How can we support those without access to drinking water?

Phenomenon

Living On One Dollar

*this module will take approximately 3.5 hours

Overview

The purpose of Module 1 is for students to develop empathy and surface knowledge about the inequities of the world’s water through a scientific lens. 

Engage (30 min)

To Drink or Not To Drink… That is the Question

• Place 5-7 bottles of water located on a table. The students will be told there are 2 drinkable water bottles, and 5 contaminated ones. The students will identify which five bottles they think are the contaminated water bottles and cast their votes. 
  • Set up: Each student will be given two pieces of paper to “vote”. Behind each water bottle, there will be a jar/box they can cast their votes in. 
  • Bottles could be filled with: Activated charcoal, bleach water, ocean water (saltwater), organic matter, puddle water, vinegar water, ‘dirt’ water, muddy water, clear water that could be contaminated with bacteria, pesticides, etc
  •  After all the students vote, the ‘big reveal’ will be that the “dirty” looking water was actually the drinkable water and the clear water has micro contaminants in it which could make you very sick. 
    • The water that looks dirty but is clean to drink will have the activated charcoal and organic matter 
  • Teacher notes: Make sure you check in with your principal to ensure you are disposing of the materials appropriately and efficiently. 
• Discuss the dangers of not testing the water before drinking it, and the challenges of lower socioeconomic countries or communities that do not have access to water testers.  Consider what could happen if they drank the contaminated water. 

Explore (60 min)

Develop Empathy 

• Discuss the inequities and lack of access to clean water around the world. Share articles, photos, and videos to grow the desire of finding a solution to the clean water crisis. 
  • Articles: 2 Billion People Don’t Have Access To Clean Water and Why the Water Crisis?
  • Videos: Are We Running Out of Clean Water? and Why Water
  • Note: The goal of the project is to have the students create a system for people so they can access clean water. Guide the conversation with the students in this direction. 
  • Think about the structural design (career development) 

Elaborate (60 min) 

Micro Contaminants 

• Review U.S. EPA website about the four different types of micro contaminants 
  • Divide students into 8 groups of 4 people (Physical, Chemical, Biological, Radiological)  
  • Two groups will be assigned to one of the micro contaminants they will be responsible for creating a visual poster board diving deep into their topic. 
  • Each group will have one or two computers to research and dive deeply into their assigned topic. 
  • On the poster board, the students should have the name of the micro contaminants (Physical, Chemical, Biological, Radiological) , how the micro contaminate contaminates water, where you can find the micro contaminant, can you treat the micro contaminant, any other relevant information. 
    • The board should look neat and orderly but not a finalized product. 
    • Students should incorporate pictures, drawings, bullet points, vocabulary into their posters
  • Students will be given 5-7 minutes to present their poster board to the class. 

Explain (40 min)

Introduce essential questions

• Gather the class into a circle sitting on the floor, everyone should be able to physically see each other 
  • Set up guidelines and rules of being in a circle
    • One person speaks at a time 
    • Have a physical ‘talking piece’  (teddy bear, class mascot, flower, etc)
    • Everyone must speak at least one time in the circle
  • Start the circle off by asking one of the essential questions to the group: 
    • Who has access to clean drinking water?
    • How can we support those without access to drinking water by designing a solution?
  • Choose one student to start, hand them the talking piece, after they answer, have them pass the talking piece to their neighbor.  

Evaluate (20 min)

World of 100 Simulation

• Option 1: (if you have a full class period)
  • Script
  • Reflection Questions
• Option 2: introduce the World of 100 statistics and reflect as a class about what they mean. Do the numbers overlap? – click here