Surface Water Quality - Studying the world around us
Sue Bogren
(bogrens@bellsouth.net)
(ready to use)
Coauthors
ASK
Subject Areas
| Education, Educational Technology, Science |
Grade Levels
Unit Keywords
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water, quality, usage, Urbana Middle School, NSFSTC |
Rationale of the Unit
SURFACE WATER QUALITY-STUDYING THE WORLD AROUND US is a web based unit on studying the importance of water in our everyday lives. This unit is currently being developed and will contain more lessons in the future. Currently its activities span science and technology, as well as providing a pool of resources on the subject of water quality.
Additionally, this Inquiry Unit has been created to explore how the Inquiry Page may facilitate current Web based collaborative teaching units. It is hoped that the original creators of this unit on water quality will find the Inquiry Page to be a useful resource and mold this and future Inquiry Units to fit their teaching and learning interests. |
Background and Resources
BACKGROUND
Three Background activities may be found below:
- The Penny Lab is an investigation in experimental design. Students determine how many drops of water will fit on a penny before it spills over the edge. Students will compile classmates' data and perform a statistical analysis of the data.
- The Personal Usage Lab is an investigation in individual water use. Students will monitor their personal water usage for a twenty four hour period. Students will use this information to assess their personal impact on the local community.
- The Acids, Base, and pH Tutorial provides students with an overview of acids and bases, and how to measure H+ concentration.
WEB SITES -- sites for exploration and interaction.
The Resources page provides links to Web resources ranging from issues and topics on water quality to knowledge networks empowering citizen participation in managing watershed resources. |
Activities and Open-ended problems
LAB ACTIVITIES
Field Activities: Field Monitoring Of Surface Water Quality - Students go to a field collection site (pond, stream, drainage ditch etc...) and collect GPS coordinates, site data, water samples, and benthic macroorganisms for analysis of the overall quality of the sampling body.
Lab Activities: Chemical and Biological Analysis Of Samples Collected From Test Site - Students run the chemical analysis on the water samples collected and identify the benthic macroorganisms collected. Using this data, students will assess the overall quality of the stream, pond etc...
OPEN-ENDED PROBLEMS -- creative extensions
The Extensions and Variations page provides students with resources that they could use to go above the required skills or activities to complete a unit.
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Dialogues, Discussions, and Presentations
PRESENTATIONS
The Followup Activities section provides information on organizing and presenting collected data along with tutorials on special items used in presenting the collected data. |
Assessment, Related Questions, and Story of the Unit
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