Unit 5: Water Quality and Water Management

Water, Water Everywhere, But Is It Fit to Drink?

• Most of Earth's water is in the oceans, influencing climate and housing numerous species.
• This unit explores water distribution (fresh, salt, frozen), its impact on life, and human activities affecting water quantity and quality.
• Human actions like irrigation and dam construction lead to water shortages or floods.
• Less obvious changes include harmful micro-organisms or toxic substances entering water systems from polluting sources.
• The unit emphasizes monitoring and managing water supplies to ensure sustainability.
• Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising future generations' ability to meet their needs.

Unit Contents

• A World of Water
• Earth’s Frozen Water
• Fresh Water Systems
• The Oceans
• Living in Water
• Water Quality and Water Management

Unit 3: Key Questions

• Characteristics of water systems.
• Interaction of water systems with the atmosphere and Earth.
• Interaction of water systems with human activities.

Fresh and Salt Water Systems

• Topics 3-4 explore fresh water systems and oceans.
• Investigate surface water, groundwater, and seawater characteristics.
• Explore interrelation of water, landforms, and climate.

Unit 5 Topic 1 & 2

• Topic 1: Looks at how we depend on water.
• Topic 2: Examines icefields, icebergs, and glaciers.

Unit 5: Key Questions

• What do fresh water organisms need in order to survive?
• What do marine organisms need in their watery world?
• How can we monitor and protect aquatic systems for ourselves and other living things?
• Unit 5 Preview: Students will organize a local water action program, collect information, maps, and resources, and contact key people involved in water management.

Topic 1: A World of Water

• Earth is brimming with vibrant life, and water is its key component.
• More species inhabit water than any other place on Earth.
• Scientists believe life cannot exist without water.
• Most of Earth’s water (97%) is salt water, which is water with a high salt content, unfit for drinking.
• Fresh water, essential for organisms, includes lake, river, pond, and well water.
• Astronauts express their feelings about Earth with poetic words, emphasizing its beauty, fragility, and importance to life.

5-A A World of Water – Water at Home

• Investigation to chart how water is used at home and calculate family water usage.
• Procedure: Identify water uses, record ideas, design a summary chart, and use record sheets to track water usage.
• Analyze: Calculate total water used per day and average per person.
• Organize and graph class data on home water use.
• Conclude and Apply: Find average, maximum, and minimum quantities of water used.
• Calculate total water consumption for the town or city population based on the class average, determine accuracy of the figure.
• Ways to Reduce Water Use: Consider water-saving devices such as low-volume toilets or showerheads, among other methods.
• Average Quantity of Water Used for Various Activities: clothes washer ($230 L$ per use), dishwasher ($65 L$ per use), toilet flush ($20 L$ per use), bath ($130 L$ per use), shower ($25 L$ per min), faucet ($12 L$ per min).

How Do You Depend on Water?

• Each cell in the body needs water to function.
• About 65% of body mass is water.
• Water is vital to the way of life and the quality of life of everyone in Alberta.
• To maintain a normal body temperature of $37°C$, you give off water in the form of sweat.
• To remain healthy, you need about $2.5 L$ of water each day.

How Do We Use Water?

• Activity to identify various uses of water, classify them, and understand water's importance to the quality of life in Alberta.
• Agriculture, oil exploration, industry, cities, and thermal power stations are the five main users of water in Alberta.

The Water Cycle

• Each drop of rain that falls must go somewhere; some runs off the land, some soaks underground, some goes into wetlands and lakes, some