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=__**Introduction**:__= =We just learned about the water cycle. Now your mission is to explore the dangers present when the water cycle is... disturbed!!! Locations and historical cases of this event are all around us, destroying lives, leaving dust in its wake. The name of this disturbance is "the patient killer." How does it affect us? What can we do to stop it? Your team must get the knowledge required to help save yourselves, your families, and...the world. I hope you are prepared for this journey because: You are now entering...THE SCIENCE ZONE!!!=



=**__Task:__**= ==== Your team will review the water cycle and how it works. You will also investigate and research the properties of drought and create a definition for it. Then, through other activities, you will answer the question : What can we do to help conserve water and prevent drought in our own ways? ====



Drought and the appropriate usage of the available water resources is an issue which involves the whole population. It is thus necessary to strengthen public awareness regarding this hazard.
~ =**__Process:__**=
 * 1) Please review the water cycle and start your **oral project** (see below: Section 1-The Water Cycle). This project will be presented to the class in 5 days.
 * 2) During the conduction of this project your team will design **a drought/water conservation poster**. The poster is intended to inform the public (our school and community) about drought and give a few simple rules on water usage.
 * 3) **When you create A Drought Awareness Poster,** Decide what the most important issues or factors are that the public needs to have brought to their attention or reinforced. The water cycle, some historical events, and maps need to be presented as well. Then create an eye-catching poster display that effectively conveys your message. You can use any information/pictures from ANY of the websites provided on this page, plus any your team finds on its own.

1. Review Water Cycle
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Magic School Bus Water Cycle:

 * Part 1: []
 * Part 2: []
 * Part 3: [] (also talks about ways to conserve water. (Great ideas you might need later...hint, hint.)

__Complete:__ (Be sure to put some information in your science journals.)
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2. Investigate Drought
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__Oral Report:__
==Pick an animal and describe it's life and interactions with the water cycle (food, shelter, etc.). Then explain to the class what you think it's life would be like during a drought. How has drought affected it? Be sure to include all the ways you think their environment and lifestyle would have to change. Can this animal survive a short period of drought? How about a drought that lasts 100 years? In what ways can the animal adapt? Do you think humans can help? If so, how? Some visuals should be included to help the class understand your animal and the environment it lives in.== = =

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===Drought in the U.S.: [] Are their any cases of drought in PA? Where is drought affecting people the worst? Go to the link below the map. Is their a difference between last weeks drought condition, and the current weeks? Explain.===

===U.S. Seasonal drought outlook: [] Is the drought in PA going to get better or worse? Where is it going to get worse in the U.S.?===

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Each student needs to write a letter to our principal explaining what drought is, what its effects are, and give reasons why we should help these other countries.
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__Journal question:__
==="I felt I was becoming a slave to the land. But I held on to the thought that this land had to be stopped from blowing. Often I was so full of dust that I drove blind, unable to see even the radiator cap on my tractor or hear the roar of the engines. But I kept driving on and on, by guess and instinct. I was making my last stand in the Dust Bowl." If you had been part of one of these farm families during the '30s, do you think you would have wanted to stay on your farm or leave? Why or why not? What would you lose by leaving? What would you gain?===

===Great statistics and pictures about water: [] (Some of these might be really cool to use on your drought awarness posters. Remember to focus on the world or the U.S. though, alot of these pictures are for Canada.) ===

**How can we help with drought?**
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 * Please list the top 10 ways you personally can help conserve water,the top 10 ways your family can conserve water, and the top 10 ways we can conserve water here at school. these answers need to be based on things we can actually do.**=====

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Each student will now fill out the amount of water they or their home uses. We will discuss the results in class. =====

A printable link can be found here: [] [[image:http://www.gifmania.co.uk/water/waves/2x26.gif width="763" height="28"]]
==__ Now its time to make our drought awarness poster.__==

Example from an England water company and other ideas: Some other awareness posters to help: [] [] [] [] [] A whole bunch of ideas that look great: [] =Evaluation= [] [] Rubric will be posted soon!!!! = =Conclusion= Now that we have notified our community, what programs can we do to help our community, our state, our country, and our world? Examples include: the 5 days of drought, and adopting a village. =Extensions= 5 days of drought. Classroom/schoolwide event. : [] adopt a village clean water: [] Create a water awareness month flyer: example from kentucky:

Water webquest: [] More activities: [] [] [] [] [] [] []

Have students further study the Dust Bowl era through a range of historical, literary, and visual sources, including Carey McWilliam's //Ill Fares the Land//, John Steinbeck's //The Grapes of Wrath//, James Agee and Walker Evan's //You Have Seen Their Faces,// Pare Lorentz's documentaries for the Farm Security Administration--//The River// and //The Plow That Broke the Plains//, and the photographs of Dorothea Lange and others. Students can further investigate how the work of Lange, Agee, Evans, Lorentz, and others reflected American conditions in the 1930s and evaluate their impact on the New Deal. (A good Web site sponsored by the National Archives featuring Depression-era artwork, interviews, etc. can be found at [].)

Compare and contrast other ways humans have affected the natural landscape for survival and economic gain. Divide students into groups and have each group study one of the following: strip mining, logging practices including clear cutting, hydroelectric dams, clearing land in the rain forest for farming and cattle ranching. Each group should research the following: short-term benefits vs. long-term consequences; winners, losers; ways the practice has changed and the way those changes came about. Have each group develop a position paper, either supporting the practice or suggesting how it could be modified, and a process for implementing any change. How can they make their proposed changes attractive to the opposition? How will they compensate for perceived losses? Is it possible to design a win-win solution? [213]

=Teacher Page= Summary of this activity: This webquest can be used after the water cycle has been taught. It allows students to apply their knowledge and critical thinking abilities in conjunction with science, social studies, language arts, and perhaps even the art curriculum. Students further investigate the water cycle and then explore what drought is. They apply that knowledge with an activity that has them pick an animal, and discuss how the water cycle, and then drought, affects it. They will present their findings orally to the rest of the class. Next the students will study the historical aspects of drought including the dust bowl, and some present day facts, including maps, and the drought index. They will apply their knowledge by answering scenario questions presented in class, and by completing the questions in their science journals. They will also write a letter to the principal presenting what they have learned and why the school should donate money to the countries that need help due to the adverse effects of drought. The culminating activity of this unit will be the drought awareness posters. The students will present all of the knowledge they have acquired in this project. The extensions will hopefully be just that, and our curriculum will turn into a school wide event.

[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] really good [] [] [] [] just found [] books: [] [] activities: [] [] [] [] specifically PA: [] ; [] ; [] [] fun: [] [] rubric for how good the webquest is to change in the future: [] sample rubrics: [] Projects: []