This interactive activity demonstrates and provides explanation for how acid rain affects aquatic ecosystems and how certain species react to decreased water quality as pH becomes lower. The activity also explains the pH scale as a measure of acidity.

In this lesson, students complete water quality tests such as pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, and salinity for a water sample. After following these activities, students should understand the purpose of these tests, know how to run accurate water quality tests, and see how these parameters relate to the quality of the water in an estuary.

In this activity, students investigate local biodiversity by placing a transect line outside on the school campus.

In this lesson, students will learn about the scientific method and the characteristics of life by assuming the role of epidemiologists. The scenario that they will investigate is that many individuals in the school have recently become ill with gastrointestinal symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and headache). Students will discover the source of the illness, the microbe causing the illness, and the biology behind the organism spreading the disease. By examining stool samples made from molasses and water, students will examine differences between affected and unaffected individuals. The students will eventually determine the source of the outbreak is contaminated water in the school cafeteria and conclude that the microbe involved is a bacterium called cholera. Students will then conclude the lesson by investigating an outbreak of birth defects.

Students learn about drinking water - where it comes from, why and how it is treated before municpal use, and how ocean water distillation may be used to alleviate water shortage problems in some communities. In an associated activity, students will build a device to distill seawater to create drinking water and discover some of the costs associated with producing freshwater from the sea.

In this lesson, students gain a visual perspective on global water distribution and average U.S. water consumption. Students will understand the limited supply of fresh water that exists on the earth and explore the need for not polluting and conserving our fresh water supply.

Students will be completing a tic-tac-toe summary assignment as a formal assessment on the ecosystems found in North Carolina and how water quality effects those ecosystems.

Students will be completing a tic-tac-toe summary assignment as a formal assessment on the ecosystems found in North Carolina and how water quality effects those ecosystems.

In this unit, students explore the various roles of environmental engineers, including: environmental cleanup, water quality, groundwater resources, surface water and groundwater flow, water contamination, waste disposal and air pollution. Specifically, students learn about the factors that affect water quality and the conditions that enable different animals and plants to survive in their environments. Next, students learn about groundwater and how environmental engineers study groundwater to predict the distribution of surface pollution. Students also learn how water flows through the ground, what an aquifer is and what soil properties are used to predict groundwater flow. Additionally, students discover that the water they drink everyday comes from many different sources, including surface water and groundwater. They investigate possible scenarios of drinking water contamination and how contaminants can negatively affect the organisms that come in contact with them. Students learn about the three most common methods of waste disposal and how environmental engineers continue to develop technologies to dispose of trash. Lastly, students learn what causes air pollution and how to investigate the different pollutants that exist, such as toxic gases and particulate matter. Also, they investigate the technologies developed by engineers to reduce air pollution.

This guide was developed to support teachers in teaching topics with real-world context, and provide them with the background to feel competent and comfortable when teaching about fresh water. The guide includes numerous education features, such as teaching tips and student thinking, that help to connect the content to classroom practice.

In this two-day lesson, students will be introduced to several water sustainability issues, including access to clean freshwater, groundwater depletion, agricultural water use, and water waste.

This brief video lesson discusses the global water problem of scarcity. Discussion/assessment questions and suggested supplemental resources are also included.

This video provides a step-by-step guide to determining nitrate and nitrite concentrations in a water sample, using a nitrate testing kit. It describes what chemical reactions are taking place throughout the testing process. The resource includes a video and a written transcript, and is supported by the Nitrate Protocol in the GLOBE Teacher's Guide. This is one of seven videos on hydrology in the 24-part instructional video series describing scientific protocols used by GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) a worldwide, hands-on, K-12 school-based science education program.

This video demonstrates students measuring the transparency of water, a measure of water quality, using a Secchi disk or turbidity tube. Field measurements of water temperature are also shown. The resource includes a video and a written transcript, and is supported by the Water Transparency and Temperature Protocols in the GLOBE Teacher's Guide. This is one of seven videos on hydrology in the 24-part instructional video series describing scientific protocols used by GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment), a worldwide, hands-on, K-12 school-based science education program.

Students will research water crisis conditions for one of the following countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, or Kenya and then report their findings to the class.

In this lesson, students will identify and name different aquatic insects. Students will create a graphic representation of the number of different species found, then use the data to determine the quality of the water in which the insects were found.

Faced with the potential of a large expense related to water quality, the Portland (Maine) Water District performed a thorough analysis of their options. Their choice came down to making an investment in conservation or concrete.

This theme teaches students about open pit and underground mining, including safety and environmental considerations. It also introduces students to a wide range of mining careers. Students will build models of open pit and underground mines, with increasing complexity in each age category.

Students are presented with a guide to rain garden construction in an activity that culminates the unit and pulls together what they have learned and prepared in materials during the three previous associated activities. They learn about the four vertical zones that make up a typical rain garden with the purpose to cultivate natural infiltration of stormwater. Student groups create personal rain gardens planted with native species that can be installed on the school campus, within the surrounding community, or at students' homes to provide a green infrastructure and low-impact development technology solution for areas with poor drainage that often flood during storm events.

In this activity, students will interpret how biological indicators are used to gauge the health of a stream and practice calculating the biotic index of a simulated stream site in order to analyze the water quality.