Rainwater Harvesting Service Learning Project

Linda Ruiz McCall and Cameron Turner
,
Texas Water Development Board
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Summary

Students will gain an understanding of the history, benefits, and components of a rainwater harvesting system and partner with community members to design and build a rainwater harvesting system for their school.

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Context

Audience

Students may range from middle school through adult level.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students must be able to make measurements and calculate area, volume and rates.

How the activity is situated in the course

This project may be a part of the "Putting some Blue in your Green School" water conservation project or it may be a stand alone service learning project.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

  • Students will learn about rainfall patterns.
  • Students will learn the relationship between catchment area and rainwater volume collected.
  • Student will learn about water use for various purposes and decide the use for their collected rainwater.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Students will design and build a rainwater collection system. This will involve analysis of rainfall data, decision on the water use for their collected rainwater, and competing designs for the rainwater collection system.

Other skills goals for this activity

Students will use the internet for research, they will recruit community support through writing and making presentations, and they will design and assist in the construction of a rainwater harvesting system on their school campus.

Description of the activity/assignment

In this service learning project, students, teachers and community members will work together to design and construct a rainwater harvesting system for their school campus.

  • Research RWH design basics and local conditions
  • Explore how RWH could be used on your campus and develop a basic design.
  • Present findings and action plan to community partners, school administration and student body.
  • Enact the action plan to construct a RWH system on your campus and raise community awareness for water conservation

Determining whether students have met the goals

Students will complete research assignments, form community partnerships, and design a rainwater harvesting system for their campus. The ultimate goal is to construct a rainwater harvesting system on their school campus. A rubric for this project is attached Rubric for Rainwater Harvesting Service Learning Project (Microsoft Word 29kB Feb8 10)



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