Water Conservation

Overview

Students examine how personal water use affects a community and how limited water can be conserved. They brush their teeth with the water on and off and measure the amount saved. Using Household Water Use Cards for activities such as washing hands, showering, and washing clothes, they calculate gallons used and compare their own use with the U.S. average. A demonstration with one liter of water shows how little of Earth's water is clean freshwater. Students then design and build a water filtration device from commonly available materials and complete a water filter lab worksheet.

Lesson Objectives

• Use a conservation plan to utilize a combination of strategies to conserve and control surface and ground water resources. Understand the issues of water pollution and the importance of access to clean water. Experiment with filtering various substances from water by making their own simple water filters. Observe and draw conclusions based on their experiment.