In this introductory lab, students are introduced to the different components that make up the cryosphere and watch a NASA animation showing an example of how global land and sea ice coverage can change over the course of a single year. In the second part of the lab, students learn about some of the ways that changes in the cryosphere are already impacting human life.

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Using data on the world's water distribution, students calculate the percentage of water that is available to humans and examine graphics that illustrate the distribution. Students develop a sense of where the world's water is located and how it moves through the Earth system.

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Students build a physical model to explore watershed features, then use Google Earth software to tie the model to a real place. By exploring several layers of map-based images and data, students develop an appreciation of the complexity of a watershed and river system in the context of a both a local and national scale.

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In this activity students develop a practical understanding of the causes and symptoms of drought. They read background articles and prepare a physical model to illustrate the role that soil moisture plays in preventing or promoting drought. Students use Google Earth to examine precipitation and streamflow data and use them to predict locations that are experiencing drought. They check their predictions by comparing them to a drought monitor map. In the final section, students examine and interpret the current map of the Palmer Drought Severity Index.

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In Lab 5, students learned about some of the global circulation processes that transport both matter and energy around the planet. In Lab 6A they get a much more specific picture of the Earth system at the global scale as they investigate data collected by NASA satellites. The data is displayed in image form in the NEO (NASA Earth Observations) data visualization tool. How do the four interconnected spheres show up at the global scale in these data representations? Is it possible, from studying this data, to infer some of the same interconnections at the global scale that were identified at the local study site? What can students infer from studying changes across the seasons?
In Lab 6B students play a game that focuses their attention on the global water cycle, but at the particle scale: what might happen to this molecule of water that falls onto the ground, or into a stream? Next they step back to the macroscopic scale as they diagram the ways in which water moves through the four interconnected spheres of the Earth system.

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America's most famous drought resulted in an environmental disaster called the Dust Bowl. From 1931 to 1939, a five-state region of the Great Plains received little rain and experienced horrendous dust storms that stripped the land of its topsoil. The event went on to shape the demographics of the American West as thousands of people migrated out of the plains and on to western states.
In this activity, students will watch a PBS video and/or interact with the video's companion website. They will also examine maps and animations that show the distribution of drought patterns over the past 300 years; these maps were reconstructed from environmental records. Finally, students will examine the amount of time different areas spend in drought.

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When populations live in areas where natural resources are scarce, conserving them becomes critical for survival. The case study presented in this lesson introduces students to a real drought that has been developing in the Colorado River basin for many years. The Colorado River is the major source of water for people in the driest part of the United States. More than 30 million people in 7 states depend on this river as the primary source of their water.
In this lesson, students discover how changes in climate over the Colorado watershed are reducing the amount of fresh water available in the river. They also see how the population of the region that uses this water has grown, resulting in increasing demands on a dwindling resource.

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In this lab, students apply the concepts of earlier lessons to their own community. They begin by exploring economic, environmental, and social impacts of drought. Students then prepare for and stage a mock community meeting to draw up plans to face an upcoming drought.

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In this activity students explore how to reduce vulnerability to drought risk through mitigation strategies. Students investigate one or more of four technology-based mitigation strategies by reading articles or viewing short podcasts and completing hands-on activities. Students make a presentation or poster to communicate their findings to the class.

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Students use a small stream table in groups to investigate how channel form determines the shape of the hydrograph (including lag to peak). They use three channels: no channel (just sediment filling the table), a "concrete" channel (straight, no sediment on bottom), and a meandering channel. All channels get the same water input and students measure the amount of water that comes out to make a hydrograph. This gives students a chance to model a flood pulse moving through different channels to see how anthropogenic changes to rivers, such as channelizing them, alters flood hydrology. It specifically models an outburst flood from a dam release or burst, but is basically modeling any pulse of water moving through a system.

Stratified lakes exhibit vertical gradients in organisms, nutrients, and oxygen, which have important implications for ecosystem structure and functioning. Mixing disrupts these gradients by redistributing these materials throughout the water column. Consequently, it is critical to understand the drivers of lake mixing and thermal stratification, especially because of the sensitivity of lake thermal conditions to altered climate. In this module, students will explore spatial and temporal patterns of lake mixing using high-frequency temperature data from lakes around the world. They will also explore how increases in air temperature affect thermal stratification by interpreting output from a lake model. Project EDDIE modules are designed with an A-B-C structure to make them flexible and adaptable to a range of student levels and course structures.

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This lesson helps students understand why Earth is considered the "water planet." Students analyze how much of Earth's water is available for humans to use for life-sustaining purposes, and they explore the concept of water scarcity in both physical and economic terms. They look at the many ways that humans use water and investigate international trends in agricultural, industrial, and household water consumption. The lesson also sets up the focus of this course: the concept of water footprints. Students explore how water footprints are an invaluable tool for identifying patterns of water use so that individuals, businesses, and even nations can more effectively manage their use of one of the most precious resources on Earth: water. Critical to this exploration is a visit to Watercalculator.org, where students calculate their personal water usage, analyze the results, and set a base point for tracking and conserving their water use.

This is the first of the three-part Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint: High School Lesson Plans.

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This lesson helps students understand why Earth is considered the "water planet." Students analyze how much of Earth's water is available for humans to use for life-sustaining purposes, and they explore the concept of water scarcity in both physical and economic terms. They look at the many ways that humans use water and investigate international trends in agricultural, industrial, and household water consumption. The lesson also sets up the focus of this course: the concept of water footprints. Students explore how water footprints are an invaluable tool for identifying patterns of water use so that individuals, businesses, and even nations can more effectively manage their use of one of the most precious resources on Earth: water. Critical to this exploration is a visit to Watercalculator.org, where students calculate their personal water usage, analyze the results, and set a base point for tracking and conserving their water use.

This is the first of the three-part Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint: Middle School Lesson Plans.

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This lesson centers on a deeper exploration of the water footprint associated with food. Students learned in Lesson 1 that virtual water, especially as it relates to food, typically makes up the majority of their water footprint. In this lesson, they find out why. First, they see an attention-grabbing demonstration of how much water is needed for three food products. Second, they break into groups to do research, and then they teach their classmates about key aspects of water use related to food and agriculture. Next, they think about how their diet is influenced by social groups, advertising, and structures in place at home and at school that encourage them to potentially eat food with large water footprints. Finally, they brainstorm ways they might be able to influence change in those areas. The lesson concludes with students sharing their ideas and providing one another with constructive feedback.

This is the second of the three-part Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint: High School Lesson Plans.

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This lesson centers on a deeper exploration of the water footprint associated with food. Students learned in Lesson 1 that virtual water, especially as it relates to food, typically makes up the majority of their water footprint. In this lesson, they find out why. First, they see an attention-grabbing demonstration of how much water is needed for three food products. Second, they break into groups to do research, and then they teach their classmates about key aspects of water use related to food and agriculture. Next, they think about how their diet is influenced by social groups, advertising, and structures in place at home and at school that encourage them to potentially eat food with large water footprints. Finally, they brainstorm ways they might be able to influence change in those areas. The lesson concludes with students sharing their ideas and providing one another with constructive feedback.

This is the second of the three-part Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint: Middle School Lesson Plans.

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Session 1 of this lesson begins with a quick activity to get students thinking about their direct and virtual water use. It introduces a few new ideas for virtual water use that may surprise students, including the virtual water required for the products we buy and use. Then students form marketing teams to explore five categories of water use (indoor, outdoor, diet, electricity, and buying habits) and create infographic posters to share what they learn. Then, in Session 2, students remain in five teams to audit the school's indoor and outdoor direct water use as well as several categories of virtual water use: food, energy, and electronics. They use what they learn to create a strategic conservation action plan that incorporates their How to Save Water awareness campaign in an effort to decrease the school's overall virtual water use. The lesson can be conducted as a short project or a more comprehensive capstone project.

This is the third of the three-part Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint: High School Lesson Plans.

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Session 1 of this lesson begins with a quick activity to get students thinking about their direct and virtual water use. It introduces a few new ideas for virtual water use that may surprise students, including the virtual water required for the products we buy and use. Then students form marketing teams to explore five categories of water use (indoor, outdoor, diet, electricity, and buying habits) and create infographic posters to share what they learn. Then, in Session 2, students remain in five teams to audit the school's indoor and outdoor direct water use as well as several categories of virtual water use: food, energy, and electronics. They use what they learn to create a strategic conservation action plan that incorporates their How to Save Water awareness campaign in an effort to decrease the school's overall virtual water use. The lesson can be conducted as a short project or a more comprehensive capstone project.

This is the third of the three-part Lessons for Understanding Our Water Footprint: Middle School Lesson Plans.

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The students carry out a documentary analysis to understand the differences between weather and climate.

Students collect various evidence showing that the world climate has been changing over the last decades (global warming, sea level rise, melting of glaciers and sea ice, extreme events...).

The students carry out an experiment to determine that the melting of sea ice does not cause sea level rise, whereas the melting of ice on land does.