Marie Hartford's class of 5th grade scientists learn about the importance of water quality and its benefits to wildlife and the environment. Within the narrow confines of pH necessary for their tank of red-legged frogs, students use a combination of pond and tap water to keep the tank healthy, using their collected data to make the decision on the proportion between the two.

After watching a short online video that recaps the enormous scale of accumulating plastic waste in our oceans, student teams are challenged to devise a method to remove the most plastic microbeads from a provided commercial personal care product—such as a facial cleanser or body wash. They brainstorm filtering methods ideas and design their own specific procedures that use teacher-provided supplies (coffee filters, funnels, plastic syringes, vinyl tubing, water, plastic bags) to extract the microplastics as efficiently as possible. The research and development student teams compare the final masses of their extracted microbeads to see which filter solutions worked best. Students suggest possible future improvements to their filter designs. A student worksheet is provided.

Middle School Water Quality Curriculum SynopsisDesign your own wetland science field trip or have WREN staff visit your classroom.Programs address Oregon State Science Standards and Common Core State Learning Standards. Purpose of the Water Quality Curriculum: •    For students to model the scientific method, engineering, math, and social studies practices. •    To explore and solve problems along the Long Tom River Watershed. •    To use tools and technology to collect data and use that data to answer questions.•    To engineer solutions to real-life problems and learn how to resolve water quality disputes in real-life scenarios.  Each lesson can be integrated into our 2-hour tour of the West Eugene Wetlands (WEW). How much time is required for the lesson, the best season, and where the lesson is best experienced is indicated next to the lesson tile._______________________________________________________________________________________________What is a Watershed? Activity/ 50 minutes (Class or WEW):It’s recommended that all classes begin their wetland field study with this fun and interactive, whole-body activity that investigates how vegetation affects the movement of water over land surfaces and identifies best management practices to reduce erosion. Science Standards: MS-ESS2; MS-ESS2-4.    Earth’s Systems: Develop a model to describe cycling of water through earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and force of gravity._______________________________________________________________________________________________Wetland Soil Study/ 90 minutes (WEW- Fall or Spring):Students will learn the history behind the unique composition of soil in the southern Willamette Valley, discover how wetland soils have an important role in filtering and cleaning the water that runs through them, explore and record the physical characteristics of wetland soil using a Munsell Chart, measure the hydric capacity of different types of soil, and make the connection between soils and water in a wet prairie. Science Standards: MS-ESS2-2.    Earth’s Systems: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.Common Core Standards:Mathematics7.EE.B.4.     Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world of mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about quantities.______________________________________________________________________________________________           Water Quality of Amazon Creek/ 90 minutes (WEW- Fall and Spring):Through experimentation and a simulation, students will learn how increases in water acidity have endangered the quality of life for water-based organisms in parts of Eugene. Students will model water molecules under different circumstances, test water samples from Amazon creek for dissolved oxygen, PH, and temperature and learn how these variables impact the quality of life in our waterways.  Science Standards: MS-PS1-1.          Matter and Its Interactions: Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules  and extended structures.Common Core Standards:Mathematics 6.SP.B.4.            Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including dot plots, histograms, and box plots.7.EE.3.               Solve multiple real-life & mathematical problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form using tools strategically. Apply properties of operations to calculate with numbers in any form. _______________________________________________________________________________________________Flood-Plan Engineering Design/ 90 minutes (WEW or Class- Fall, Winter, Spring):Students will learn about historic floods in the Willamette Valley, and explore flood dynamics by building models of riverbeds and testing their holding capacity. Students will use engineering to design systems that will help prevent flood damage and learn about how human modifications to a river or wetland can alter the floodplain.Science Standards:MS-ESS3-3.     Earth’s & Human Activity: Apply Scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.MS-ESS3-2.    Earth’s & Human Activity: Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their efforts.MS-ETS1-1; 1-4. Engineering Design: Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a  proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.  Common Core Standards:MathematicsMP.2.        Reason abstractly and quantitatively._______________________________________________________________________________________________Water Quality Debate/ 60 minutes (Class- Fall, Winter, Spring):Students will demonstrate how disputes regarding water quality and quantity can be settled through mediation by playing character roles in a mock Town Hall Meeting. They will develop and engage in an evidence supporting argument surrounding a local water-related issue, evaluate arguments presented by others of different viewpoints, and decide on a resolution.Science Standards:MS-LS2-5.    Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy and Dynamics: Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem servicesCommon Core Standards:ELA/LiteracyMS-LS-2-2.    Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one on one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly. MS-LS2-2.    Present claims or findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning and adequate well-chosen details, use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and other pronunciation. 

This inquiry lab is useful for monitoring water pollution in a freshwater system using direct and/or indirect methods.

The activity for high school students aims to display the importance of water quality and how nanotechnology can be used to help purify the water. 

Day 3 of the Nanotechnology and Water lesson and Day 2 of its associated lab displaying how water quality can affect living organisms.

The activity for high school students aims to display the importance of water quality and how nanotechnology can be used to help purify the water.

The activity for high school students aims to display the importance of water quality and how nanotechnology can be used to help purify the water.Day 5 includes analysis questions that cover content from Nanotechnology and Water Days 1-4. 

Students apply their understanding of the natural water cycle and the urban "stormwater" water cycle, as well as the processes involved in both cycles to hypothesize how the flow of water is affected by altering precipitation. Student groups consider different precipitation scenarios based on both intensity and duration. Once hypotheses and specific experimental steps are developed, students use both a natural water cycle model and an urban water cycle model to test their hypotheses. To conclude, students explain their results, tapping their knowledge of both cycles and the importance of using models to predict water flow in civil and environmental engineering designs. The natural water cycle model is made in advance by the teacher, using simple supplies; a minor adjustment to the model easily turns it into the urban water cycle model.

Through an overview of the components of the hydrologic cycle and the important roles they play in the design of engineered systems, students' awareness of the world's limited fresh water resources is heightened. The hydrologic cycle affects everyone and is the single most critical component to life on Earth. Students examine in detail the water cycle components and phase transitions, and then learn how water moves through the human-made urban environment. This urban "stormwater" water cycle is influenced by the pervasive existence of impervious surfaces that limit the amount of infiltration, resulting in high levels of stormwater runoff, limited groundwater replenishment and reduced groundwater flow. Students show their understanding of the process by writing a description of the path of a water droplet through the urban water cycle, from the droplet's point of view. The lesson lays the groundwork for rest of the unit, so students can begin to think about what they might do to modify the urban "stormwater" water cycle so that it functions more like the natural water cycle. A PowerPoint® presentation and handout are provided.

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the clean-up effort after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska. Also featured is a marsh where an oil spill occurred 20 years earlier; analysis suggests that environmental damage may last for decades.

Students will write an informational essay explaining the What, Why and How of water monitoring. They will use information from videos and articles to write an essay. Includes Teacher directions and scoring notes.

In this activity, students will learn how water can be polluted by algal blooms. They will grow algae with different concentrations of fertilizer or nutrients and analyze their results as environmental engineers working to protect a local water resource.

This course teaches principles of flow, transport, and reaction processes in the natural subsurface.

Students take advantage of the natural ability of red cabbage juice to perform as a pH indicator to test the pH of seven common household liquids. Then they evaluate the accuracy of the red cabbage indicator, by testing the pH of the liquids using an engineer-designed tool, pH indicator strips. Like environmental engineers working on water remediation or water treatment projects, understanding the chemical properties (including pH) of contaminants is important for safeguarding the health of environmental water sources and systems.

This unit uses text-based inquiry to examine water quality issues through the lens of an engineer.

This activity could be part of a bigger theme under pollution. The activity could be the water part and the bigger focus could contain all other types of pollution.

Student teams practice water quality analysis through turbidity measurement and coliform bacteria counts. They use information about water treatment processes to design prototype small-scale water treatment systems and test the influent (incoming) and effluent (outgoing) water to assess how well their prototypes produce safe water to prevent water-borne illnesses.

Students perform one of the first steps that environmental engineers do to determine water quality sampling and analysis. Student teams measure the electrical conductivity of four water samples (deionized water, purified water, school tap water and a salt-water solution) using teacher-made LED-conductivity testers and commercially available electrical conductivity meters. They use multimeters to also measure the resistance of the samples. They graph their collected data to see the relationship between the conductivity and resistance. Then, all students measure the conductivity of tap water samples brought to school from their homes; they organize and average their data by sub areas within their local school district to see if house location has any relationship to the water conductivity in their community.