How well do you know your water?
Summary
"How well do you know your water?" is designed as an interactive slide presentation that engages students in finding and interpreting drinking water quality reports ("consumer confidence reports," CCR) that are provided to all customers of public water systems regulated by federal drinking water standards and enforced by local public health agencies. Students interact with the presentations using their phones and QR codes, and work in pairs to compare contrasting reports from water systems drawing from different source areas. The slides step students through water sources, water treatment, contaminants- both regulated and unregulated, and then distribution side contaminants and recent lead and copper monitoring/regulation. In this way, students step through water from source to tap and enter the complex world of their drinking water and start to see the value of environmental regulation. Students leave the class empowered to find their own CCRs and better understand the water they drink.
Context
Audience
Undergraduate 300-level Geography course without prerequisites that often attracts non-majors due to its status as a social science distribution course that will help students fulfill their general education requirements. Mostly non-science majors
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Concepts covered prior include overview of municipal water from source to tap and steps in between. Students should understand concept of MCL
How the activity is situated in the course
Activity is step B in a sequence: Lecture/demo (A), in-class activity with partner (B), and follow up independent homework assignment.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
content/concept goals: water sources, contamination, source water treatment, disinfection, microbes/biofouling, distribution system interactions, drinking water contaminant regulation
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
quantitative understanding, comparative analysis, critical evaluation of regulation (gaps)
Other skills goals for this activity
Searching the web, working in pairs, slowly stepping through information for comprehension and getting comfortable with uncertainty/open-ended questions and how to approach them.
Description and Teaching Materials
"How well do you know your water?" consists of 1) an interactive slide presentation that walks students through selected CCRs and 2) an accompanying lesson plan with sample questions that can be used for assessing student comprehension of the activity. The slide presentation in particular is intended for adaptation and was initially built around a specific consumer confidence report provided by the local water utility in Honolulu and their online searchable resources.
Presentation slides for "How well do you know your water?" (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 21.1MB Jul1 24)
Lesson plan for drinking water activity (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jul1 24)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Highly recommend instructors adapt the materials for their local context by finding consumer confidence reports (CCR) for two or more contrasting public water systems in their region (that use different water sources and thus have different starting chemistry). Interesting contrasts might be surface vs groundwater, chlorine vs chloramine disinfection, potable reuse systems. As the students are often shocked to learn what is in their water, it is important to have some follow on discussion about bottled water not necessarily being a better alternative (less regulated, BPA, waste production) but the importance of civic engagement and water testing.
Assessment
Formative: students submit an open ended question upon exit (minute paper), although engagement is usually very high with this activity and we have discussion throughout.
Summative: in an interactive Menti/Kahoot quiz, students answer true/false questions related to the activity just completed, or answer these questions in a unit exam after looking up a new data source.
References and Resources
Safe Drinking Water Act: https://www.epa.gov/sdwa
Ground Water and Drinking Water
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water
National Primary Drinking Water Regulations:
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations
Monitoring Unregulated Contaminants in Drinking Water: https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr
Drinking Water Requirements for States and Public Water Systems
https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo