Science / Civics
“Protecting our Water”
Quest Atlantis empowers children to respond locally in their communities and families to environmental issues that are of global concern. Quest Atlantis seeks to challenge members to increase their Water Quality and to work towards making the world safer for all creatures. The wise use of natural resources is critical to our very survival and in this Quest students will learn about water quality in general and their local waterways in particular.
Goals & Benchmarks
The goal of this unit is to develop a basic understanding of concepts, principles, and methodologies related to understanding and improving water quality.
Page 4
Assessment – The activity assessment rubric may be used to assess the work of the activities in this Unit. Also included is a pre-post assessment activity that may prove useful for assessing the learning of your students.
Page 21-22
Appendices
Pages 15 - 20
Science / Civics
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3 Week Plan
3rd – 5th Grades
ater Quality
“Protecting our Water”
Introduction
Quest Atlantis enriches members’ ability and efficacy, empowering them to respond locally in their communities and families to environmental issues that are of global concern. Quest Atlantis seeks to challenge members to increase their Water Quality and to work towards making the world safer for all creatures. The wise use of natural resources is critical to our very survival.
This Unit is devoted to exploration of water as a natural resource. The culminating activity is that students will go out and clean, or simply characterize the health of, a local waterway that is polluted or dirty. The unit begins with an in class discussion of water as resource and as critical for our survival. The Unit then turns to Activities 2 and 3 with the goal of generating enthusiasm and competence to go out and test a local waterway. Activity 4 involves a science experiment that can be conducted in or outside of class with the goal that students will get a better understanding of water pollution.
Activity 5 is a very involved observation that requires some preparation. However, it is one that children enjoy and will benefit from as they learn to test water quality. Activity six involves interviewing a scientist, which might be easier to accomplish if you have the entire class interview one scientist who visits your classroom. The final culminating activity is to develop an understanding of the health of and, potentially, go clean up a local waterway.
Note: if cleaning the waterway is too major of a project, you might want simply to have students simply develop an action plan and present to a group of individuals in the community.
W
3 Week Plan
3rd – 5th Grades
ater Quality
“Protecting our Water”
Science / Civics
MCREL Standards
MCREL Standards and Benchmarks for this Unit come from the sections on Earth and Space Sciences under the heading:
Water in the Earth system.
Standard 1: Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle
Level I [Grade : K-2]
Benchmark 2: Knows that water can be a liquid or a solid and can be made to change from one form to the other, but the amount of water stays the same
Level II [Grade : 3-5]
Benchmark 1: Knows that water exists in the air in different forms (e.g., in clouds and fog as tiny droplets; in rain, snow, and hail) and changes from one form to another through various processes (e.g., freezing, condensation, precipitation, evaporation)
Benchmark 4: Knows that most of Earth’s surface is covered by water, that most of that water is salt water in oceans, and that fresh water is found in rivers, lakes, underground sources, and glaciers
Level III [Grade : 6-8]
Benchmark 2: Knows the processes involved in the water cycle (e.g., evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface run-off, percolation) and their effects on climatic patterns
Science / Civics
Science / Civics
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