Water Treatment Process
 
We followed the outline of the water treatment process which can be found at the following link http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/kids/treat.html as preparation for a field trip to our local water treatment facility, the Scituate Water Purification Facility.   We referred to the vocabulary list as we discussed each step of the process.  Students were asked to take notes and draw the process as it was presented on the board.

After the above activity we showed a video about the history of the building of the Scituate Reservoir. See Bibliography. Students were extremely interested about how the process of eminent domain was used to destroy people's homes in order to build the reservoir.  It was a wonderful opportunity to tie our unit into an examination of local history.

On the day of the field trip, prior to leaving the agency, we conducted a water purification experiment which mimics in miniature the water treatment process used in most treatment facilities.  This experiment can be found on page 70 in Ranger Rick's Naturescope: Diving into Oceans.  See Bibliography.

The tour was extremely successful because of the preparation done in class.  Students' understanding was enhanced by reading, writing, discussing, drawing, watching a video as well as conducting an experiment directly related to the topic.


Once students learned where their water came from, we concluded the cycle by briefly studying the treatment of wastewater.

We used a selection from the Environmental Protection Agencys' website, "Excuse Me, Is This The Way To The Drainpipe?" (PDF file).  This story clearly, without technical jargon, explained the water process from beginning to end.  To make this activity more engaging, we changed the narrative format to one of a play with each student taking a turn reading the different roles.

Daily review was the concluding activity of each day.

We also gave the students a quiz on the information we had studied to date. Quiz A.
 

Homework:
For homework we cut out the illustrations from the story, "Excuse Me, Is This The Way To The Drainpipe?", and asked students to put them in sequential order.  The illustrations show where water comes from, how it gets to the tap and where it goes as wastewater.   After this one lesson we could then place it in the greater context area of the water cycle.
 

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