Students will discover the uses of water in their daily lives. They will also identify the activities that use the most water, and start thinking about how to reduce water waste. In addition, they will consider their situation of access to water compared to people in developing countries.

Process

1.  Brainstorm on the daily uses of water and make a list on the board/overhead/flipchart.

2.  Discuss activities that use the most amount of water.

3.  Compare the list brainstormed in class to the one in the Water Consumption Chart. Are there any items the students thought of that are not included in the chart or vice versa?

4.  Now inform students that the average daily consumption of water for Canadians is about 343 litres/day. For someone in the Third World, the amount is about 58 litres/day.

5.  Ask students to imagine that they could only use 58 litres of water per day. How would their water usage have to change in order to be able to reduce their consumption (what activities could they cut out, if any; how could they consume less for each activity, etc.)?

6.  In teams, ask students to fill out a Water Log Worksheet estimating how much they would have to use by activity in order to keep their consumption to 58 litres/day.

Extension

1.  Divide class into teams, and ask all team members to track their water usage for one week. Use the Water Log Sheet to track consumption. Remember to add any items from the brainstorm session not already listed in the Water Log Sheet. Estimate usage of any added items.

2.  Each team should total its personal and team totals and then create a team graph of its water consumption by type of activity.

3.  Teams will submit their graphs to the teacher who will lead a class discussion comparing consumption between teams - which team consumed the most water, which team consumed the least, what could teams learn from each other, how do totals compare to Canadian average consumption?