Water Science

Water Science

Five-Minute Reads on Sustainability

The following is a collection of five-minute reads on various topics relating to sustainabilty. The stories were written by undergraduate students at Penn State Brandywine studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (link is external) in the fall semester of 2017. Each link will take you to a MS Word file that has the student-authored story. The numbers after each student name refer to the SDGs listed in the chart below the list.

Three-Minute Reads on Sustainability

The following is a collection of three-minute reads on various topics relating to sustainabilty. The stories were written by undergraduate students at Penn State Brandywine studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the fall semester of 2017. Each link will take you to a MS Word file that has the student-authored story. The numbers after each student name refer to the SDGs listed in the chart below the list.

One-Minute Reads on Sustainability

The following is a collection of one minute reads on various topics relating to sustainabilty. The stories were written by undergraduate students at Penn State Brandywine studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the fall semester of 2017. Each link will take you to a MS Word file that has the student-authored story. The numbers after each student name refer to the SDGs listed in the chart below the list.

Engaging students in conducting basic monitoring of their local water bodies through the World Water Monitoring Challenge (WWMC)

The World Water Monitoring Challenge™ (WWMC) is an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens in the monitoring of their local waterbodies. This activity has students test their own local water bodies (pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, temperature) and contribute their findings to a global database for use by scientists and other students across the globe.

Data Visualization Activity: An example with global precipitation data

One of the goals of this exercise is for teachers to use scientific visualizations to build students’ understanding of water science - but any data visualization can be utilized to address a different content area.  Also, this student can be completed with students in a classroom, and a worksheet in included with this exercise that can be futher adapted to work with your grade level.

Investigating Streamflow in the Schuylkill River

This exercise is presented in a jigsaw format but can be easily scaled to lower grade levels, where students prepare and/or are presented just one graph from one location for one period of time.  Note that once the data is accessed on the USGS website, the data can be downloaded to work with in Excel, or (as this exercise suggests) a data table can be printed off for students to create graphs from.  To help students visualize the units in which streamflow is measured, cubic feet per second (cfs), I bring to class a 1 ft x 1 ft x 1 ft box to show them what a cubic foot looks like.