Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students choose an area of water use and identify the criteria they would set for monitoring water use and identifying water waste. They compare the type of criteria they would use for different types of water consumption.

Key lessons and understandings of activity:

  • Applying criteria for monitoring water use for different applications.
  • Criteria needs to be considered and justified before monitoring activities can be designed.
  • Water consumption criteria includes the sustainable use of a renewable resource, the impact on the environment of removing the water, the environmental consequences of the runoff and disposal of water and the substances that is carried with. 

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Content descriptions:

Year 9 Science

  • Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence (ACSIS170)
  • Critically analyse the validity of information in secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems (ACSIS172)

Year 9 Mathematics

  • Identify everyday questions and issues involving at least one numerical and at least one categorical variable, and collect data directly from secondary sources (ACMSP228)

Year 10 Science

  • Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence (ACSIS204)
  • Critically analyse the validity of information in secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems (ACSIS206) 

Year 10 Mathematics

  • Evaluate statistical reports in the media and other places by linking claims to displays, statistics and representative data(ACMSP253)

Syllabus Outcomes: SC5-7WS, SC5-8WS. 

Topic: Water 

Year levels: 9 and 10

Indoor or outdoor activity: Indoor

Time required: 45 mins.

Learning areas addressed: Science, Geography.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Assist students with research and engage students in a discussion around their findings.

Resources required: Materials already produced during this unit of work and the internet.

Homework and extension opportunities: Some of this work could be set as homework.

Keywords: Water, Research, Sustainable, Resource, Renewable, Waste, Criteria, Pairs.

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

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher preparation

Before a water monitoring program starts, it is useful to have a criteria formulated for what is best practice. The criteria could be very simple, but it is essential for designing the monitoring of water use and its disposal.

Activity outline

Part 1: Pairs of students choose one of the following water uses or another of their choosing:

  • Dish washer
  • Clothes washing machine
  • Watering home garden beds
  • Watering home lawn
  • Cleaning cars at a car wash
  • Propagating plants in a nursery
  • Irrigation water for fruit crops
  • Irrigation water for cotton crops
  • Irrigation water for rice
  • Irrigation water for grass and clover on a dairy farm
  • Water for operating a coal fired power station.

Part 2: Ask each pair of students to research the area of water use that they have chosen  from above and develop a set of criteria that can be used to judge the amount of water that is being used and how much of it is being wasted.

The following are some prompts that the s

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Student Worksheet

 

Working in pairs, your task is to choose an area of water use and identify a set of criteria that could be used to monitor water use and identify water waste. At the completion of this activity, you will present your findings to the class and compare the different types of criteria that could be used for different types of water consumption.

Task One: choose an area of water use from below, or alternatively, choose an area of your own.

 

  • Dish washer
  • Clothes washing machine
  • Watering home garden beds
  • Watering home lawn
  • Cleaning cars at a car wash
  • Propagating plants in a nursery
  • Irrigation water for fruit crops
  • Irrigation water for cotton crops
  • Irrigation water for rice
  • Irrigation water for grass and clover on a dairy farm
  • Water for operating a coal fired power station.
  • Other 

 

Task Two: Once you have chosen your area of research, use the internet to find out more about how efficiently the water is used in this area. You may like to consider some of the

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