Brief Description/Unit Goal

Students will join collaborative project Down the Drain to perform a water use survey and compare personal household water use to others locally and around the world.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 3T-E2 Use a variety of technology tools for data collection and analysis.

• 1SC-E3. Organize and present data gathered from their own experiences, using appropriate mathematical analyses and graphical representations
• 2M-E1.Construct, read, analyze and interpret tables, charts, graphs and data plots (e.g., box-and-whisker, stem-and-leaf, and scatter plots)
• 2M-E2.Make valid inferences, predictions and arguments based on statistical analysis

Academic

• Using a Personal Water Use Chart students will collect daily estimates of household water use for a period of one week.
• After submitting data, students will determine class totals and compare to household totals.
• Using data from the site, students will compare their data to data from around the world.
• After comparing data, students will write an explanation of the comparisons at the Analysis level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

• Students will access Down the Drain spreadsheet display for comparison of data.

Students need basic technology skills for navigating the Internet to find the Down the Drain site.

Materials

• Personal Water Use Chart
• Computer with Internet access
• Calculators

Special Education students can have a modified data collection sheet with fewer categories, and/or collect personal data only, not the entire household.  If appropriate on an individual basis, parent contact to explain the program may be useful.  SEI (second language) students could need a translated data collection form, or one modified with graphics commonly used on signs in public places. Gifted students could be asked to measure actual water use for some activities rather than using the standard estimates.  They might also make a more in-depth analysis of water use, including reasons for regional variations.

Procedures

1. Introduce students to the project and show them the site.
2. Pass out Personal Use Water Charts (printed from web site) and assign students to collect data at home for one week.
3. When surveys are returned, students will follow directions under step 4 of Lesson 1b located on the website. http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/drainproj/instructions.html
4. Students will respond to prompt on the “Down the Drain” worksheet.
5. Students will access Down the Drain data to make comparisons with other groups around the globe.

• Students will be assessed for the degree of completion of the Personal Water Use Chart.
• Teacher will rate student work on the “Assessment of Student Work- Down the Drain”
• Ratings of 4-1 will be applied using rubric http://www/view_rubric.php3?=825413

Teacher Name: Bill Thomas
Site: Coronado K-8
Date Submitted: May 15, 2003