Don’t Be Such a Drip: Water Conservation
Don’t Be Such a Drip: Water Conservation
Students discover how water is commonly wasted, the importance of conserving it, and how to draw conclusions from graphs.
Author / Gail GorryGrade Level / 2-3
Duration / 2 class periods
National Geography Standards / Arizona Geography Strand 4 / Arizona Math Standard
ELEMENT FOUR: ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources. / CONCEPT 5 Environment and Society
GRADE 3
PO 2 Describe ways of protecting natural resources.
GRADE 2
PO 2 Recognize ways of protecting natural resources.
CONCEPT 6
Geographic Applications
GRADE 2
PO 3 Use geography concepts and skills to find solutions for problems inthe environment. /
STRAND 2 Data Analysis, Probability, and Discrete math
CONCEPT 1 Data AnalysisGRADE 2
PO 1 Collect, record, organize, and display data using pictographs, frequency tables, or single bar graphs.
GRADE 3PO 1Collect, record, organize, and display data using frequency tables, single bar graphs, or single line graphs.
Don’t Be Such a Drip: Water Conservation
Overview
Realizing how important water is to Arizona is the key to this lesson on water conservation. After experimenting with how much water is “wasted” from a dripping faucet and from allowing water to flow while brushing their teeth, students will analyze data and be encouraged to conserve this precious resource.
Purpose
In this lesson students will gain a better understanding of how to help conserve water – a natural resource. Students will also draw conclusions from student created graphed data of their water saving experiment.
Materials
- Sink with faucet and water
- Large container (bucket or dishpan) to collect water
- Timer or clock to measure minutes
- Measuring cups and/or quart jars
- Student activity sheet (2 pages)
- Student Assessment sheet (2 pages)
- Answer Keys
Objectives
The student will be able to:
1. Gain a better understanding of water conservation by exploring the amount of water lost while brushing teeth and by collecting water from a “leaky” faucet.
2. Draw conclusions from estimating water consumption and then plotting data into graphs.
Procedures
Students should have experience in creating and interpreting graphs to gain information.
SESSION ONE
1. Ask students about ways they can conserve water at home. Brainstorm using chalkboard to display student ideas. Have students copy information on their student activity sheets. Discuss each answer.
2. Explain that one area where we often lose water is allowing the faucet to flow while brushing our teeth. Ask students to predict how much water goes down the drain while brushing teeth for one minute. Write this information down on the student activity sheet. Get a pan/bucket and place it under the faucet. Turn on the water slowly and allow it to run for one minute.
3. Measure the water collected and then have students complete the sentence on the student activity page. (Round to nearest cup or quart.) Determine the quantity for the graph and mark it on the left side of the graph.
4. Complete the graph using bars to indicate the amounts for each number of family members.
5. Next discuss the graph and complete the paragraph describing any conclusions from interpreting the graph. (Decide how to best use the water that was collected – water indoor plants, water outdoor plants, clean paint brushes, etc.)
SESSION TWO - Assessment Period
6. Explain that there is another common water loss area in many homes and schools – leaky faucets. Set up the experiment listed in #7. Allow enough time to collect the data needed for the assessment.
7. Set a pan in the sink to collect the drips from a simulated leaky faucet. Turn the water on a slow drip and allow it to continue dripping for one hour. (Remedial option: Allow water to collect until it fills an even cup, so students do not work with half cup amounts.) Measure the amount of water collected and record the result. Decide what value of measurement to use (cups, quarts, gallons or liters and milliliters).
8. Have students complete the assessment page with the information provided from the experiment. (Once again decide a wise use for this collected water – do not just throw it down the drain!)
Assessment
The assessment takes place during Session Two. Mastery for the complete assessment is achieving sixteen out of twenty possible. (Bonus points are extra.) Geography is the subject matter used in every problem. It is heavily assessed in #1, while the math standard is assessed mainly in #2 and the bonus question. There are 3 points possible in #1 (geography), 17 points possible in #2 (math) and two points possible in the bonus question (math). A score of 16 points or higher is considered mastery.
Extensions
Have students retrieve statistics from waterdept.usgs.gov involving nationwide or statewide annual stream flow. Information is available in chart or graph formats. Identify a specific river to follow and chart its flow from different years. Or, locate different cities along the same river and compare the stream flow from the different points. (For example, the Little Colorado River could be measured at Winslow and also at Woodruff, AZ and compared for specific years.) Students can create their own graphs (or print ones from the computer) and draw conclusions about the water available from rivers and streams in Arizona over the past 20-30 years. Their conclusions might contain predictions about the future water availability from this data.
Sources
Water conservation ideas are available at and at Another good site for water conservation is