WATER UNIT (95-96) DRAFT

PURPOSE:

conduct water quality tests to determine how the physical environment (land)affects water quality and determine how people and other living things affect water quality in our area.

we will be conducting water tests starting at the ocean and following the water back to its original source in the mountains. we will be testing for the following parameters:

dissolved solids

dissolved oxygen

E. Coli.

Nitrogen

phosphorus?

turbidity

pH

temperature

WATER CONCEPTS

how water quality changes

water cycle

how living things impact water quality

how the physical environment affects water quality examine how moving water breaks down and transports the earth sedimentation

the dependance of plants and animals on water (water as a limiting factor) examine the influence of water on vegetative patterns

DAILY PLANS

LESSONS ON THE ATMOSPHERE

Does the atmosphere have weight? Balloon lab Graph of the four major layers of the earth's atmosphere Reading material on the four layers of the atmosphere Ozone layer and how it affects UV light Build greenhouse models to study how atmosphere regulates tempeature-gems

Mention composition of the earth's atmosphere -- focus on water vapor-- evaporate water using the alcohol burners -- then capture water vapor inside a jar above the boiling water

graph the results of the boiling water activity

Bill Nye and the water cycle

Differential heating of the earth's atmosphere produces pressure gradients Open by doing the Windows activity on microclimates around school. several investigations showing convection cells and what wind is.

Weather Unit Focus on moving air masses and how they produce fronts Cloud types, types of precipitation, weather instruments

use apple to show relative amounts of potable water on the earth show electrolysis and the composition of water -- make bar graph showing amounts of different kinds of wate on the earth (salt, fresh, frozen, potable)

Bill Nye and the water Cycle

water as a solvent (review) -- forming solutions

set up germination experiment showing affect of pH on seed germination

acid and base activities and the pH of water (several days)

(May also want to set up the Foss unit on the affects of water quantity on plant growth--showing how some plants need very moist soils while others need dry soils.)

Water as an agent of erosion (Green Science Plus chapter)

Spend time thinking about where drinking water comes from -- streams, rivers,lakes......... aquifers

Introduce the idea of water quality

Tapwater Tour unit... about 2 weeks of tapwater testing...pH,minerals, metals, chlorine

Practice doing field test (dissolved oxygen, nitrates, pH, temperature etc......)

Field trip .........................

If we collect water samples from the different sites we will need weeks to analyze our samples (filtering water, drying samples to visualize dissolved salts graphing of other test results, incubating E. coli cultures........)

Don't forget several days doing the Gems River Cutter unit after the fieldtrip.