Lesson Plan

Testing the Future of Water

Overview

The increasing scarcity of drinking water has captured the world’s attention and driven scientists and conservationists to find solutions. This ten-minute video and accompanying lesson has students examine how the country of Namibia has tapped an unlikely source of water to combat shortages and experiment with water filtration materials and strategies.

Lesson Plan: Testing the Future of WaterStudent Activity: Testing the Future of WaterCollection: Environmental Education

Objectives

Students will:

  • List and describe ways that humans obtain water to fill their needs.
  • List and describe ways that humans make water unfit for use.
  • Test the effectiveness of a variety of materials that may be used to filter water.
Subjects
  • Biology
  • Environment
  • Science
  • Civics & Government
  • Social Studies
Topics
  • Environment
  • The Environment and Natural Resources
  • Engineering
  • Climate Change
  • Human Geography
  • Biology
  • Life Sciences
  • Civics and Government
For Teachers

Essential Questions

  • What makes water unsafe for consumption?
  • How hard is it to filter and purify water for human use?
  • How do humans waste water resources and how can they change that behavior?

Additional Resources

Transcript for "Future of Water"Retro Report

Standards (Next Generation Science Standards)

Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.

Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics: Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

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Questions? Tips? Concerns? Reach out to our Director of Education, David Olson: dolson@retroreport.com