Lesson Plan
THEME: CONSERVATION
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| Core curriculum: | Supplements science, social studies |
| Focus: | Caring behavior, ecology, environment |
| Overview: | According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, conservation is a "careful preservation of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect." There are eight kinds of conservation: soil, water, forest, grazing lands, wildlife, mineral, energy, and urban. It's important that youth learn to conserve and protect our environment. |
| Goals: | Students will learn that water is a vital natural resource necessary for all life. Students will also learn ways they can help to protect water sources from becoming polluted. |
| Materials: | A clear glass with water in it, empty one-gallon jug, copies of "Fast Facts" (Activity 2), copies of "The Conservation Game" (Activity 3) (two players per game), dice or a deck of cards, and playing markers |
Tell students: Today, we're going to learn that water is a very important natural resource, one that we cannot live without. We're going to discover why we must protect this resource and how we can prevent pollution of our water and not waste our supply.
Activity 1
Tell students that it is important to understand how water is necessary to all living things. Explain that a person must have water to live. We can drink water, or we can get the water we need from the foods we eat. (Many foods have water in them, like fruits, and others are prepared using water, like rice and juices.) Explain that if we did not have water, we would die, just as a plant or animal would die without water.
Place the water in front of the students. Ask them whether they would drink the water if you poured motor oil in it. Ask them whether they would drink it if it had bleach or other household cleaners in it. Ask the students whether they think water animals would be able to live in water with oil or cleaning chemicals in it. (No, the chemicals are poisonous for living things. The oil would make it difficult to breathe and swim. The oil can also prevent water birds from being able to fly.) Tell the students that three-fourths of the earth's surface is water. Tell the students that people must think about how they should take care of water.
Explain to the students that the water they drink has been purified or cleaned in water treatment plants. However, garbage or sewage that has not been completely treated or cleaned is often dumped into the oceans. The chemicals are harmful to water life. Plastics or metals are harmful to marine life because animals can become caught in the debris or harmed by it. They might mistake the garbage for food and eat it. Another danger is the fertilizers and pesticides that are washed by rains from farmland into the world's waterways. Untreated sewage, plastics, metals, and chemicals are harmful for all living things that depend on water. Ask the students what they and their families can do to conserve and protect the water supply. The following are some possible answers:
- Conserve
- Turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth. You can turn it back on when you need to rinse.
- Take short showers.
- Use water from a wading pool to water grass and plants around the home, instead of just dumping it.
- Don't over water the grass. Do it at night or early in the morning, when the sun won't evaporate the water.
- Protect
- Help your parents clean at home using more natural cleansers like vinegar and water for windows, baking soda for appliances, and low-phosphate detergents (as opposed to bleach, etc.).
- On a camping trip, do not clean cooking utensils near a water source. Do not dump foods or cleansers into the water.
- Leave the camping area cleaner than you found it, and take all trash out of the area to a dumpster.
- Do not remove wildlife from its home. Do not take fish from water, except what you will eat.
Activity 2
Hold up an empty one-gallon container. Use this as a visual aid as you discuss the information found on the "Fast Facts" page.
Activity 3
Make copies of "The Conservation Game." If dice are unavailable, break apart a deck of cards, and have students draw the numbers to move around the game board. Allow students time to play several games.
Reflection
Ask: Is the amount of water used each day of any importance to us? Why? Other than preventing messiness, are there any reasons to pick up trash and place it in a proper container? What are the reasons? Who needs water? Who needs clean water? Are trees important to us? How? Tell the reason for recycling. Is recycling worth the time and effort it requires? Why? Can one person make a difference? Name ways that you and your class can help with conservation. Why do we need to conserve things?
Parental Involvement Extension
Send a note to parents explaining that their child has participated in a lesson on conservation (pull information from the "Overview"). Have students take home the handout for Activity 2 ("Fast Facts") to share with their parents.
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