human impact on the environment.

AMSTI Resources:

AMSTI Module:
Exploring Planetary Systems

Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards

AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.6.16- Assess how human behaviors impact the environment (e.g., recycling, conservation, pollution); suggest processes to minimize human impact on the environment.

Tags:

Mount Everest, water, watershed

License Type:

Custom Permission Type
See Terms: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/terms-of-service/
For full descriptions of license types and a guide to usage, visit :
https://creativecommons.org/licenses

Accessibility

Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings

Comments

This resource provided by:

Author:

Stephanie Carver

ALEX Classroom Resource

Water Works