Earth Systems Science Grades 5-8 Lesson 2: Water Resources
Earth Systems Science
Grades 5-8
Lesson 2: Water Resources
The Earth can be considered a family of four major components; a biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere. Together, these interacting and all-encompassing subdivisions constitute the structure and dynamics of the entire Earth. These systems do not, and can not, stand alone. This Module demonstrates, at every grade level, the concept that one system depends on every other for molding the Earth into the world we know. For example, the biosphere could not efficiently prosper as is without gas exchange from the atmosphere, liquid water from the hydrosphere, and food and other materials provided by the geosphere. Similarly, the other systems are significantly affected by the biosphere in one way or another. This Module uses Earth's systems to provide the ultimate lesson in teamwork.
March 2006
2
JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNIVERSE
Lesson 2: Water Resources
Lesson at a Glance
Lesson Overview
This lesson addresses the water resources that are important to millions of people in North America and Africa. Each activity focuses on the physical nature of a water resource, how humans depend upon the resource, and how human use affects the resource, creating both problems and opportunities. Students will use data and satellite images to examine how human actions can degrade, improve, or maintain the quality of each resource. Then they will analyze and interpret graphic data to make recommendations for improving future use of these resources.
Lesson Duration
Three to five 45-minute class periods
Core Education Standards
National Science Education Standards Standard F2: Causes of environmental degradation and resource depletion vary from region to region and from country to country.
JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNIVERSE
3
Essential Questions
How do natural processes and human actions affect the Chesapeake Bay and the Nile River as water resources?
Concepts
Students will learn the following concepts: Fresh water is a limited resource on Earth that we must protect and
conserve for future generations. Humans affect the quality of the water resources around them. The health of the water resources in turn affect the organisms that
live in them or rely on them.
Objectives
Students will be able to do the following: Simulate a town forum to investigate the quality of the Chesapeake
Bay as a water resource. Analyze graphs and images to investigate water use along the Nile
River. Debate the use of water resources from different perspectives.
4
JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNIVERSE
Science Overview
Water is one of the key resources needed to sustain life on Earth. Threefourths of our entire planet is covered by liquid water, which exists in three forms: liquid water, solid water (ice), and gaseous water (water vapor).
The Earth is nearly a closed system, powered by sunlight, with few significant losses of material to space and only very small amounts of matter entering the atmosphere as cosmic dust and meteors. The water on Earth has been recycled for billions of years with a few relatively tiny additions of new water from occasional impacts by comets. The water we drink today may be mingled with the water that our ancestors drank in the past. However, not all of the water can be used for drinking. Only 0.3% of the water on Earth is suitable for human consumption, most of that is ground water.
The Earth's Water. Source: USGS,
The oceans, composed of salt water, make up 97.22% of the total water on Earth, with a volume of 1,321,314,000 km3. Most fresh water is found in icecaps and glaciers, making up 2.15% of the total water on Earth and 29,177,000 km3 by volume. However, this water is not available for human consumption- since icecaps and glaciers are largely in the polar regions. Ground water, which is the primary source of drinking water, has a volume of 8,336,000 km3 and makes up 0.61% of the total water on Earth.
While it is compelling to know that only 0.3% of water stored (at any given moment) is usable, it is also important to realize that storages of water are constantly replenished by precipitation. The cycling of water
JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNIVERSE
(i.e., the "hydrologic" or "global water" cycle) provides quite a bit more than the amount of water stored on land. On average, the amount of water that falls as precipitation on land is about 76,000,000 km3/yr, which is about three times as much water than is stored, at any given moment, on the land (of course, the land is constantly depleted of its supplies from runoff, evaporation, and consumption). The amount of water stored that is "usable" is a small fraction, but the climate system is constantly transforming water from the largest "unusable" storage in the ocean, to a more usable form in our freshwater continental storages via atmospheric transport and precipitation.
5 Water Resources
Lesson at a Glance Science Overview
Conducting the Lesson
Resources
Hydrologic Cycle. Image courtesy of C. Adam Schlosser, Paul Houser, & Debbie Belvedere, NASA GSFC Code 974 Hydrological Sciences Branch, . gsfc.
Dependence on the Earth Systems
All of the Earth's oceans, rivers, lakes, water in the soil, groundwater, water in the air, and every other body of water make up one of the four Earth systems, called the hydrosphere. Each of the other three--geosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere--interacts with and modifies the hydrosphere significantly.
Geosphere
All of the rocks and minerals that make up the surface and interior of the Earth are known as the geosphere. On a basic level, the geosphere (along with the atmosphere) provides a home for the hydrosphere.
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