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