PROJECT OVERVIEW

Name of Project:

Duration: 4 weeks

World Water Monitoring Challenge

Subject/Course: Environmental Science

Grade Level: 10th

Teacher(s): Penarroyo

Other subject areas to

be included, if any:

Project Idea
Summary of the issue,
challenge, investigation,
scenario, or problem:

Students from around the globe will team up to test fresh water. You will join in this collaborative project,
comparing the water quality of your local river, stream, lake or pond with other fresh water sources
around the world. The focus of the project is to:
Assess the quality of water based on physical characteristics and chemical substances, and Look for
relationships and trends among the data collected by all project participants.

Driving Question

How can we preserve that 1% readily useable resource ? Will it sustain life at the present and in the
future?

Content and Skills

Standards to be
addressed:

HS-ESS3-1, HS-ESS3-3, RST.9-10.7, WHST.9-10.6

T+A

T+A

21st Century Skills

Collaboration

to be explicitly taught and

assessed (T+A) or that
will be encouraged (E) by
project work, but not
taught or assessed:

Other: Information, Media, or ICT

Literacy

Presentation

Digital Citizenship, Technology

Operations and Concepts

Critical Thinking:

Creativity and Innovation

Presentation Audience:

Group:
Culminating
Products and
Performances

Oral presentation of water quality assessment

Class:
X

School:
X

Community:
Experts:

2008 Buck Institute for Education

Individual:

Web:

Written essay
Assigned tasks

Other:

PROJECT OVERVIEW
Entry event to
launch inquiry,
engage students:

Water Crisis Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkNY78B2Jio
A 3-min video where kids talking about the use of fresh water and the need to recycle it.
We take the challenge video
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=m-ch-fea&v=VH0dqNKjRRY

Assessments
Formative
Assessments
(During
Project)

Summative
Assessments
(End of Project)

Quizzes/Tests

Practice Presentations

Journal/Learning Log

Notes

Preliminary Plans/Outlines/Prototypes

Checklists

Rough Drafts

Concept Maps

Online Tests/Exams

Other:

Written Product(s), with rubric:

Other Product(s) or Performance(s), with rubric:

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

Oral Presentation, with rubric

Peer Evaluation

Multiple Choice/Short Answer Test

Self-Evaluation

Essay Test

Other:

Resources
Needed

Reflection
Methods

On-site people, facilities:

Library

Equipment:

Water quality monitoring kits

Materials:

Paper, pen, ink, ruler, kits

Community resources:

Leaders in the community, Pacoima Beautiful

(Individual,
Group, and/or

Journal/Learning Log

Focus Group

Whole-Class Discussion

Fishbowl Discussion

X
2008 Buck Institute for Education

Whole Class)

Survey

Other:

2008 Buck Institute for Education

PROJECT TEACHING AND LEARNING GUIDE

Project: World Water Monitoring Challenge

Course/Semester: 2nd

Knowledge and Skills Needed by Students

to successfully complete culminating products and
performances, and do well on summative assessments

Water quality testing protocols

How to conduct Internet research

Scaffolding / Materials / Lessons to be Provided

by the project teacher, other teachers, experts,
mentors, community members

Several lab activities will be done to expose students on

the basics of water quality assessment protocols.

Students will use the Internet in their preparation for the

water quality monitoring challenge.

2008 Buck Institute for Education

P R O J E C T
Project: World Water Monitoring Challenge
M O N D A Y

C A L E N D A R
Start Date: February 2014

T U E S D A Y

W E D N E S D A Y

T H U R S D A Y

F R I D A Y

PROJECT WEEK ONE

Introduce the project
Project Purpose
This project has two primary
purposes:
1. To assess the quality of
water based on physical and
chemical characteristics.
2. To look for relationships and
trends among the data
collected by all project
participants.
Develop a hypothesis for the
project. Below are questions to
get started.
Do you think your water is of
good, or poor quality? Why?
What relationships do you
expect to see in the data?
Suggestions for specific topics
to investigate may be found in
Project Questions/Exploration.
The questions below are
suggested for help in
determining a hypothesis for
the project, follow-up
discussions or further
exploration. Students could

Letter of Introduction
Each school will submit a Letter
of Introduction to the project. We
would appreciate your limiting
letters to one per school. If
possible, have different classes
combine their letters. If this is
inconvenient, please make sure
each class distinguishes itself in
the subject area.

Your Task: Research information

about water quality to answer the
items below. All answers must be
written in complete sentences with
good detail in your lab book. You must
cite the source that you found the
information at; this includes the name
of the webpage, author, complete web
address, and the date you accessed
the site.
Divide the work among your

Please include:
the name and location of
the school
your latitude and longitude
(so other students can pinpoint locations on a map)
some information about
your school and
community
any other information that
you would like to share
Your hypothesis would be
particularly good to share!
Letters can be any length.
Some teachers have their
classes collectively write
the letter, while others
assign the task to a few
students, or have each
student draft a letter, and

members. Report your findings to

your group. Presentation will be done
next week.
1. Define water quality.
2. Why is water quality a concern for
our environments?
3. What are coliform bacteria, and how
are they an indicator to water quality?
4. What is dissolved oxygen, and why
should it be a concern for water
quality?
5. What is nitrate, and why should it
be monitored in our water sources?
6. What is phosphate, and why should
it be monitored in our water sources?
7. What is pH, and why should it be an
important water quality test?
8. What effects does temperature have
on water quality?
2008 Buck Institute for Education

address some of these

questions or try to make
comparisons of their own and
include in their Final Reports.
How did the Dissolved Oxygen
level of your water sample
compare to the BOD level? Did
you see any relationship
between the two? If so, what
was it?
How did the Dissolved Oxygen
level of your water sample
compare to the Carbon Dioxide
level? Did you notice a lot of
plant life in the water? How
might this relate to Carbon
Dioxide levels?
Is there a relationship between
Dissolved Oxygen levels and
the types of plants, animal, or
other organisms you observed
in the water? If so, describe the
relationship.
Is there a relationship between
BOD levels and the types of
plants, animals, or other
organisms you observed in the
water? If so, describe the
relationship.
Do you think that your water
source is a good environment
for organisms to survive based
on pH levels? Why or why not?
Is there a relationship between
Nitrate and Phosphate levels
and observed algae or plant life
in the water? If so, describe the
relationship.
Is there a relationship between

select the best one. Feel

free to look at examples of
previous letters.
Letters of Introduction should be
submitted to the project
Discussion Area. In the subject
line, please write "Letter of
Introduction from Your School"
(example: Letter of Introduction
from Kennedy Middle School).

9. What is turbidity, and why does it

need to be monitored in our waters?
10. What other tests can be performed
to monitor water quality?
The following are some helpful links to
get you started:
http://www.epa.gov/
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterqual
ity.html

Take a class photo to be

included in the letter of
introduction.

2008 Buck Institute for Education

Turbidity level and the type and

variety of organisms observed
in the water? If so, describe the
relationship.
Is there any relationship
between Dissolved Oxygen
levels and Turbidity? Between
BOD levels and Turbidity?
Look at the database of results.
Do you see a relationship
between Dissolved Oxygen
levels and water Temperature?
If so, describe the relationship.
Look at the database of results.
Do you see a relationship
between Temperature and BOD
level? If so, describe the
relationship.
Did any of your results indicate
poor or good water quality? If
so, which ones? Explain your
reasoning.
Are any of your results not
what you expected them to be?
Which ones? Explain your
reasoning./li>
Look at all the schools' data
collected for this project. Do
your relationships hold true for
other school's results as well?
14. Pick one other school
collaborating in this project and
make a comparison between
your water supplies.
Each group will present the
problem they decided to
explore.
2008 Buck Institute for Education

PROJECT WEEK TWO

M O N D A Y

Group members will report

their findings to their group.
Create a poster of summary
of findings.
Create a vocabulary word
cloud poster to be printed in
color and the size 18x24.
Decide on the testing site.
When doing any water
sampling test, it is important to
record certain information
about the sampling site and
observations of the site. It is
not required to submit this
information to the project but it
will be important to have when
interpreting the results. If you
would like to share this
information with other project
participants, please submit it
through the Discussion Area.

Name and location of the

river, stream, lake or pond
tested
http://findlakes.com/hansen
_dam
_california~ca10019.htm

Latitude and longitude of

the water test site

Date and time of water

T U E S D A Y

W E D N E S D A Y

T H U R S D A Y

Preparation of materials needed

for the water quality assessment.

F R I D A Y

Group will report their plan to the

class.

Make and Use a Secchi Disk

Scientists studying aquatic
habitats use Secchi disks to
measure the depth at which
available sunlight is inadequate
to support photosynthetic
organisms living in the water.
High turbidity (low visibility)
can be a natural condition, or it
can indicate that silt or nutrients
are flowing in from upstream or
leaching in from nearby farmland.
Commercial Secchi disks cost
about $30.
To make your own:
Take an acrylic or aluminum
disk about 20 cm in diameter and
drill a hole in the center.
Paint it with black and white
waterproof paint to produce four
quadrants as
shown.
Place an
eyebolt through
the center with
the eye on the
top (painted
side) of the
disk.
Use several
washers for
weight and a
2008 Buck Institute for Education

sampling

Weather conditions at the

time of sampling and, if
appropriate, recent
weather conditions (i.e. day
after a big rain storm)

Condition of the river,

stream, lake or pond. For
example, does it appear to
be polluted with any debris
or matter? Are there any
fish or plants in the water?
Is there a lot of algae
growing in it?

Color and odor of the water

Any other observations that

you think are interesting or
significant- what is the site
used for?

nut on the bottom of the disk to

secure the eyebolt.
Attach a nylon line to the
eyebolt (cotton line will stretch
too much).
Mark the line with a waterproof
marker at regular half-meter
intervals.
To use the disk, lower it slowly
into a body of water until the
black-and white
pattern is no longer visible. Pull
the line back up, using the marks
on the line to determine the
depth at which turbidity is too
great to allow sunlight to support
autotrophs.
Group will discuss the
observation guide flyer to help
them plan their event.
Group should have the
following
Event planning guide
Recruitment guide
Getting involved guide
Participation certificate
Flier
Minor release form
English-Spanish
Instructions kit
Name tags
Website cheat sheet

2008 Buck Institute for Education

PROJECT

WEEK

THREE

Water quality assessment

lab activity.

2008 Buck Institute for Education

10