Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students will learn about water wastage and understand the importance of saving water. They will undertake a measuring task to see how much water leaks from a tap. Students will look at how water is wasted around the school and home and what actions they can undertake to conserve more water.

clean up logoFollowing this lesson plan is an ideal way for your school to take part in Schools Clean Up Day. You’ll be joining thousands of amazing teachers in making a difference and creating positive environmental change.

Learning goals:

  • Students investigate the water wastage at their school.
  • Students analysis and evaluate primary data.
  • Students begin to take responsibility for their personal water use.

Australian Curriculum content description:

Year 5 Science:

  • With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be (ACSIS231)
  • Decide which variable should be changed and measured in fair tests and accurately observe, measure and record data, using digital technologies as appropriate(ACSIS087)
  • Compare data with predictions and use as evidence in developing explanations (ACSIS218)
  • Communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS093)

Year 5 Mathematics:

  • Pose questions and collect categorical or numerical data by observation or survey (ACMSP118)

Year 6 Science:

  • With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be (ACSIS232)
  • Decide which variable should be changed and measured in fair tests and accurately observe, measure and record data, using digital technologies as appropriate(ACSIS104)
  • Compare data with predictions and use as evidence in developing explanations (ACSIS221)
  • Communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS110)

Year 6 Mathematics:

  • Interpret and compare a range of data displays, including side-by-side column graphs for two categorical variables (ACMSP147)

Syllabus Outcomes: ST3-4WS, MA3-18SP, MA3‑1WM, MA3‑3WM. 

Time required: 60 mins

Resources required: Buckets, measuring cylinder, timers.

Digital learning opportunities: Digital sharing capabilities.

Homework and extension opportunities: Get the students to conduct the same experiment at home.

Keywords: Water, Clean Up Day, waste, experiment.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

 

Schools Clean Up Day

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Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher preparation

Overarching learning goal: Students investigate the water wastage at their school and analysis their primary data. They take action to reduce the amount of wasted water in their school.

Teacher content information: Australia is one of the driest continents on Earth, yet we use more water per person than anyone else in the world! Australians use more than 1 million litres of freshwater per person each year. In an average Australian city, this means that the water we use every day in and around our homes would fill the equivalent of 1,000 Olympic swimming pools!

Households use about 44% of their total water inside the home, half of which is used in the shower. Conventional showers use an average 12 litres of water per minute. Therefore, a person who has a daily 10 minute shower uses around 43, 800 litres of water each year. All of this water just ends up down the drain.

What can students do to save water? 

  • Keep a timer in the shower
  • Reducing your shower to 3
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Student Worksheet

Leaky Tap Experiment 

My area is: 

Prediction: 

1. How many taps are in this area?

2. How many of those taps are leaking?

3. Pick one of your leaking taps or make one drip. Have one member of your group time one minute.

  • Collect the water that drips from the tap in one minute in a container.
  • Count the number of drops that fall in a minute.
  • Remember to turn off the tap!

4. Go back to class and find out how much water you collected in a minute by pouring the container into a measuring jar.

5. Fill out the table with the rest of your class.

Area

 Number of taps

 Number of leaking taps

 How many drops of water per minute? 

 How much water is dripping in a minute?

Questions:

1.  Which tap leaked the most in a day? How much water? 

2.  Which tap leaked the least in a day? How much water?

3.  What

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