Tag: EE Week

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Energy for Water

Sarah Kozicki is program associate for National Environmental Education Week (EE Week), a program of the National Environmental Education Foundation designed to connect educators with resources to improve K-12 students’ understanding of the environment. An annual event, EE Week will be held this year from April 11-17. For more information and to get involved, visit www.eeweek.org.

Thumbnail image for EEWeek_SK_WaterPump.jpgHave you had a glass of water to drink today? How much energy do you think went into treating and transporting that water from its source – probably a lake or aquifer – to your kitchen faucet?

In the United States, 13 percent of the total energy produced each year is used to treat, transport, and heat our water. While that sounds like a lot of energy, getting clean water in the United States is as easy as turning on the tap. In some places around the globe, it is not that simple. 

In some parts of the world, water is pumped by hand to fill buckets that are carried by women and children from a public source to their homes
Photo Credit: WaterAid/
Layton Thompson

Water around the World: Carrying Water

In the United States and other developed countries, cleaned and treated fresh water is piped directly into our homes – we can turn on the tap for drinkable water any time. However, in less-developed countries, human energy is a necessary part of daily water use. About two-thirds of the world’s families do not have a water supply in their homes and must fetch water in jugs and buckets from wells, rivers, hand pumps, and other public sources. This water is usually collected and carried by women and children.In Asia and Africa, the average woman walks a total of 3.7 miles to collect and carry fresh water home each day. The average weight of water Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for EEWeek_SK_WomenCarryWater.jpgthat a woman in Africa and Asia will carry is about 40 pounds! Water is usually carried on the head, back or hips, which can cause severe health problems. On average, a person living in sub-Saharan Africa uses four gallons of water a day, while someone in the United States uses 82 gallons of water a day or more.

Many African women must travel miles by foot
each day to fetch enough water for their families

Photo Credit: WaterAid/Layton Thompson


How many trips would you have to make if you had to carry all the water your family uses in a day?

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Classroom Ideas

EE Week Photo Blog Contest

You may recall our Environmental Education Week Guest Blogger series this past March/April, during which we featured three educators engaging their students in environmental field work and inquiry: Tasha Kiemel of Sammamish, WA told us about a 4th grade wetlands restoration project; Dave Wood of Washington, DC chronicled an 8th grade investigation into local water resources; and Debra Weitzel of Middleton, WI shared details of high schoolers’ participation in a citizen science water testing initiative.

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Do YOU have a positive story of how you and your students are bringing environmental education to students? EE Week would like to hear about it! Enter the 2009 Photo Blog Contest and upload your photos and stories on the EE Week Blog.

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Classroom Ideas, News from Nat Geo

EE Week Guest Blogger Series: Do you know where the water in your town comes from?

This is the second post in our EE Week Guest Blogger Series. Read the previous entry, “Wondrous Wetlands,” by 4th grade teacher Tasha Kiemel of Sammamish, Washington, to learn more about how educators across the country are incorporating hands-on environmental field work into the curriculum.
 
Dave Wood teaches 8th grade Environmental Science at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, and he serves on the National Environmental Education Week (EE Week) Teachers Advisory Committee. EE Week promotes understanding and protection of the natural world by actively engaging K-12th grade students and educators in an inspired week of environmental learning before Earth Day. This year’s EE Week celebration occurs April 12-18, 2009, and the theme is Be Water Wise! To learn more or get involved, visit www.eeweek.org.

After teaching 8th grade environmental science at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. for over a decade, I came to realize that our students did not know some fundamental facts about the water upon which their lives depend.  For them, water just magically came out of the tap, and it had to be clean and healthy because, evidently, no one was getting sick from drinking it.  And, when my students dumped anything and everything down the drains or toilet, they assumed that, of course, the sewage treatment plant would take care of it all–because that’s why it was called a “treatment” plant.   Where their drinking water came from, how it was treated, and what happened to it after it was flushed down the drain; they couldn’t say.  And, I had to admit, neither could I.
 
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Dave taking his students out for some field research.

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Classroom Ideas, News from Nat Geo, Take Action

EE Week Guest Blogger Series: Wondrous Wetlands

Student1.JPGTasha Kiemel teaches 4th grade at Discovery Elementary School in
Sammamish, Washington, and she serves on the National Environmental
Education Week (EE Week) Teachers Advisory Committee. EE Week promotes
understanding and protection of the natural world by actively engaging
K-12th grade students and educators in an inspired week of
environmental learning before Earth Day. This year’s EE Week
celebration occurs April 12-18, 2009, and the theme is Be Water Wise!
To learn more or get involved, visit www.eeweek.org.

Wondrous Wetlands
Wetlands can provide all sorts of learning opportunities for young learners. From practicing observation skills, identifying native plants and animals, and monitoring water sources, the wetland behind Discovery Elementary School in Sammamish, WA, is a true outdoor science classroom. 

The most recent project underway in the wetland involves streambed restoration. Several years ago, the city put in a boardwalk along the southern border of the wetland, causing extreme damage to a natural streambed. Up until this past fall, the streambed was not flowing naturally and relied on the assistance of a tarp. Amphibians and other water life could not make a home in this type of unnatural habitat. It was a call to action.

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