Earth Systems
Standard 4: Objective 1
Title: Water Conservation Checklist
Brief Description: Students will create pictograms of ways to conserve water.
Objective: Students should gain a greater understanding of simple ways they can help conserve water. They will also learn how communities can deal with water shortages. When students have completed this activity, they should be able to list at least 5 ways to conserve water.
Materials needed: Student sheets, overhead projector, colored pencils/markers/crayons, butcher paper, masking tape
Background Knowledge: Definition of reservoir, steps in the water cycle
Time needed: 65 minutes
Safety/Security Concerns: None
Teacher procedures:
1. Make enough copies of the student sheets for all of your students. Make one overhead copy.
2. Hook: Place the overhead up so when students arrive in class it is visible. Give students 2-3 minutes to try and figure out what the pictogram says. (Be a water saver)
3. Pass out student sheet to students.
4. Have students decide if they want to work individually or with a partner.
5. Assign each individual/partnership a letter A-W, then have them randomly select 2 letters from the alphabet (excluding x,y,z). To shorten the assignment, fewer letters can be chosen. They should write these on the top of their student sheet.
6. Students should then read through the activity.
7. Discuss the activity (especially the background information) and answer any questions students might have. Point out to students that they aren’t making literal drawings but word puzzles for their classmates to figure out.
8. Have students look at the “Water Conservation Checklist.” Tell them the letters they wrote correlate to the lettered items on the list.
9. The pictogram for the letter they were assigned will be drawn on one side of the butcher paper. 10. The other 3 pictograms, including the 2 letters they randomly choose and 1 more additional item of their own choice from the list, will be on the backside of the butcher paper.
11. Give students time to create their pictograms.
12. Have the students tape their pictograms (assigned item facing outward) around the room.
13. As a class, go around the room and try to decipher which item each depicts.
Answers to Analysis Questions:
1. You could install a low-flow toilet or put a bottle or brick in your toilet so the tank fills with a smaller volume of water each time.
2. Fifty gallons or more
3. You could only water during the cool parts of the day to reduce the amount of evaporation, you could deep soak your lawn in other words water it every several days to encourage the roots to grow deeper, you could also turn off your sprinkler timers so that you only water when needed, not when its raining. You could also put mulch around your trees to reduce evaporation.
4. Answers will vary but should include: Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. They should also have reservoirs included and labeled.
5. Native plants to Utah are plants that are accustomed to living in the dry Utah climate. By using those trees you would not need to water your lawn as often.
Answers to Conclusions:
Answers will vary but should be detailed, relevant and in complete sentences.
Sample Scoring Guide:
Requirement / Points PossiblePredictions / 5
Large Pictogram / 10
3 smaller pictograms / 9
Analysis Questions, complete and correct / 10
Conclusions valid and complete / 16
Total / 50
Overhead:
a
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life er
Name: ______Period:______
Title: Water Conservation Pictograms
Background Information:
Freshwater, limited in supply is essential for life. Utah is the 2nd driest state in the United States. The majority of usable freshwater in Utah is in the form of groundwater. We access this water by drilling wells and pumping the water out. Other reservoirs include running water in rivers like the Jordan River, Bear River, Green River etc., frozen water in the snow-pack, water in the atmosphere, lakes and reservoirs like Bear lake, Jordanelle, Deer Creek etc.
Despite all these reservoirs we receive less the 13” a year of average precipitation. As a resident of Utah, it is especially important for you and your family to understand how to conserve water. We use water everyday for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways. There are many simple things you can do to help our community maintain the needed water supply.
Purpose: In this activity you should become familiar with everyday ways you can help conserve water. By the end of the activity you should be able to easily list at least 5 ways.
Materials: Butcher paper, markers/crayons/colored pencils, Water Conservation Checklist
Prediction: What are 5 important ways you think Utahan’s can conserve water?
Procedures:
1. You may work alone or with a partner in this activity. Choose which you would prefer.
2. You will be assigned a letter A-W by your teacher, write that letter here:______. (If you are working with a partner you will be assigned the same letter.)
3. Randomly select 2 letters in the alphabet between A and W. Write them here:______. (If you are working with a partner, select the same letters as your partner)
4. Obtain a Water Conservation Checklist.
5. The letter assigned and the letters you chose, correspond to the lettered items in the Water Conservation Checklist. Choose one more letter after reading over the items. Write that letter here:______.
6. For each letter listed in steps 2, 3 and 5, you will create a pictogram. A pictogram is a picture puzzle that visually spells out the words of a phrase.
7. Obtain a sheet of butcher paper approximately one square meter in size.
9. On one side of the paper you will be drawing a large pictogram for the letter you (or you and your partner) were assigned. On the other side, you will be drawing 3 smaller pictograms for the remaining 3 letters you choose.
10. Be sure to use color and be neat and creative in your drawings. Remember these usually phonetically sound-out a word using pictures.
11. Answer the analysis questions and conclusions when you have completed your drawings.
Analysis Questions:
1. Describe 2 ways you can cut water waste in you toilet.
2. How much water could a small drip from a pipe waste each day?
3. Explain 3 ways to conserve water when caring for your lawn.
4. Draw and label a water cycle in Utah, using reservoirs that exist in Utah. Use the Background Information to help you if you do not know the names of reservoirs in Utah.
5. Xeriscaping is a philosophy of landscaping which uses native plants, rocks, and minimal grass in its design. How could xeriscaping your lawn apply to water conservation in Utah?
Conclusions: In complete sentences explain 5 things that you learned by completing this activity. How did your predictions compare to the Water Conservation Checklist you were given.
Grading Rubric:
Requirement / Points Received / Points PossiblePredictions / 5
Large Pictogram / 10
3 smaller pictograms / 9
Analysis Questions, complete and correct / 10
Conclusions valid and complete / 16
Total / 50
The Water Conservation Checklist
Try this checklist to see where you stand and what you can do to help.
ACheck your toilet for leaks
A leak in your toilet may be wasting more than 100 gallons of water a day. To check, put a little food coloring in your toilet tank. If, without flushing, the coloring begins to appear in the bowl, you have a leak. Adjust or replace the flush valve or call a plumber.
BStop using your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket.
Every time you flush a cigarette butt, facial tissue or other small bit of trash down the toilet, you waste five to seven gallons of water.
CPut two plastic bottles in your toilet tank.
Your toilet can flush just as efficiently with less water than it now uses. To cut down water waste, put an inch or two of sand or pebbles in each of two plastic quart bottles to weigh them down. Fill them with water replace the lid and put them in your toilet tank, safely away from the operating mechanisms. Better yet, replace your old toilet with a new low-flow toilet. They are readily available in a variety of styles and colors. Opt for the reliable brand names.
DTake shorter showers.
Long hot showers waste five to ten gallons of water every unneeded minute. Limit your showers to the time it takes to soap up, wash down and rinse off.
EInstall water-saving showerheads or flow restrictors.
Most shower heads put out five to ten gallons of water a minute, while three gallons is actually enough for a refreshing cleansing shower. Your local hardware or plumbing supply store stocks inexpensive water-saving showerheads that you can install yourself. For even less money, you can purchase a small plastic insert that will limit flow through your present showerhead.
FTurn off the water after you wet your toothbrush.
After you have wet your toothbrush and filled a glass for rinsing your mouth, there is no need to keep water pouring down the drain.
GRinse your razor in the sink.
Before shaving, partially fill your sink with a few inches of warm water. This will rinse your blade just as efficiently as running water, and far less wastefully.
HCheck faucets and pipes for leaks.
Even the smallest drip from a worn washer can waste 50 or more gallons of water a day. Larger leaks can waste hundreds.
IUse your automatic dishwasher only for full loads.
Every time you run your dishwasher, you use about 25 gallons of water.
JIf you wash dishes by hand, don't leave the water running for rinsing.
If you have two sinks, fill one with soapy water and one with rinse water. If you have but one sink, gather all the washed dishes in the dish rack and rinse them with an inexpensive spray device.
KDon't let the faucet run while you clean vegetables.
You can serve the same purpose by putting a stopper in the sink and filling the sink with clean water.
LKeep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator.
This ends the wasteful practice of running tap water to cool it off for drinking.
MUse your automatic washing machine only for full loads.
Your automatic washer uses 30 to 35 gallons of water in a cycle. That's a lot of water for three T-shirts. Also use the smallest load volume.
NPlant drought-resistant trees and plants.
There are many beautiful trees and plants that thrive in Utah with far less watering than other species.
OPut a layer of mulch around trees and plants.
A layer of mulch will slow the evaporation of moisture.
PUse a broom to clean driveways, sidewalks and steps.
Using a hose to push around a few leaves and scraps of paper can waste hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water.
QDon't run the hose while washing your car.
Soap-down your car with a pail of soapy water. Then use a hose just to rinse it off.
RTeach your children/brothers/sisters that your hose and sprinklers are not toys.
There are a few things more cheerful than the sound of happy children playing under a hose or sprinkler on a hot day. Unfortunately, there are also few things more wasteful of precious water.
SWater your lawn only when it needs it.
Watering frequently can be very wasteful as it doesn't allow for cool spells or rainfall that can reduce the need for watering. A good way to see if your lawn needs watering is to step on some grass. If the grass springs back up when you move, it doesn't need water.
TDeep-soak your lawn.
When you do water your lawn, do it just long enough for water to seep down to the roots where it won't evaporate quickly and where it will do the most good. A light sprinkling which sits on the surface, will simply evaporate and be wasted. A slow steady fall of water is the best way to irrigate your lawn.
UWater during the cool parts of the day.
Early morning is better than dusk since it helps prevent the growth of fungus.
VDon't water the gutter.
Position your sprinklers in such a way that water lands on your lawn or garden, not on concrete, where it does no good. Avoid watering on windy days when much of your water may be carried off before it ever hits the ground.
WCheck for leaks in pipes, hoses, faucets and couplings.
Leaks outside the house may not seem as unbearable since they don't mess up the floor or drive you crazy at night. But they can be just as wasteful as leaks in the line from the water meter, even more wasteful.