Water Conservation

Georgian Court University

Water Conservation and Water Quality Education Project

To help teachers who want to teach about the water cycle, the geography and processes of their local water body, water conservation or other water-related issues in their watershed, we are posting a number of resources developed by Georgian Court Science Education Students while teaching local elementary and middle school students as part of an environmental education project funded by Georgian Court University and the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program. While these materials have been designed to specifically reference out local watershed (the Barnegat Bay) teachers from any watershed should find that they can use the lesson plans with only minor adaptations (mostly changing the map areas and specific spatial references from those of this watershed to those of the watershed in which their students or schools reside.

Image sources: http://www.musicatbarnegatbay.org/assets/graphics/ebblogo.gif and http://www.sportfishermen.com/cache/scache_1f256dfc2fc80a9cc115c7a5dd51777c.weather.gif

Lesson Plans Developed as Part of this Project

	Water Cycle Lesson Plan
	Watershed Lesson Plan
	Groundwater and Aquifers Lesson Plan
	Estuary Lesson Plan
	Food Chains / Food Webs in the Barnegat Bay Lesson Plan
	Water Conservation Lesson Plan
	Gravel Rain Gardens as Tools for Removing Nitrogen from Rain Water Run-off

Note to Teachers: If you use these lesson plans, we'd love to hear your thoughts. A link to a brief survey is provided at the end of each lesson plan. Also, if you develop additional materials to enhance the lesson plans provided here that you'd be willing to share with other educators, please send them to us at woottonL@georgian.edu and we'll post them here... with appropriate attribution.... of course!

Other Resources Developed as Part of this Project

Powerpoint: Understanding Water and its Role in our Lives and our Environment (Same presentation in pdf format : Slides alone; Slides with notes for the teacher). This presentation was targeted at elementary to middle school aged students. Feedback from the elementary school teachers with whom we worked suggested that the vocabulary on these slides was a little more complex than would be ideal for use with elementary school students, so if using this presentation with a younger audience, we recommend simplifying the vocabulary used in these slides to better match the level of your class.

Flashcards containing information about some of the animals and plants living in the Barnegat (pdf format, publisher format). Many of these cards were used to accompany the live samples that we captured from the Barnegat Bay using a seine set and brought in to the students' classes for them to investigate. If interested in obtaining similar specimens for their own classes, teachers could try contacting the Nature Center at Island Beach State Park or similar coastal parks in their area. If staffing allows, the folk at the Park may be willing to help teachers to obtain similar samples for their own classes. We did find that bringing live animals into the classroom really helped the students to connect with these creatures, and to develop a stronger sense of caring about their fate. Having "met" the animals in person, the students became notably more motivated to change their habits so as to protect the habitat in which the animals live.

� 2009. Amanda Traina (Author), Louise Wootton (Editor)

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