Are your students aware of the importance of water in their daily lives, or do they simply take it for granted? What better moment to discuss this topic than on World Water Day, celebrated each year since 1993 on the 22nd of March?
According to the United Nations, there are 2.2. billion people without access to safe water. You can see more details here.
With the new coronavirus outbreak, those who have already faced a water crisis are exposed to even more dangers.
Here you have some transdisciplinary tasks designed to get your students actively use their Geography, Biology, and Maths knowledge while developing their English skills.
Activity 1. Find out about the water footprint!
You are probably aware that everything we use, wear, buy and eat daily needs water to be produced. However, did you know it takes more than 2000 litres to make a single hamburger and more than 15.000 litres for a steak?
Have you ever heard about the concept of water footprint? If you are curious to find out, read the fragment below! Your challenge is to explain to your deskmate in your own words what is the water footprint.
Activity 2. Calculate your water footprint.
”The water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire multi-national company. The water footprint can also tell us how much water is being consumed by a particular country – or globally – in a specific river basin”.
(Source: https://waterfootprint.org/en/water-footprint/what-is-water-footprint/).
What is your own water footprint?
Use the Water Footprint Calculator to find out how much water you use to have your food, electricity, and other products.
Activity 3. Watch the water cycle video and fill in the diagram.
Task.
Watch the video developed by UNESCO WWAP.
Read the following texts from National Geographic and use the information from these two resources to fill in the diagram:
Activity 4. Water language detectives!
Task.
Pretend you are… a language detective!
Your mission is to scan the text and try to identify words from the text to match the explanations and fill in the table. You have one example below:
Example.
Activity 5. Language detectives in action!
Task.
Scan the text and find the missing piece of information!
As water vapour rises up high into the sky, it cools and turns back into______________.
When too much water has condensed, the water droplets in the clouds become ______________.
The fallen precipitation is then “collected” in ______________.
Activity 6. Language detectives always use evidence!
Task.
Read the following sentences and circle T (True) or F (false), justifying your choice with pieces of information from the text.
a. The process in which a gas changes into a liquid, usually when it becomes cooler is called evaporation. T/F
Evidence from the text:
______________________________________________________________.
b. The water you’ve just swallowed is the same water that woolly mammoths, King Tutankhamun and the first humans drank. T/F
Evidence from the text:
______________________________________________________________.
Activity 7. Dive into ... water proverbs and sayings!
Task.
Match the water phrases and sayings with their correct meaning. You have one example:
Activity 8. Multisensory sorting task as pre-writing activity.
Task.
Read the following phrases and sort them into the right category.
the sweet smell of freshly baked apples, the booming sound of thunder, the white foamy waves, the warm softness of the sand, the sour taste of lemons, greasy fingerprints on paper, the salty waves, the softness of silk, the white fluffy clouds, the smell of burning rubber, the fresh scent of wild mint.
Activity 9. Creative writing. The story of a water droplet.
Task.
Pretend that you are a … a drop of water. It’s World Water Day, so tell your life story and describe your journey through the water cycle.
You may start your journey in the deep ocean, in a mountain rivulet or in a waterfall. For each phase, do not forget to mention the changes you go through using the water cycle vocabulary from the text you read.
Describe what you can SEE, SMELL, TASTE, TOUCH, HEAR. Use about 150-180 words. You may give it a catchy title.
Activity 10. Lights, camera, action: Inspire! Create a raise-awareness short video: Water is life, treat it right!
Find evidence of water pollution from your area and create a short video documentary (2-5 minutes) exposing the major problems, as well as your action plan and solutions to stop pollution!
What interesting teaching resources do you use to raise awareness of the global water crisis? Feel free to share your amazing ideas with us! Happy teaching!
Additional resources.
Additional resources.
Kearney, M., & Schuck, S. (2005, June). Students in the director’s seat: Teaching and learning with student-generated video. In EdMedia+ Innovate Learning (pp. 2864-2871). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Kearney, M., & Schuck, S. (2006). Spotlight on authentic learning: Student developed digital video projects. In Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 22(2).
Reyna, J., Hanham, J., Vlachopoulos, P., & Meier, P. (2019). Using factor analysis to validate a questionnaire to explore self-regulation in learner-generated digital media (LGDM) assignments in science education. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology.
Reyna, J., & Meier, P. (2018). Using the Learner-Generated Digital Media (LGDM) Framework in Tertiary Science Education: A Pilot Study. Education Sciences, 8(3), 106.
Jorge Reyna, and Peter Meier, “A Practical Model for Implementing Digital Media Assessments in Tertiary Science Education.” American Journal of Educational Research, vol. 6, no. 1 (2018): 27-31. doi: 10.12691/education-6-1-4.
You can find free and easy to use tools, video-editing apps for kids: https://www.educationalappstore.com/best-apps/5-best-apps-for-video-editing
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