Human Impact on Water
Quality
Learning Outcomes:
1
Students will identify
the key factors that influence water quality.
2
Ability to explain
how human activities can alter the balance of a water ecosystem and affect the
survival of organisms.
3
Students will identify
the relationships among factors affecting water quality.
4
Ability to explain
how a factor affects the living organisms in a water ecosystem.
5
Students can use
credible cyber resources for data collection.
6
Students will be
able to use ICTs to facilitate the process of identifying scientifically
testable questions and locating valuable and accurate.
7
Students will use
ICTs to support data organization, data analysis, and data presentation, and
draw conclusions.
8
Students will
know how to use ICTs to support data organization, data analysis, and data
presentation, and draw conclusions.
Acceptable Evidence:
1. Analyzed data that shows the effects of resource
availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
2. An explanation that predicts patterns of interactions
among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
3. An argument that argument supports empirical evidence
that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Learning Activities
Day 1:
1. Students will break into small groups for 10 to 15 minutes
to discuss factor affecting water quality and human activities that change the
balance of water ecosystems.
2. Each group will use the Google News search engine
(ICT) to find an article about water quality and its effects on a living organism.
3. Students will research direct and indirect impact of
human behaviors on the water ecosystem.
4. Students will cite sources used and become familiar with
credible sources.
Day 2:
1. Student will learn how to collect data to answer
scientifically testable questions.
2. Students will provide what data are needed to answer “How
do changes in the water temperature affect dissolved oxygen levels?
3. Students will collect data from Water Quality Watch
and use a spreadsheet to enter dissolved oxygen and water temperature data
collected.
4. Students split into small groups to figure out the
correlations between the dissolved-oxygen and water temperature data.
Day 3:
1. A guided inquiry that allows students to develop researchable
questions that can be answered using data from cyber databases.
2. Students use a spreadsheet to enter data, analyze
data, create charts, examine their hypothesis and draw conclusions.
3. Students complete a lab report that documents the
research questions, hypothesis, research procedure, data analysis and
conclusion.
4. Students discuss research findings and compare notes.
Day 4:
1. Students work independently to identify scientifically
testable questions by formulating a hypothesis, develop a research plan,
collect and analyze data, evaluate data and draw conclusions.
2. Students use data from several databases to conduct
their own investigations.
3. students discuss the various stages of the project.
