Unit Overview: World Water Issues in the Thinking With Data Unit
"The Earth, with its diverse and abundant life forms, including over six billion humans, is facing a serious water crisis. All the signs suggest that it is getting worse and will continue to do so, unless corrective action is taken. The crisis is one of governance, essentially caused by the ways in which humans have mismanaged water.”
--World Water Development Report (United Nations, 2000)
“We’re all downstream.”
– ecologists’ motto
The context for the Thinking with Data Unit is a compelling one: world water issues. The problem with water, and the world is facing a very serious problem with water, is that it is a finite resource. There is the same amount of water on the planet now as there was in prehistoric times, and there will be the same amount of water 1,000 years from now. People, on the other hand, are increasing at a very rapid rate. People are utterly dependent on water – for their lives, their livelihoods, their food, and increasingly their industry. We can live for a month without food, but we will die in less that week without water. The human population is growing incredibly fast, but our demand for water is growing twice as fast. And all the while, the amount of water on Earth hasn’t changed a bit (de Villiers, 2000, pp. 12-13).
In the Thinking with Data unit, activities and materials are designed around student investigations of water issues in the Tigris/Euphrates basin and in six US Watersheds, using real world data on water availability and use.
Social Studies
The Social Studies module both introduces the global water issue and contextualizes it in the Tigris/Euphrates Valley. Students are introduced to the global issue of water and the control of the water in rivers through three short videos on the situation in what was historically Mesopotamia. Civilization
arose in the Tigris/Euphrates watershed because of the need to control the flow of the rivers to both protect against flooding and provide water in dry periods. Today, Syria and Iraq, the downstream states in the system, are being denied water as Turkey dams the rivers to irrigate its drier areas. Students are introduced to the problems of sharing water among countries in this human context – and to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses which states that countries who share a watershed system should share its resources fairly and equitably. Students are then introduced to data on the availability and uses of water in Turkey, Syria and Iraq and asked to devise fair ways of sharing it.
Mathematics
In Mathematics, students learn techniques of proportional reasoning to expand on their Social Studies work and develop data-based solutions and arguments for fair use of shared water. For example, students are stepped through a series of exercises designed to use ratio and proportion to figure out which water sample is the saltiest. They are then introduced to the concepts of per capita and percent, which they then use to figure an equitable solution to water sharing between Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Science
In Science, students learn about the science behind water issues in the Tigris/Euphrates basin, beginning with how the water cycle manifests itself in the region, which is why Turkey controls the sources of the rivers. They then explore how ditch irrigation contributes to soil salinity, and how salty soil inhibits plant growth. In the Science Module, students also begin to apply everything they have learned about water issues to investigating watersheds much closer to home. Groups of students do Internet research to develop profiles of eight US watersheds.
English Language Arts
English Language Arts is the culminating module of the Thinking with Data unit. In it, students apply everything they have learned about water to students develop reports on their US watersheds which both identify the issues they face and propose possible solutions to them. They present these to a larger audience, in both written and aural form, as persuasive arguments supported by data-based evidence.
References
De Villiers, M. (2000) Water: The fate of our most precious resource. New York: Houghton Mifflin.