Water resources in Asia: Change and challenges
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/14/g912/waterresources.html
A lesson plan for grades 9–12 Science
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In this Xpeditions lesson, students use China’s water issues as case studies to examine the delicate balance between using resources to improve the standard of living for citizens and preserving resources to protect natural biodiversity and environment. This lesson challenges students to engage in research about environmental issues and offers them the opportunity to suggest improvement of policies in this area.
Students will:
- describe the impact of bodies of water on people and cultures;
- research and analyze the current and future ecologic and geographic health of a body of water;
- develop a report that outlines, from a scientific and geographic perspective, what should be done to protect and preserve the water quality, surrounding air quality, and quality of life for people living beside or in close proximity to a body of water; and
- present the report and recommendations to a mock United Nations panel investigating water issues.
Xpeditions provides detailed instructions for completing the lesson, links to necessary web resources, and suggestions for assessment and extension activities.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Science (2005)
Grade 9–12 — AP Earth and Environmental Science
- Goal 1: The learner will develop abilities necessary to do and understand scientific inquiry.
- Objective 1.01: Identify questions and problems in the earth and environmental sciences that can be answered through scientific investigations.
- Objective 1.02: Design and conduct scientific investigations to answer questions related to earth and environmental science.
- Create testable hypotheses.
- Identify variables.
- Use a control or comparison group when appropriate.
- Select and use appropriate measurement tools.
- Observe and measure real phenomena.
- Collect and record data.
- Organize data into charts and graphs.
- Analyze and interpret data.
- Communicate findings.
- Objective 1.03: Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence to:
- Explain observations.
- Make inferences and predictions from data and observations.
- Explain the relationship between evidence and explanation.
- Communicate results, including suggested ways to improve experiments and proposed questions for further study.
- Goal 4: The learner will build an understanding of the distribution, ownership, use and degradation of renewable and nonrenewable resources.
- Objective 4.01: Analyze sources and uses of freshwater and oceans.
- Renewal rates.
- Agricultural, industrial and domestic water uses.
- Increasing water supplies: Dams and desalination.
- Fisheries and aquaculture.
- Water management and conservation.
- Objective 4.01: Analyze sources and uses of freshwater and oceans.
- Goal 5: The learner will build an understanding of air, water and soil quality.
- Objective 5.01: Analyze the sources of major pollutants.
- EPA Criteria Pollutants.
- Indoor air pollutants.
- Thermal pollution.
- Pesticides.
- Acid deposition.
- Units and measurements.
- Point and nonpoint sources.
- Objective 5.02: Investigate the effects of pollutants on:
- Aquatic systems (Eutrophication).
- Vegetation.
- Natural features, buildings and structures.
- Wildlife.
- Objective 5.03: Analyze and investigate pollution reduction, remediation and control measures.
- Legislation.
- Historical examples and global case studies.
- Waste water treatment plant.
- Objective 5.04: Analyze and investigate local, regional and global issues concerning solid waste.
- Types, sources and amounts.
- Disposal methods and environmental effects.
- Decreasing waste: Reduce, reuse, recycle.
- Objective 5.05: Analyze impacts on human health.
- Infectious disease.
- Chemical agents.
- Radiation.
- Toxicology: LD50, acute and chronic effects.
- Risk assessment.
- Objective 5.01: Analyze the sources of major pollutants.
- Goal 6: The learner will build an understanding of global changes and their consequences.
- Objective 6.02: Investigate effects and consequences on the oceans.
- Sea level changes.
- El Nino.
- Surface temperatures and currents.
- Objective 6.02: Investigate effects and consequences on the oceans.
- Goal 7: The learner will build an understanding of environmental decision making.
- Objective 7.01: Analyze economic forces affecting societies.
- Supply demand curves.
- Cost benefit analysis.
- Marginal, internal and external costs.
- Communal property resources, Tragedy of the Commons.
- Economic resource categories.
- Objective 7.02: Analyze cultural and ethical considerations regarding the environment.
- Environmental worldviews.
- Indigenous peoples.
- Sustainable development.
- Objective 7.03: Recognize significance of major environmental laws and regulations: regional, national and international.
- Clean Air Act.
- Clean Water Act.
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
- Endangered Species Act.
- Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Control Act.
- Kyoto Protocol.
- Lacey Act.
- Mining Act.
- Montreal Protocol.
- National Environmental Policy Act.
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
- Wilderness Act.
- Objective 7.04: Develop an awareness of environmental options.
- Conservation.
- Preservation.
- Restoration.
- Remediation.
- Mitigation.
- Objective 7.01: Analyze economic forces affecting societies.
