Spring SAVY 2017, Day 1- Hydrology 101: The World of Water

Posted by hallep on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 in Grade 3, Grade 4, SAVY.

This week, we kicked off our investigation of hydrology! Our first discussion revolved around water distribution across the globe. Oceans comprise 97% of all the water on Earth, and icecaps/glaciers hold another 2%, so it was not an easy task for us to discuss how we would provide enough freshwater to communities across the globe. Fortunately our water is recycled through the water cycle, but that does not change the fact that water is a finite resource. How could we ever have a water shortage, you ask? Well we explored two problems: (1) increasing water demand, and (2) consumption and misuse. This led us directly into our first experiment… 

The student developed experiments to answer the following question: How much water is enough when watering a flowerpot? Using the conservation of volume and our understanding of water budgets, my students discovered that this may be a more complicated problem than we anticipated. Complexity becomes even more of an issue when  we begin to consider water budgets at the watershed scale. 

Next week we will delve deeper into the idea of a watershed by further exploring landscapes and topography. Students will begin to think like geomorphologists when we take a field trip to the Earth and Environmental Science laboratory to build a stream! Please wear warm clothes and closed-toe shoes for our field trip! 

See you soon!

Chelsea