Learning to Give, Philanthropy education resources that teach giving and civic engagement
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Purpose:
The purpose of the lesson is to enable students to fully understand and apply fundamental methods of testing water quality. This will include the collection, display, and interpretation of student data. Learners will understand that they are stewards of our water system and act responsibly for the common good.
Instructors Notes: This lesson may be presented using an on-site water testing experiential lesson or an in- class water quality testing class session. Both require safety equipment which must be obtained and at hand before the experiments. The teacher needs to demonstrate the use of goggles, gloves if necessary, and the testing equipment. The instructor should model recording the data as well as use of the equipment. Your local school should have access to pH test kits. If not, there are many sources such as www.hydroponics.net to obtain the test kits.
Duration:
Three to Four Forty-Five Minute Class Periods
On-site water quality testing option will require obtained permission from local school or district and additional scheduled release time.
Objectives:
The learners will:
- identify five characteristics of a healthy river.
- measure the dissolved temperature, pH, and diversity of macroinvertebrates in local rivers.
- record his/her data on a table and display the findings graphically.
- demonstrate knowledge of the term "Commons" as it relates to water.
Commons (n) Resources which are not owned, either privately or by the state, but are left open for free use by all comers Stewardship (n) To help and protect, through giving of his/her time, talent or treasure, the water systems for the future.
- write a report stating a position relative to water quality, defending it with data and making the connection to stewardship.
Service Experience:
The learner will collect environmental indicators to determine the quality of a local stream.
Materials:
- Clothes that can be soiled
- Nets for each group - they may use: Kick Nets, D-Nets, Surber Nets, or Dip Nets (10)
- Gloves (10 per class)
- Soap
- 25-50 ml test tubes (10)
- pH test kit
- Wide Range Indicator Solution
Wide Range pH Comparator - Graph paper
- Calculator
- Science curriculum materials/text of local school
- Student copies of Attachment Two: School /Home Interactive Homework
- Student copies of Attachment Three: Safer Than a Taste Test
Instructional Procedure(s):
Anticipatory Set:
Fill a clean beaker with water. Put orange and green food coloring in water to make it appear dirty. Tell your students that you just got this water from the dirtiest local body of water. Ask your class why they think the water is so discolored. After some discussion on the filth of the water dramatically drink it! After their reaction, explain that all the water we drink comes from bodies of water that are polluted and it is essential for our survival to have clean water.
Expanding the Anticipatory Set: Show the website of the Hudson Riverkeepers http://www.riverkeeper.org/hudson-river/protection/ to show the efforts of one group to clean up a watershed that was extremely polluted. Help students make a connection between the science content and philanthropy, acting as stewards of our water system.Instructor's Note: All student work should be put into a personal portfolio to be handed in at the end of the lab. Rough draft of the essay and all reflection activities are to be kept in this portfolio.
- Teach the science content focusing on Attachment One: Key to Macroinvertebrate Life in the River.
Instructor Note: Philanthropy content developed after the experiments.
- Test on the vocabulary and content concepts prior to forming peer groups and conducting experiments.
- Learners are to begin their portfolio titled "Healthy Water."
- To form peer groups: Assign each student a number ranging from 1-4. If larger classes, you may have two groups of 1, 2, 3 or 4. Place into groups according to the number selected. Show Attachment Three: Safer Than a Taste Test, discussing each test and solicit questions from the class to make certain directions are clear. Correlate a water quality test for each numbered group. Instruct the groups to create a five-minute presentation that will explain the instructions and purpose for their water quality test (Attachment Three).
- Give each student Attachment Two: School/Home Interactive Homework, to be completed by the student and parent/guardian after school. This attachment is to be returned for the next class session. The first seven minutes of day two of this lesson, have the learners share their responses with the class.
- Read and discuss materials on macroinvertebrates.
- Time to test the water! Every group is responsible to perform the test that they presented as well as the water temperature, location, and time and date. Record your information neatly.
Strategy One: Determine the on-site location, secure transportation, release time and authority, and obtain parental permission and volunteers to accompany your class. Provide safety goggles, gloves and boots if necessary, test kits and perform the four required tests. Model the behaviors expected of the students.
Strategy Two: Obtain many samples of river or stream water sufficient for successful completion of all four tests and allow students to perform these tests within the class. It is suggested that a large aquarium full of river or stream water would suffice.
- Compile all data. Students should display their group's test results for every test.
- Now compare your results to the other group's results using a bar graph for each test.
- Add up the values for each test type from every class and divide by the total number of tests. This will give you an average test value for each test.
- Write a short lab report stating the health of the river. Support your position with data results from every test performed.
- Discuss with your class the need to view our lakes and rivers as a "commons." Help develop the definition of philanthropy as:
Philanthropy
(n) 1. The giving of one's time, talent or treasure for the sake of another- or for the common good - Robert Payton, 2. Voluntary action for the public good -Robert Payton, 3. Voluntary giving, voluntary service, and voluntary association, primarily for the benefit of others - Robert Payton, 4. Giving and serving -Richard J. Bentley and Luana G. Nissan, 5. Active effort to promote human welfare, 6. A tradition, a spirit, and a sector of society - Maurice G. Gurin and Jon Van Til
- Discuss how they can give of their time, talent or treasure to protect our lakes and rivers.
- Discuss stewardship and what it means to act as a steward for the protection of their lakes and rivers.
- Discuss water pollution, citing examples of those things that contribute to unclean water.
- Assign the position paper and allow sufficient in-class and at-home time to complete. Two days should be sufficient for completion. The instructor should write the foil according to the expected outcomes. An example of a foil may be:
Directions: In our reading and experiments we discovered many things. React to the following statement and give supportive data, definitions, identifications and reasons. Use as many facts as you can. Connect your answer to what we learned about stewardship.
In our water quality testing we found that there are too few macroinvertebrates. This is detrimental/not detrimental to our lake or river because…
Reflection Activities: To be placed in their portfolios.
Pre experience: Write their expected outcomes of the experiments. What do they think they will find?
During the experiment: Evaluate the experience and their feelings of the obvious things they discover such as pop cans and other litter.
Post experience: Propose projects as Service-Learning opportunities.
Assessment:
- Use Attachment Four: Rubric for Scientific Experiment
- Evaluate the oral presentations
- Record the School/Home Connection (Attachment Two: School /Home Interactive Homework)
- Teacher observation
- Teacher-constructed test on scientific content
- Monitor class discussions
- Evaluate the essay according to the following rubric:
|
Points |
Scientific Content/ELA |
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|
4 |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
0 |
|
School/Home Connection:
- Interactive Parent / Student Homework: Attachment Two
Assign Attachment Two: School / Home Interactive Homework at the conclusion
of the first instructional session.
Ask the students to have the parent/guardian recall lake or river visits when they were children and compare to visits with them. Write their responses down and share at the beginning of the second class session. Have the learners ask their parent/guardian if they thought the water was safer for swimming when they were children than today and why.
Cross-Curriculum Extensions:
- Test other parts of the river and compare results, for example up stream and down stream, from an urban or industrial area.
- Compare results over time. For example, compare this year's results with previous years.
Bibliographical References:
- Mitchell, Mark and William Stapp. Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. ISBN 0787237302
- Why Collect Macroinvertebrates? (from the Delaware Nature Society Web site)
Macroinvertebrates, by definition, are any animal lacking a backbone and generally visible to the unaided eye. In rivers and streams they are predominantly aquatic insects, but may include clams, mussels, snails, crayfish, and crabs, among others. They are extremely good to use as subjects of stream quality studies. http://www.delawarenaturesociety.org/sw_macro.html
- Cronin, John and Robert F. Kennedy. The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right. Scribner's, Oct. 1997. ISBN:0684839083
- Website of The Hudson Riverkeepers http://www.riverkeeper.org/hudson-river/protection/
- http://www.kidsolr.com This is the Kids on Line resource site for content material in ecology/water quality.
Lesson Developed By:
Peter McWainMuskegon Public Schools
Steele Junior High School
Muskegon, MI 49442
Handouts:
Handout 1Print Handout 1
Key to Macroinvertebrate Life in the River
Handout 2Print Handout 2
School/Home Interactive Homework
| I discussed these questions with my: _____________________________ |
|
(name and relation)
|
- When you were my age what rivers or lakes did you most often visit?
- What was your impression of the cleanliness of the lakes or rivers?
- Did you ever hear about water pollution in the lake or river?
- Do your think the water was cleaner then than now?
- Were there any groups concerned about keeping the waterways safe from contaminants? Name them if your parent remembers.
- Do you believe that we should act as stewards of our water for the future?
- How can we help to keep our rivers and lakes free from pollution?
Handout 3Print Handout 3
Water Quality Test Procedures and Purposes
Macroinvertebrate Diversity: Indicator of Water Quality
Greater diversity of organisms in a community indicates a healthier, more stable environment. Organisms that have a high sensitivity to water quality will die off in polluted water.
Collecting Macroinvertebrates
There are many ways to collect macroinvertebrates. You may use a variety of nets (kick net, dip net).
Test One
Collect 50 macroinvertebrates and sort them into like Taxa groups. Use the formula below to determine the quality of the water. Note that the Taxa groups will indicate their tolerance to pollution. The Taxa group with the most organisms is most tolerable to pollution. The Taxa group with the least organisms is the least tolerable to pollution.
| Group 1 - Two different Taxa found, |
2 x 1 = 2 (score) |
| Group 2 - Five different Taxa found, |
5 x 2 = 10 (score)
|
| Group 3 - Four different Taxa found, |
4 x 3 = 12 (score)
|
| Group 4 - Two different Taxa found, |
2 x 4 = 8 (score)
|
| Different Taxa = 13 | Total Group Score = 32 |
Formula:
{Total Group Score (32) }/{Number of different Taxa(13)} = 2.46 (Pollution Index)
Water Quality Rating
| 1.0 - 2.0 | Excellent Water Quality |
| 2.1 - 2.5 | Good Water Quality |
| 2.6 - 3.5 | Fair Water Quality |
Test Two
The Sequential Comparison Index (SCI) is based on the theory of runs. A new run begins each time an organism picked from the sample looks different than the one picked just before it.
SCI = (number of runs)/(total number of organisms picked)
Water Quality Rating
| 0.0 - 0.3 | Poor |
| 0.3 - 0.6 | Fair |
| 0.6 - 1.0 | Good |
What is a run? Pick the organisms randomly from your sample and place them in a separate container. Your partner should compare each organism with the previous organism and record either an x or o. If the organism is the same as the previous, record the same symbol. If different, use a different symbol. Even if you have two different mayflies, they could be different mayflies and should have different symbols.
Keep your samples for your next test.
| Example: | Total Runs = 8 |
| Total Organisms = 17 | |
| SCI = 8/17 = .47 | |
| Water Quality = Fair |
Test Three
Diversity Index (DI )
You need to determine the Taxa Richness of your sample population. To do this you must count the number of different Taxa. Multiply the Taxa Richness by the SCI value.
Formula:
DI = SCI x Taxa Richness
Water Quality Rating
| 0-8 | Poor |
| 9-12 | Fair |
| 12-24 | Good |
Test Four
pH
pH measures the H+ ion concentration of liquids and substances. The pH scale ranges from
0-14. Pure deionized water contains equal numbers of H+ and OH- ions and has a pH value of 7. If the sample has more OH- ions it is considered basic and has a higher value than 7. If the sample has more H+ ions than the sample it is considered acidic and has a lower value than 7. A change in the pH of a river may result in the death of species in that river.
Example pH levels of household supplies
| Household Supplies | pH |
| Battery Acid | 1 |
| Lemon Juice | 2 |
| Vinegar | 3 |
| Cola | 4 |
| Normal Rain | 5.6 |
| Distilled Water | 7 |
| Baking Soda | 8.2 |
| Ammonia | 11 |
| Bleach | 12 |
PH Testing Procedure
- Use gloves to prevent touching your samples. Rinse out your test tube with your sample water.
- Fill your test tube with 5 ml of your sample water.
- Add 10 drops of Wide Range Indicator Solution.
- Cap and invert several times to mix.
- Insert the tube into the Wide Range pH Comparator. Hold the comparator up to a light source. Match the sample color to a color standard.
- Record the pH value.
- Wash you hands.
- Do this three times and average your pH. Do this by adding up your three pH values and dividing by three.
Handout 4Print Handout 4
Rubric for Scientific Experiment
| Involvement in an accurate presentation | 10 points |
| Participation in sample collecting | 15 points |
| Neat personal data | 15 points |
| Accurate results | 10 points |
| Compiled class data graphs | 20 points |
| Accurate average data values | 10 points |
| Short lab report stating the health of the river with your position backed up with data values for every test performed. |
20 points |
| Total Points | 100 |
Grading Scale
| 100-90 | A |
| 90-80 | B |
| 80-70 | C |
| 70-60 | D |
| 60-0 | F |
Unit Contents:
Overview:Are You a River Keeper? Summary
Lessons:
- 1.
- Healthy Water!?...
- 2.
- Speedy Water and Sediments
- 3.
- LITWIS, What Is It?
- 4.
- Stepping into the River—In Service to Our Rivers
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