Lesson Description:
Rivers, lakes and other bodies of water in your community are vital components of the local ecosystem, supporting a variety of animal and plant life. In this project, students will research a local body of water to find out if it has a history of pollution, visit the site to make observations and do water quality tests, and study the pollution’s effect on plants and animals.  Finally, students will decide on a course of action to help clean up the site.

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/wue/water1_overview.html

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Lesson Type:

• Project

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Sustainability Topic:

• Water

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GEF Program Category:

• Sustainable Water Challenge

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Standards Addressed:

North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) Excellence in Environmental Education:

• Guidelines:  http://naaee.org/npeee/learner_guidelines.html
• Strand 1—Questioning and analysis skills (guidelines a, b, c, d, e, g)
• Strand 2.2—The living environment (a, c, d)
• Strand 2.3—Humans and their societies (c, e)
• Strand 2.4—Environment and society (a, b)
• Strand 3.1—Skills for analyzing and investigating environmental issues (a, b, c, d)
• Strand 3.2—Decision-making and citizenship skills (a, b, c, d)
• Strand 4—Personal and civic responsibility (b, c)

Technology Foundation Standards for Students

• Guidelines: http://www.iste.org/standards
• Standard 1: Basic operations and concepts
• Standard 3: Technology productivity tools
• Standard 4: Technology communications tools
• Standard 5: Technology research tools.

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Materials Needed:

• What's up in the environment video (optional)
• For the water illustration ­ graphics software such as paint or illustrator or paper
• Markers
• Glue
• Sissors 
• Photographs

For Water Tests:

• Water testing kit (check with your local epa official for recommendations on the best ones)

For Field Trip

• Field guide (or use the free downloadable one from enature.com ­ see listing in bookmarked web site list)
• Excel (if you choose to have students create graphs using this program)

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