Water & Human Impacts - Water Pollution, Water Cycle, & Aquatic Ecosystems

Launch student learning into the water cycle and our impact on Earth’s water resources (like non-point source and microplastic pollution) with this student-driven storyline bundle. Your storyline will unfold differently depending upon the Anchor Experience(s) you choose to utilize and/or lead with! Resources in this bundle are designed to develop student understanding of the ideas that

• Earth’s water resources are limited (and therefore should be conserved)
• water cycles through Earth’s systems; the movement of water is driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity
• Earth’s lands and water resources are all connected (what happens on land impacts water resources)
• human activities are impacting the quality of water resources and the health of aquatic ecosystems
• access to healthy water resources impacts the growth of organisms and populations

This unit digs into questions like:

• Why are water resources important? What is water? Where can we find water on Earth? How does the availability of water affect life? What are natural resources? Why is water considered a natural resource? How does water move through Earth's systems? What are ecosystem services? What ecosystem services do aquatic ecosystems provide?
• How do pollutants enter Earth’s waters? What is pollution? What kinds of pollution exist? How do pollutants enter waterways? How does water move through Earth's systems? What human activities impact Earth's waters? What are the impacts of water pollution? 
• How does water pollution impact ecosystems? What do organisms need to survive? How does the availability of water impact living things? What types of water pollution exist? How does plastic pollution impact living things? How does nutrient pollution affect ecosystems? How does matter and energy move in ecosystems? What are the impacts of changes in ecosystems?

This Bundle Includes:

1 Water Resources & Environmental Problems - Science Literature Circles [Anchor Experience]

Engage students in an interdisciplinary experience that opens the door to exploring a myriad of water issues. You can connect this anchor experience to any water resources-related phenomenon that aligns to your curriculum through your selection of trade books and texts.

In this Anchor Experience, students take on the role of publishing company editors, evaluating the next great science trade book and exploring issues related to Earth’s water resources - and our human impact on them - in the process. Utilizing the English-Language Arts strategy of literature circles, students analyze texts in order to familiarize themselves with a variety of water issues and generate questions to investigate throughout the student-driven storyline.

2 Microplastic Pollution Beach Survey Project [Anchor Experience]

Bring home the issue and impact of plastic use (and subsequent pollution) to students whether you’re by the coast or not! Students will explore this issue firsthand by carrying out an investigation into the presence of microplastic particles in their local environment. Students will:

• begin the task with a simple “litter walk” (and if possible, clean-up) to understand the prevalence of trash debris in any outdoor setting. 
• take a closer look at the sand/soil itself, sampling for microplastics at several sites. 
• finally, analyze their data to generate questions about plastic pollution, microplastics, and the impacts of human activity on the environment.

This Anchor Experience was designed to be carried out near a waterway, if possible – at a beach, on the banks of a creek, etc. However, the activities can truly be carried out anywhere, as ultimately, all land drains into a body of water. We are all a part of a watershed somewhere! 

[Investigating: Why Is The Conservation Of Water Resources So Important?]

3 What Are Natural Resources?

In this activity, students explore examples of natural resources to construct their own definition of the term natural resources. Students will use images, discussion questions, and web resources to build their understanding of what natural resources are and how humans use them each day. 

Then, students will analyze maps that illustrate the distribution of three natural resources -- groundwater, shale oil/shale gas, and forest cover -- to draw preliminary conclusions and generation questions about the distribution of natural resources. 

4 Resource Availability: Exploring Water Resources In The Desert (NGSS MS-LS2-1)

In this explore and explain activity bundle (three activities!), students first rotate through stations at which they examine data to draw connections between resource availability (specifically the availability of water) and the growth of organisms and populations.  Then, students interact with a text to understand indicators of cause and effect relationships.  They create claims about cause and effect relationships, using evidence obtained in the first activity, and evaluate their claims in light of the cause-and-effect indicators.  Finally, students use a card sort to connect events and phenomenon and identify what evidence would be necessary to establish and support claims of causal relationships between the events.

5 Water Wars In The Mojave - Using Scientific Texts - Distance Learning

In this elaborate activity, students read two short texts that propose counter-arguments to the issue of withdrawing water from the Fenner Basin in the Cadiz Valley. Students answer questions while they read, use a graphic organizer to evaluate the arguments and the evidence provided by each author, and assess the situation through the Crosscutting Concept lens of Stability and Change using an additional graphic organizer.

6 Groundwater and Water Scarcity (NGSS MS-ESS2-4, MS-ESS3-1)

In this elaborate activity, students explore the distribution of water on Earth, the availability of groundwater in the United States, and how aquifers work by building a model to examine withdrawal and recharge. The focus phenomenon is on water scarcity and shortage issues in the southwestern United States - specifically the Mojave River and Morongo groundwater basins.

7 Exploring Groundwater and Aquifers (NGSS MS-ESS3-1) (5E Model Explore & Explain)

Develop student understanding of the distribution of groundwater resources (and their limited nature) by analyzing data and designing and participating in an engineering design challenge in which they design and construct an aquifer. In this lesson, students understand why groundwater isn’t found just anywhere and realize the importance of this limited resource. In this activity, students will:

• map the distribution of groundwater
• design and construct an aquifer to understand how they work and what makes “good ground” for groundwater resources
• make sense of and document their findings through guided questioning and science notebooking
• clarify and reinforce understanding through web resources and explanation-tasks

8 The Water Cycle: Using Scientific Texts (NGSS MS-ESS2-4)

In this elaborate activity, students read a scientific text adapted for classroom use to obtain information about shrinking glaciers in Asia. They answer analysis questions to determine the purpose, methods, and results of the investigations and connect the studies to the DCI, and then they complete one of two graphic organizers to examine how the "lens" through which phenomena are examined can impact our understanding.

[Investigating: How Do Pollutants Enter Earth’s Waters?]

9 Investigating Dead Zones - Aquatic Ecosystems, Eutrophication, & Pollution

Investigate what may be responsible for the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone! Launch learning into aquatic ecosystems, the water cycle, and environmental issues. After introducing the concept of dead zones, students examine clues to develop a preliminary explanation for the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone and the factors at play

Through this process, students will ask questions about algal blooms and their role in hypoxic environments.

This activity is designed as an investigative phenomenon with the purpose of developing preliminary understandings and sparking questions that students will investigate throughout the unit storyline. However, this activity could also be used as an assessment, as students use new understandings to explain the clues and how they serve as evidence for the cause of the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone.

10 Watershed Model Building - Agricultural Pollution & Dead Zones

Understand watersheds and how pollutants can impact distant waterways through this hands-on, model-building activity. In this activity, students will create a watershed model to understand how nutrients from farms in the Midwest are responsible for dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. They will 

• explore a generic model of a watershed by observing how water flows down a mountain constructed from cardstock
• examine an elevation map of the United States to create their own accurate models of the Mississippi River Basin
• collect evidence to support their explanation of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico (the investigative phenomenon)

11 Water Cycle Models, Urban Runoff, & Water Pollution

Engage students in learning about the water cycle through the real-world context of runoff in urban environments. Students will build a physical model to explore how runoff is generated by evaporation and precipitation and apply their understanding to a serious environmental problem -- the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Students will:

• develop a physical model to observe evaporation, precipitation, and runoff
• use a simulation to observe particle motion in each state of matter to better understand evaporation and precipitation
• return to their model to investigate how nutrients move from land to waterways and impact water quality, focusing their attention on the relationship between agricultural pollution and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico

This activity puts the water cycle in context as students develop their understanding of the role of water cycle processes in the movement of nutrients from farms in the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. 

This activity ties closely to How Do Pollutants Move Through Watersheds?, in which students investigate watersheds, the movement of nutrients within the Mississippi River Basin, and the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.

12 The Water Cycle - A Drop In The Desert (NGSS MS-ESS2-4)

In this explore and explain sequence, students identify where water can be "found" in the desert by participating in a "reader's theater" activity and analyzing the story.  Then, students participate in a simulation where they move through the water cycle as a molecule of water, tracking how they move and in what state of matter.  They use this information to develop their understanding of the ways energy from the sun and gravity drive the movement of water through Earth's systems.  They reinforce this understanding through a vocabulary activity.  Finally, they apply their understanding to develop a model of the water cycle to explain the phenomenon of a flash flood in 2017. 

13 Energy and Matter in the Water Cycle (NGSS MS-ESS2-4)

In this elaborate set of activities, students explore the movement of energy through the water cycle by investigating what happens to energy during evaporation and condensation. This activity is designed to followThe Water Cycle: A Drop In The Desert and can be paired with The Water Cycle: Using Scientific Texts.

14 Water Cycle & Water Resources Assessment (MS-ESS2-4, MS-LS2-1)

In this evaluate performance task, students are given a phenomenon via text and develop a model of the water cycle in the Mojave Desert. They then analyze data (MS-LS2-1) to evaluate the effects of a change in the availability of a resource (water) on the growth and reproduction of organisms and populations (desert tortoises).

[Investigating: How Does Water Pollution Impact Ecosystems?]

15 Algal Blooms, Eutrophication, & Dead Zones Inquiry Task

Understand the science behind algal blooms and how they develop in this data-driven inquiry task. In this activity, students will explore how human activities cause algal blooms, which in turn result in the development of dead zones in bodies of water. 

Students are guided through an inquiry task to develop their understandings of the causes and effects of algal blooms -- focusing on nutrient pollution as a result of human activity, the carbon and oxygen cycles within aquatic ecosystems and related processes (respiration, photosynthesis, and decomposition), and the development of hypoxic waters and its impact on aquatic life. 

To demonstrate their understanding, students will develop a model that explains why algal blooms occur and how they impact aquatic life, focusing on their phenomenon - the dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay. 

16 Field Notes Food Webs: Producers, Consumers, Decomposers (NGSS MS-LS2-3)

In this activity bundle (FOUR activities, including a stations-style task), students obtain information from "field notes" to draw conclusions about the roles of organisms in ecosystems -- producers, consumers, and decomposers. In subsequent activities, they use these field notes to track the flow of energy and matter in ecosystems with food chains and food webs, construct energy pyramids, and make predictions about the introduction of new species on the ecosystem balance. Field notes for this activity bundle focus on the Pacific kelp forests off the coast of San Francisco. A second set of field notes for a freshwater stream ecosystem is included, as well.

This activity sequence is designed to be part of a larger unit storyline.

17 Biomagnification & Marine Food Webs - DDT Simulation

Explore biomagnification of DDT in ocean ecosystems through a whole-class, hands-on simulation. Students understand how chemicals accumulate in organisms at higher trophic levels as they review how energy and matter are passed on through food chains and food webs.

18 Marine Food Webs & Microplastic Pollution Data Analysis

Explore how plastic moves through food chains to affect many ocean species (even those least likely to accidentally consume it directly). In this lesson, students:

• are posed with a request for help analyzing data about the likelihood of plastic contamination in various marine species. 
• through this task, they develop an understanding of the factors that may affect plastic contamination such as trophic level, geographic distribution, and oceanic division
• finally, they use their data to provide evidence that plastic pollution is not just a “surface waters” problem for surface-dwelling species but rather a problem that has the potential to affect all marine life. 

As an extension, students are tasked with creating a model to illustrate bioaccumulation of plastic in Hammerhead Sharks. For this second task, students may need to conduct additional research to create a basic food chain/web to explain why this species is so likely to be contaminated with ingested plastic. [Alternatively, teachers could provide a completed food chain/web that students use to construct their explanation.]

This lesson truly emphasizes the messy aspects of science and understanding the data our investigations obtain -- it’s not always “cut and dry” and “cause and effect” isn’t always terribly obvious or dependent upon one factor. (This aligns well with students’ developing understanding of the Crosscutting Concept Cause and Effect.)

This lesson includes:

• 100+ student pages
• detailed teacher lesson guides
• complete answer keys + rubrics

*While this bundle was not designed for virtual learning, some of the included resources are compatible with distance learning and include Google Slides digital workbooks.

How can this unit be used?

• launch student-driven storylines where questions sparked by engaging phenomena lead learning toward the standards
• engage students in explorations to uncover the science content
• follow up explorations with meaning-making discussions (prompts provided in most lessons) and extension tasks 
• develop student understanding of water resources, human impacts on the environment, and aquatic ecosystems
• support students in making connections back to real-world phenomena
• most resources can be used by students individually or in small groups
• meet the intent of the NGSS through three dimensional, student-driven learning

How much class time will this take?

• completing all provided material may three to six weeks to work through, although students who work quickly may move through the material at a faster pace
• this time frame does not account for additional resources and activities you may incorporate into your unit storyline
• storyline length can always be adapted to fit your needs

Is this NGSS-aligned?

This resource is part of a storyline (Dumping Grounds) designed to work toward the tagged Next Generation Science Standards. Because Performance Expectations are designed to assess learning by the end of the grade band, unit material may not fully assess every Performance Expectation tagged in the post. Rather, the provided material connects to and works towards these Performance Expectations.

• MS-ESS2-4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity. [targeted]
• MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations. [targeted]
• MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem
• MS-LS1-5 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms. [works towards]
• MS-LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. [targeted]
• MS-LS1-6 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms. [works towards]

What if I have questions?

You can email me at nvantassel@iexplorescience.com with questions about resources or implementation. I'm happy to help!

Check Out These Related Resources

• The Water Cycle - 5E & NGSS MS-ESS2-4 & MS-LS2-1
• Water Resources & Environmental Problems - Science Literature Circles
• Biomagnification & Marine Food Webs - DDT Simulation
• Marine Food Webs & Microplastic Pollution Data Analysis
• Microplastic Pollution Beach Survey Project
• Algal Blooms, Eutrophication, & Dead Zones Inquiry Task
• Investigating Dead Zones - Aquatic Ecosystems, Eutrophication, & Pollution
• Watershed Model Building - Agricultural Pollution & Dead Zones
• Water Cycle Models, Urban Runoff, & Water Pollution
• What Are Earth's Natural Resources - Mineral, Energy, and Groundwater MS-ESS3-1

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