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Table of Contents

Foreword 7

How to Use the Teacher’s Resource 9

Water Pre/Post Assessment 10

“Quickie” Ideas and Activities 11 Water Facts: The Developing World 13 Water Facts: Canada 14 Water Facts: Water Quality 15 Water Facts: Water Consumption - Some Comparisons 16 Water Facts: The Cost of Water in Developing Countries 17 Water Facts: Oral Re-hydration Therapy (ORT) 18

Water Science - Educator’s Notes 19 What Is Water? 19 Water as a Chemical 19 The Universal Solvent 19 Density 20 Buoyancy 20 Specific Gravity 21 Boiling and Freezing 21 Thermal Properties 21 Surface Tension 22 Adhesion and Cohesion 22 Capillary Action 22 Meniscus 23

Water Science - Activities 25 Water Tricks - #1 Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 26 Water Tricks #2 Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 27

2 Water Tricks #3 Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, English Language Arts extension 28 Water Tricks Score Card 29 Hard Water, Soft Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics 31 Water Mixer Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 33 Good Water Grade 6 Science, Mathematics 38 One Drop at a Time Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics 39 Water Weight Grades 5, 6 Science, Mathematics 40 Aquatic Notes Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 43 Salty Solutions Grade 6 Science, Mathematics 44

The Water Cycle - Educator’s Notes 47 The Hydrologic Cycle 47 The Ocean 49 How Big is the Ocean and What’s it Really Like? 49 What’s the Ocean Made of? 49 Life in the Ocean 50 Upwelling 51

The Water Cycle - Activities 53 Drop in the Bucket Grades 5, 6 Science, English Language Arts, Social Studies 54 Simulate the Hydrologic Cycle Grades 4, 5, 6 Multi-disciplinary 55 Nature’s Waterwheel Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 56 The Hydrologic Cycle 59

3 The Water Cycle Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 61 Diary of a Water Molecule Grades 4, 5, 6 English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Art 66 How Wet is Our Planet? Grade 6 Mathematics, Science 67

Water for Life - Educator’s Notes 70 Water Quality 70 Where Does our Drinking Water Come From? 71 Surface Water 71 Ground Water 72 Ground Water Storage 73 Ground Water Quality 74 Aquatic Ecosystems 75 Wetlands 75 Kinds of Wetlands in Nova Scotia 76 How Does Water Clean Itself? 77

Water for Life - Activities 79 Keeping Pond Specimens - Some Tips! 80 Tadpole Talk 80 What Can I Do to Improve Water Quality? 82 Avoid hazardous household products 82 Don’t Misuse the Sewage System 82 Don’t use pesticides or other hazardous materials in your garden 83 Don’t dump hazardous products into storm drains 83 Don’t forget about water quality - even when you’re having fun! 83 Ground Water Quality Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 84 Stream Scanners Grade 6 Science 86 Wells: A Deep Subject Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics 89 The Long Haul Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics, Social Studies 92 Making Drinking Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Social Studies 93

4 Water for Work - Educator’s Notes 95 Where We Use Water 96 A Brief Examination of Five Occurrences of Withdrawal Use 97 Thermal Power Generation 97 Manufacturing 97 Agriculture 98 Mining 98 A Brief Examination of Six Instream Water Uses 98 Hydroelectric Power Generation 99 Water Transport 99 Freshwater Fisheries 99 Wildlife 99 Recreation 100 Waste Disposal 100

Water for Work - Activities 101 Wind and Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 102 Lift a Load with Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 104 Make It Sink – Then Float! Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 105

Water Dangers - Educator’s Notes 106 Of Tides and Time 106 Wind and Waves 107 How Does the Ocean Move? 107

Water Dangers - Activities 109 Changing Tides Grades 5, 6 Science 110 A Current Affair Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 111 Tornado in a Bottle Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 113 Some Snowy Facts Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 115

How We Affect Water - Educator’s Notes 117 Acid Rain: Byproduct of the Industrialized World 118

5 Magnitude and Cost 118 What Can We Do? 119 Are We Changing the Earth’s Atmosphere? 119 The Greenhouse Effect 119 Quantity, Quality and Conservation 120

How We Affect Water - Activities 121 What is Acid Rain? Grade 4 Science 122 Building a Better Planet Grades 4, 5, 6 Social Studies 123 Water Uses Worksheet Grades 4, 5, 6 Mathematics, Social Studies 127 Water Information Sheet Grades 4, 5, 6 Mathematics, Social Studies 129 Protect the Dolphin Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Social Studies, Physical Education 131 To Dam or Not To Dam Grade 6 Social Studies, English Language Arts 132 Down the Hill Grades 4, 5, 6 Science 134

Water For Fun - Activities 135 Wishing You Well Grades 4, 5, 6 English Language Arts, Social Studies 136 Make Some Waves! Grades P - 6 Science, Art activity 138 Raining Cats and Dogs Grades 4, 5, 6 English Language Arts 139

Resources 140 Publications 140 Organizations 143 Teaching Resources on the INTERNET 146 Pictou Antigonish Regional Library 149

Glossary 151

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7 Foreword

Water is one of our most precious gifts. Nova Scotians are fortunate to have an abundant supply which is freely shared by many users.

Nova Scotia’s aquatic resources are found most notably in the form of lakes, rivers, brooks, swamps, salt water marshes, ocean coves, bays and open shore lines. We also are fortunate to possess underground fresh water aquifers in several areas of the province. Each of these forms of available water provide a distinct and significant contribution to the natural history and culture of Nova Scotia. The need to recognize and better understand the importance of our aquatic resources was the impetus for Children’s WaterFest ‘98. And the reason for more than 250 volunteers to join their efforts to produce the festival - the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

The material in this Resource Kit is designed to help promote an understanding of some of the important ways we interact with water. The original version was prepared by the Programme Committee of Children’s WaterFest ‘98 (Carla Baillie, Margaret Earle, and Parker Wong), and its development and publishing was made possible by a grant from the Canada/Nova Scotia Water Economy Agreement. The publication of this version of the Resource was supported by the Nova Scotia Department of Environment.

This Resource may be used to prepare or enhance classroom learning opportunities related to water education and was designed for grades 4 through 6. The subject matter contained herein provides a good overview of the importance of water in relation to human needs and the needs of non-human species. English language arts, science, mathematics, social science and art activities; as well as activities that incorporate two or more of these disciplines; have been included educators’ consideration.

Every effort has been made to include Nova Scotian / Atlantic Canadian content in this Resource. The information contained in each section’s Educator’s Notes has been obtained from Canadian sources1. Likewise, the resource listings contained in the final section of the Kit are primarily Canadian, with emphasis given to resources available within the province of Nova Scotia.

The information included in this Kit is designed to be of benefit to educators. It has also been designed to be easily photocopied and has been produced in a format that will (hopefully) facilitate its use for many years to come. The material in this kit may be reproduced for educational purposes, and Kits may be reproduced and shared amongst educators freely. Materials for student use have been formatted to reproduce easily as well.

We hope that you find this Kit useful in your water education efforts.

1 The Fact Sheets in the Freshwater Series, produced by Environment Canada, were an invaluable tool in the compilation of information for this Resource. These booklets are available in both official languages. To order a copy of any booklet in this series or to learn more about what booklets and resources are available from Environment Canada, contact the Environment Canada Enquiry Centre in Ottawa at 1-800-668-6767 8 Notes:

Please send your comments about and/or suggestions for the improvement of this Resource to:

Nova Scotia Museum of Industry P.O. Box 2590 147 North Foord Street Stellarton, Nova Scotia B0K 1S0 phone: (902) 755-5425 / fax: (902) 755-7045

9 How to Use the Teacher’s Resource

This guide has been designed for use as an educational resource. Please use it in the manner that best suits your purposes: feel free to edit, adjust and photocopy all parts of this Resource.

The Resource is divided into five sections, each of which roughly corresponds with the presentation areas of Children’s WaterFest 2000. q Water Science is an essential section. In this section you will find information about the chemical (and magical!) properties of water. These properties are relevant to the rest of the activities and material contained in the Resource. q The Water Cycle contains information about the hydro logic cycle. This section is also considered essential to water resource education. q Water For Life deals with the many ways living species depend on abundant, clean water, and begins the examination of what we, as individuals, can do to protect our aquatic resources. q Water For Work considers how water is and has been used in industry. This section includes a discussion of primary and heavy industries, the role of water in the transportation of goods, the aquaculture industry, and hydroelectric power production. The section concludes with an activity designed to help students recognize the multitude of viewpoints involved in water resource management. q How We Affect Water, speaks to the issue of environmental stewardship. q Water Dangers includes a brief examination of the relationship between water, human society, and the weather.

You might wish to refer to this document as a resource for water-education information and activities - you might even choose to use information from this Resource as a segment of your science program. Portions of this Resource are suitable for use as enrichment activities. You might also find this document useful as a resource for science fairs or school projects.

It is not expected that students participating in Children’s WaterFest 2000 will be familiar with all the information contained in this Resource, but educators bringing their classes to the festival may choose to use this Resource as a preparatory tool. We suggest that educators preparing for their WaterFest 2000 visit first examine the Water Science and Water Cycle sections, along with the section, How We Affect Water. Performing one or two of the activities included in each of these sections and participating in an introductory lesson will provide students an excellent base upon which WaterFest 2000 presenters will build.

We hope you find this Resource helpful. We welcome your suggestions for future publications. 10

Water Pre/Post Assessment

Use this assessment to discover how much your students already know about water before you begin your water unit(s), or later, as a conclusion to your study. You may choose to instruct students to perform one or more of the following activities, depending on the focus of your study. q Using circular cutouts, make a water molecule and label the two elements of water. q Take a cup of water and tell how you would change the liquid to a solid or to a gas. q Demonstrate one of the five properties of water using things around your home. q Draw a diagram of the water cycle. q Choose an animal, describe its habitat, and give examples of how it uses water. q Devise a method to remove the salt from seawater. q Estimate how much water you use in a day. q Develop and test a plan to reduce the water you use by 25% per day. q Tell how you would determine if a stream is polluted.

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“Quickie” Ideas and Activities

Prepare a bulletin board with some of the student’s works during their water/ecology unit. You may want to produce a board displaying the uses of water; a section with newspaper and magazine clippings of current or historic water issues; photos of how water and living things are related; or of the water cycle. q Plan an art activity using water-based paints and sponges. q Have the class put together a shadow box or diorama on the theme of ‘water’. q Have your students write and perform a ‘water’ play or puppet show for younger students. q Take an erosion hike and spot examples of water damage - either natural or made by humans. q Study Native water legends and mythologies or water legends and myths from foreign lands. q Have the class develop their own classroom water laws and penalties (for example: forgetting to turn off water - lose a recess period; running the water to let it get cold before drinking - write a conservation poem; etc.) q Have the class put together a resolution to save water and have the resolution signed by the principal. q Develop a conservation mandate for your school. q Set up a display in the school cafeteria or assembly area showing how water can be conserved by even the youngest students. q Create posters and/or projects about how early settlers, Native people, and/or people from developing nations and other lands have used water historically, their water use patterns, or their conservation habits. q Have the students study the source of their water supply. Is it in danger of becoming polluted? Study any polluted lakes, rivers, streams in your area. What are the effects that can be seen? What about those we don’t see? q Can your class volunteer with a local agency to do clean up, etc., at a local lake, stream or recreation area? q Put together a People’s Water Court and stage a mock trial for a major water polluter or waster. q Study the major rivers in Canada. q Study groundwater sources in other parts of the world (just learning to say “Ogallala Aquifer” - one of the United States’ largest aquifers - can be fun!).

12 q Study the habitat and life cycles of native aquatic species.

q Study water pollution and the types of pollution - disease carrying agents, inorganic and organic chemicals, plant nutrients, sediment, heat, radioactive substances, oxygen demanding wastes, synthetic organic chemicals.

q Develop an environmental and/or water textbook of clippings from newspapers, magazines, etc.. Keep them in a looseleaf notebook (don’t forget cartoons!). Be sure to label all articles with the name of the publication, date and page number. Have students write summaries or interpretation of the articles. This activity can also be done on an individual level with the creation of a water journal.

q Make a sediment dam in an empty pop bottle. Pour a few tablespoons of soil into an empty pop bottle and fill almost to the top with tap water. Shake the bottle to show how sediment mixes with water. When left alone, undisturbed for several hours, the sediment will settle to the bottom of the bottle, just like it does in a sediment dam.

q Ask your local Department of Environment, Department of Natural Resources, or Environment Canada representative for a map of your local watershed.

q Ask an water resource professional to visit your class to discuss relevant issues (eg: how and why dams are built). q Make a display of ‘water quotes’ (some parables and quotations are included in this Resource). Can your students make up their own quotes and/or add to the quotations and parables in this document? q Set up a learning centre using the worksheets from this document as well as others you have found or developed.

Have Fun!!

13 Water Facts: The Developing World q The World Health Organization estimates that between 12.4 million and 25 million people die each year from diseases caused by unsanitary conditions. Sixty percent of these people are young children. Most of these diseases are related directory to water, and include: water borne diseases spread by drinking or washing hand or food utensils in contaminated water; water washed diseases spread by poor personal hygiene, insufficient water for washing and lack of facilities for the sanitary disposal of human waste; water based diseases transmitted by a vector which spends part of its life cycle in water. Contact with infected water allows the parasite to enter humans through the skin, eyes or mouth; diseases with water-related vectors passed through infection carrying insects breeding in stagnant water; and faecal disposal diseases, caused by organisms breeding in waste when sanitation is inadequate. q Worldwide, about 1.3 billion people (about 26% of the world’s population) lack safe drinking water and 1.7 billion (34%) lack adequate water for sanitation. q Nearly half of the developing world does not have access to safe water. q Eighty percent of the rural population of more than 70 African and Asian countries do not have access to safe drinking water. q One quarter of the world’s population lack safe drinking water and sanitation.

14 Water Facts: Canada q According to Environment Canada, Canadians are among the biggest water users in the world. Nearly all of our economic and social activities depend on water. q Approximately 7.6 percent of Canada is covered by fresh water. Our rivers and lakes contain enough water to flood the entire country to a depth of more than two metres. q Canada holds nine percent of the global supply of accessible fresh water. q Twenty-six percent of Canadians rely on ground water for domestic use. q Less than 60% of Canadians are served by waste water treatment plants, compared with 75% of Americans, 86.5% of Germans and 99% of Swedes. q Of the 10 most highly-valued species of fish in Lake Ontario, three have disappeared. q The Great Lakes Basin contains 3/4 of Canada’s industrial activity, almost 2/3 of our total population and almost ½ the dollar value of total Canadian agricultural production. q More than 350 chemical compounds have been found in the Great Lakes ecosystem. Among them are an alarming number of toxic chemicals.

15 Water Facts: Water Quality q Approximately 57% of all Canadians are served by wastewater treatment plants, compared with 74% of Americans, 86.5% of Germans, 99% of Swedes. q In developing nations, 80% of diseases are water-related. q Of all Canadians, 25% rely on ground water for domestic use. q One drop of oil can render up to 25 litres of water unfit for drinking. q One gram of 2,4-D (a common household herbicide) can contaminate ten million litres of drinking water. q One gram of PCBs can make up to one billion litres of water unsuitable for freshwater aquatic life. q One gram of lead in 20,000 litres of water makes the water unfit for drinking. Older homes often contain plumbing made of lead or soldered in lead, which can leach into the water. q The nitrates in fertilizers promote excessive growth of algae and larger aquatic plants, causing algal blooms the drive out sport fish out of their habitat. q Calcium and magnesium - both essential elements for humans - account for most water hardness. Death rates for certain types of cardiovascular disease have been found to be higher in soft water areas than in hard water areas in many parts of the world. q Copper is another essential element - for optimal absorption and metabolism of iron and for bone formation - and fairly common in natural water. More than one milligram per litre may make water unpalatable. 16 Water Facts: Water Consumption - Some Comparisons q The average human needs approximately 5.7 litres of water per day for drinking and cooking. That’s approximately the same amount of water used when a person in the industrialized world leaves a tap running for 20 to 40 seconds. q It takes between 25 and 45 litres of water per day to cover a person’s basic health and sanitation needs. It takes 70 litres of water to refine one litre of gasoline.

q The average seven-member family in developing nations uses approximately 58 litres of water in one day. In North America, the average four-member family uses more than 850 litres of water per day. q The average cost of 58 litres of water in developing nations equals 15 minutes of pay. The average cost of 850 litres of water in North America equals about six minutes of pay. q One woman in a developing nation can carry between 15 and 22 litres of water home from a single trip to the village well - if she is lucky enough to live in a village with a well. The standard North American toilet uses approximately 22 litres of water each time it is flushed.

17 Water Facts: The Cost of Water in Developing Countries

In many countries, water is not readily available, so it must be drawn from a well or source of running water, often by women and children, many of whom walk three or four hours each day to fetch enough water for their families’ needs. A daily trek such as this consumes more than 600 calories, half the minimal daily intake of calories in a healthy person. It also uses up valuable hours when the women might be learning income-generating skills necessary to realize a better standard of living for their families.

When children share in the water carrying duties, instead of a journey to school, their day begins with a long, difficult and exhausting walk. Carrying a heavy weight can cause damage to young bodies, and the time they spend fetching water deprives children of valuable school time. Very often, ten- or eleven-year-old children are taken out of school simply because they are needed to keep a supply of water coming into their villages.

The average person needs to consume nearly three litres of water a day to stay healthy. More is needed for washing, cooking and cleaning. The average woman in a developing country may carry 15 to 22 litres of water in one trip. A child, of course, carries much less.

A Classroom Activity: Have your students measure 15 litres of water into a large bucket or several smaller buckets (this is probably best accomplished out-of-doors). See who, if anyone, can lift this much water and walk some distance with it. Measure smaller amounts. See how far the students can walk without spilling any water, and how long they can carry the water before they begin to be uncomfortable. Ask them what they think it would be like to carry that much water every day for three or four hours.

18 Water Facts: Oral Re-hydration Therapy (ORT)

Every six seconds a child dies as a result of a diarrhoeal disease. Each year, five million children are victims of such diseases, making diarrhoea the world’s number-one cause of death in children under five years of age.

There is a simple, inexpensive and effective way to prevent and treat the dehydration and eventual death that results from most diarrhoeal disease. It’s called Oral Re-hydration Therapy (ORT). Major heath aid and development agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Red Cross and UNICEF, administer major long-term projects in underdeveloped countries to promote ORT on two levels. The first level involves prevention of death by dehydration among infants and young children; the second is the provision of emergency care for extreme cases.

Preventative ORT requires three very simple ingredients, and some basic education about the causes and effects of diarrhoea. UNICEF and the Red Cross send delegates into towns and villages in developing countries to tell parents about the health problems caused by unclean water and unsanitary living conditions, and to show them how to mix an oral re-hydration solution in their homes. In extreme cases, prepackaged ORT salts2 are used to save lives. When mixed with clean drinking water, these salts form a solution that can save a victim from even extreme dehydration.

What are the effects of dehydration? To exemplify the effects of dehydration on the human body, perform the following experiment:

1. Cut a thin slice from a raw potato (about 0.5 cm thick). Trace the outline of the slice on a piece of paper. 2. Make a small hole near one end of the slice with a pencil. 3. Thread a length of string through the potato slice. Tie a knot, and hang the slice to dry. 4. Record how long it takes for the slice to dry, and when it has dried, compare it to the original tracing of the potato. What has happened? Ask students: if this happened to the their bodies, inside and out, what do they think it would feel like?

2 Sodium chloride (salt), sodium hydrogen carbonate (sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda), potassium chloride, glucose (sugar) 19

Water Science Educator’s Notes

Water covers almost three-quarters (about 379 million square kilometres) of the Earth’s total surface. Water makes the Earth the ‘blue’ planet: the water which covers our planet make it visually unique from all others in the solar system. Plants, animals and people all need clean water to live a healthy life.

What Is Water? Science defines water as a pure, colourless, transparent, tasteless and odourless compound of oxygen and hydrogen. Its chemical symbol is H2O. This means that the water molecule has two atoms of hydrogen (symbol H) and one atom of oxygen (symbol O). The water molecule is V- shaped and triangular. While water molecules are electrically neutral, the oxygen atom holds a small negative charge and the two hydrogen atoms hold small positive charges. Scientists believe this unusual electrical balancing, called polarity, gives water some of its remarkable properties.

Water molecules are attracted to each other, creating hydrogen bonds. These strong bonds determine almost every physical property of water and many of its chemical properties, too.

Water as a Chemical Everyone knows a good deal about water - what it feels like, looks like, how plentiful (or scarce) it is, and why it is important to life. But fewer people think of water as a chemical - something that reacts with other substances, producing new materials.

Water reacts with many different substances: q when some metals (such as sodium) are added to water, the reaction produces hydrogen gas as one of the products; q when some non-metallic oxides are added to water they form compounds called acids (a major ingredient of acid rain - carbonic acid - is formed when carbon dioxide reacts with water); q when a metallic oxide reacts with water, compounds called bases are formed; q many compounds, when mixed together in a dry state, do not react. If some water is added to the mixture, however, a reaction often begins. Baking powder is a mixture of dry chemicals which releases bubbles of gas only after water is added.

The Universal Solvent Scientists often call water the “Universal Solvent” because water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid. In fact, water, in a ‘pure’ state, is not found in nature. As the universal solvent, water dissolves almost any substance to form solutions. The reasons why water combines easily with other substances are threefold:

1. water molecules are very small and move easily around other atoms and molecules;

2. the negative charge on the oxygen atom and the positive charges on the hydrogen atoms allow water molecules to interact with other molecules; 3. Water is very stable - at 2,000 Cº only about 2% of water molecules break into parts. These parts are hydrogen ions with a positive charge (H+) and hydroxide ions with a negative charge (OH-). 20

Some substances dissolve more easily in water than do others. Common table salt (sodium chloride) dissolves in water very easily. When placed in water, the sodium chloride molecule falls apart. The positively charged sodium ion (Na+) binds to the oxygen, while the negatively charged chloride ion (CI-) attaches to the hydrogen. This makes a very stable ‘salty’ water molecule.

There is hardly a substance known which has not been identified in solution in the Earth’s waters. Were it not for the solvent property of water, life could not exist, because water transfers nutrients vital to life in animals and plants.

A drop of rain water falling through the air dissolves atmospheric gases. When rain reaches the Earth, it affects the quality of the land, lakes and rivers by delivering those dissolved gases.

Water is a dynamic and mobile substance which is constantly going through chemical and physical transformations. It has been called ‘Nature’s Magician’, since it can appear in many forms and perform some incredible tricks. Water is found naturally in all three states of matter; solid, liquid and gaseous; a rare occurrence among other natural substances.

Density Density is defined as the mass of an object per unit volume of the object. Density is determined by calculating the ratio of the mass of the object and its volume. For example, one cubic centimetre has a mass of one gram at 4ºC. The density of water is 1.00 g/cm³.

The density of water is an important physical constant. It is used as a standard of reference to which the densities of other substances are compared.

Unlike most substances, which are most dense in their solid form, ice (solid water) is actually lighter (less dense) than liquid water. As a result, ice floats on water. The strong hydrogen bonds formed when water freezes lock water molecules together in a fixed crystal pattern.3 When ice melts, the structure collapses and molecules move closer together. Liquid water at 4ºC is about 9% more dense than ice. If ice was more dense than water, rivers, lakes and seas would freeze from the bottom up rather than from the top down, and they would never completely thaw in summer. This property plays an important role in lake and ocean ecosystems. Floating ice often insulates and protects animals and plants living in the water below.

Buoyancy Buoyancy is an important property that applies to all fluids, including water. If you weigh an object in air and then weigh the same object suspended in water, you will find that the object weighs less when suspended in water. This is because the water exerts and upward force on a submerged object. This upward force is referred to as buoyancy.

For some people it is easier to learn to swim in salt water than in fresh water because salt water has more buoyant force than does fresh water. Our bodies float better in the salty water.

Specific Gravity

3 The crystal pattern formed when water freezes is an open, six sided (hexagonal) structure. Frozen water molecules in ice are farther apart than are liquid water molecules: open spaces exist within the structure of the frozen (ice) mass that do not occur in liquid water masses. 21 Specific Gravity refers to the weight of a substance as compared to an equal volume of water. Water is the standard for calculating the specific gravity of solids and liquids. If we find that one cubic foot of iron is 7.6 times as heavy as one cubic foot of water, we say that the specific gravity of iron is 7.6.

Specific gravity can be used to identify certain types of matter. Every specific type of matter has its own characteristic value for specific gravity.

Boiling and Freezing Pure water at sea level boils at 100ºC and freezes at 0ºC. At higher elevations (lower atmospheric pressures) water’s boiling temperature decreases. This is why it takes longer to boil an egg at higher altitudes. The temperature does not get high enough to cook the egg properly.

If a substance is dissolved in water, then the freezing point of the water is lowered. Thus, when salt is sprinkled on ice, the ice appears to melt. In fact, salt; a hydroscopic substance; readily bonds with the water molecules in the ice. This bonding effectively breaks down the ice structure, releasing molecules which return to their liquid form. The salt dissolves in the liquid water, which now has a lower freezing point (since it has salt dissolved in it). Simple, non?

Thermal Properties Scientists have found that one gram of water requires 2,500 joules of heat to change into a gas at its boiling temperature (100ºC). Pure water boils at 100ºC, but extra energy is needed to push water molecules into the air. This is called latent heat - heat required to change water from one phase to another. The specific heat of water is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of liquid water one degree Celsius. One gram of water requires 4.18 joules to raise its temperature 1ºC. This is a relatively high ratio - in fact, water absorbs or releases more heat than many substances for each degree of temperature increase or decrease. Because of this, water is used for cooling and for transferring heat in thermal and chemical processes.

Since a great deal of heat is required to raise the temperature of water, large bodies of water have a moderating effect on our climate. Large bodies of water, like the Atlantic Ocean or the Great Lakes, are the world’s great heat reservoirs and heat exchangers. They are also the source of much of the moisture that falls as rain and snow over adjacent land masses.

On hot days, water slowly absorbs heat slowly, which has a cooling effect on the surrounding air. When the air cools to below water temperature, the effect is reversed, and water gives off heat. In Atlantic Canada, the ocean affects our climate by curbing the extreme temperatures of both winter and summer. Another example of this effect is found at the beach: have you ever found the sand hot to the point of burning, while the temperature of the water at the shore was temperate or even cool? 22 When water is colder than the air, precipitation is curbed, winds are reduced, and fog banks are formed. Local fog or mist is likely to occur if a lake cools the surrounding air enough to cause saturation (small water droplets are suspended in the air).

Energy is also lost when water freezes. Water molecules release 334 joules of energy for every gram when moving from the high energy phase of liquid water to the low energy phase of ice. That is why nights when ice is freezing often feel warmer than nights when ice melts.

Surface Tension At first glance, water seems to be without strength - it flows and drips and condenses seemingly effortlessly. However, molecules of water stick to each other very well, creating a very powerful surface tension.

Water molecules on the edge of a water drop hold closely together, forming a very tight layer. You can see this surface tension in action when you watch a water droplet form on the tip of a leaf. The drop ‘sticks’ to the leaf as it slowly swells to form the drop. The surface of the water acts as its own sack, holding itself together, slowly stretching and expanding until the weight of the droplet finally becomes too great for the surface tension and the droplet falls. Surface tension also permits water to hold up substances heavier and more dense than water itself. For example, a needle or paper clip will float on the surface of a full water glass, if placed very carefully.

Surface tension allows many aquatic insects, like water spiders and pod skaters, to ‘walk’ across rivers and streams. Next to mercury, water has the highest surface tension of all commonly occurring liquids.

Surface tension is essential to the transfer of energy from wind to water that creates waves. Waves are necessary for rapid oxygen diffusion in lakes and seas.

Adhesion and Cohesion Water molecules bind not only to other water molecules, but also to other types of molecules. Attraction between two unlike substances such as water and glass is called adhesion. When water sticks to a surface, it is because of the forces of attraction between the two different substances involved.

The adhesion of water to soil particles is an important factor in agriculture. The forces of adhesion can pull water to the surface, where it can be used by plants.

Cohesion is a force which holds a solid or liquid together, owing the attractions between molecules. Whereas adhesive forces attract different types of molecules, cohesive forces attract molecules within a substance. Cohesive forces decrease with temperature increases.

Capillary Action Capillary action helps explain the ability of water to ‘climb’. Water molecules spread a thin film by leapfrogging over one another and then clinging to the surface of the substance over which they are moving. Moving through the roots of a tree up into its long trunk, water can climb up to 50 metres above ground level. Water will also move long distances through the soil by spreading its moist film from particle to particle. This is how water readily wets many materials. Capillary action allows a paper towel or a sponge to be used to soak up spilled water.

23 Another example of capillary action can be observed by looking at water in a thin glass tube (a test tube or tall, thin drinking glass will do). The molecules at the edge reach for and adhere to the molecules of the glass just above them. At the same time they tow other water molecules along with them. The water surface, in turn, pulls the entire body of water to a new level until the downward force of gravity is too great to overcome.

Meniscus In the case described, the free surface of the water curves, so that water is seen to rise up along the sides of the cylinder slightly. The curved surface of the liquid is referred to as the meniscus. The curved surface of water is unique: if another liquid, such as mercury was placed in the cylinder, the curved surface would be opposite to that of water. This difference is due to the difference in the degree of attraction between the molecules in the liquids. Mercury has strong attractive forces between the mercury molecules (good cohesive force), but does not have strong attractive forces with the molecules of the glass container (weaker adhesive force).

Did You Know?

q Raindrops are not tear-shaped. Scientists, using high-speed cameras, have discovered that raindrops actually resemble the shape of a small hamburger bun.

q About 70% of the human body is water.

q Life on earth probably originated in water.

q The human body needs 2 litres of water a day in our climate; we can last only a few days without water. q Most of our food is water: tomatoes are about 95% water, spinach is about 91% water, milk is about 90% water, apples contain about 85% water, potatoes are about 80% water, beef is about 61% water and hot dogs contain about 56% water. 24

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Water Science Activities

26 Water Tricks - #1 Just for Fun! Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will be able to identify and discuss cohesion.

Water molecules are attracted to each other due to their molecular structure. This is known as cohesion. A familiar example of a cohesive device is glue (the students suggest other cohesive devices and look up the word ‘cohesion’ in a dictionary). Water molecules stick together unless their cohesive bonds are weakened. Adding soap to a body of water is one way to weaken the bonds between water molecules.

Materials q Roll of waxed paper q copies of the Water Maze (original provided) q tape q eyedropper q toothpicks q watch with a second hand q liquid soap q ruler

Procedure Hand out the Water Tricks Score Card (original attached).

Pose the question, “how can your water drop be guided through the maze?”. Ask the student to hypothesize (predict) how the drop will be moved. Once they have determined a method of moving the drop (guiding it by using the toothpick), ask them to predict how long it will take to move the drop through the maze (Water Race).

Tape a piece of waxed paper over top of the maze to protect it. Place a water drop inside the circle on the maze. Ask the students to move the water drop through the maze with a toothpick. If the drop separates, instruct them to go back, collect it, then continue (you may ask the students to imagine that the drop is a dog, and the toothpick is a leash). Time how long it takes to move the drop through the maze and record the actual time. Calculate the difference.

Ask the students to predict how long the water drop may be stretched. Record the predictions, then, in three to five trials, stretch the water drop. Record the longest stretch and calculate the difference between the predicted length of stretch and the actual.

Show the students the effect of soap on cohesion by dipping the toothpick in soap before beginning the second trial of the water maze activity. The water drop disperses and will not be pulled along by the toothpick. Be sure to tape fresh waxed paper over the maze after introducing the soap, and to use fresh toothpicks and water. Soap residue (no matter how diluted) will spoil the results of this activity.

Extension Ask the students to imagine the implications of this activity in their everyday lives. 27 Water Tricks #2 Just for Fun! Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will be able to identify and discuss surface tension.

Aluminum should sink when placed in water because its density is greater than that of water. However, when a piece of foil is place flat on the surface of water, it can float. This is because the surface tension of water is strong enough to hold up the foil (much as a heavy ship floats in the ocean). Surface tension is caused by the cohesion of the water molecule. The molecules below the surface of the water are attracted equally in all directions. While those on the surface are only attracted to the sides and down. This causes the surface of the water to ‘contract’ and act like it is covered with a film. The surface tension of water is strong enough to hold up some objects more dense than water. This is also why insects, such as the water strider, are able to walk on the water.

Materials q Aluminum foil cut in 5" squares q water q plastic bowls

Procedure Ask the students to predict whether the aluminum foil will float or sink when it is placed on the water. Demonstrate that the 5" x 5" square will float. Ask the students to predict how many times they can fold the 5" x 5" square of aluminum foil before it sinks in the bowl. Have the students record the answers on the Water Tricks Score Card (copy attached).

Fold, or have the students fold, the aluminium in half once, and attempt to float the aluminum. Continue folding the aluminum and placing it carefully (parallel) on the surface of the water until the aluminum sinks. Ask the groups to record the actual number of times they were able to fold the aluminum, and calculate and record the difference between their prediction and the actual result.

Extension This activity may be extended to include fractions and exponents. Each time the foil is folded in half, the students decrease the area of the aluminum by a power of two. After three folds, you have only 1/8 of the original surface area; after four folds, 1/16.

Try floating other materials - wood chips, pieces of plastic, etc.. 28 Water Tricks #3 Just for Fun! Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, English Language Arts extension

Purpose Students will be able to identify and discuss the principle of adhesion.

Water is able to travel through the narrow spaces between the fibres of paper towels by capillary action (much as ground water moves through an aquifer). The attractive force that exists between water molecules and paper fibres is greater than the cohesive force between water molecules. Attraction between unlike molecules is called adhesion.

Materials q 3 different brands of paper towels (use the towelling found in the school washrooms for one brand!) q rulers q pencils q tape q bowls or cups for water q water

Procedure You may wish to include an English Language Arts component by asking the students to design and write a television commercial based on the results of their experiments.

Ask the students to predict which paper towel will absorb water the quickest and why they chose that particular towel. Record the responses on the Water Tricks Score Card.

Mark each strip of paper towel at 18 cm. The students tape the strips to a pencil at equal distances and dip all three brands into the bowl or cup of water simultaneously. The paper towels may take either a very quick dip, or the towels may be held underwater (evenly) while the students watch the water being absorbed up the towel. In which strip does the water reach the 18 cm mark first?

Students record which paper towel absorbs quickest. Students calculate the difference between their predication and the actual result.

Extension Use other absorbent materials in the experiment and construct a comparative graph with the results. Ask the students to interpret, from the graph, which material(s) would act as a more environmentally-responsible alternative to using paper towelling in their homes (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).

29 Water Tricks Score Card

Water Tricks Score Card Event Prediction Actual Difference Water Race

Water Stretch

Fold & Float

Absorption

30 161

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Hard Water, Soft Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics

Purpose Students will observe, classify and order water samples according to their degree of hardness or softness. Students should be able to describe the difference between hard and soft water and determine which type of water is better for cleaning by the end of this activity.

Pure water does not exist, except in the lab. When water is considered pure, it is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom - H20. But water mixes with many things - as a raindrop, it mixes with minerals in the soil and carries those minerals with it to the ground water or as it flows toward a stream or river. When water is full of minerals, it is known as hard water. When water has a few quantities of calcium and magnesium in it, it is generally called soft water. Distilled water is water that has been softened.

Hard water can cause problems in plumbing because it deposits minerals in the pipes, causing a build up. You can tell if you have hard water at home if it is difficult to get a lather when shampooing or if there isn’t much sudsing when you are washing dishes by hand. Soft water produces more suds and, therefore, it is better for cleaning. Many people install water softeners in their homes for that reason. Water softeners use salts to remove most of the calcium and magnesium from tap water.

Materials q distilled water q tap water q bottled water q salt water q food colouring q liquid soap q 4 baby food jar with lids for each group q 1 eye dropper per group q paper, pen/pencil

Procedure Divide the students into small groups. Mix a salt water solution of one TBSP of salt per litre of tap water (or use sea water). Provide each group with 60 ml of each type of water, coloured with food colouring (red for tap water, blue for distilled water, yellow for salt water, green for bottled water).

Ask the students to predict which of the samples will ‘suds up’ the most. Have them determine what might affect the amount of suds. Explain the concepts of hard and soft water to the class, and indicate that this experiment will determine the softness or hardness of each water sample. 32

Have one student per group record the results of the experiment on a sheet of paper, along with each groups’ predictions.

Add 2 drops of liquid soap to each water sample and tighten the lid. Shake all jars for either the same amount of time (1 minute) or for the same number of shakes. Encourage the students to use equal force while shaking the samples. Gather the results for further discussion.

Extension Test different types of water - try rain water, melted snow, lake, stream or pond water. Ask the students to guess what types of materials are present in these waters and imagine how they came to be there. Have the students bring water samples from home.

Survey the different types of water and graph the results (including the results of the original experiment).

Which is cheaper, bottled water or softened water? Make a graph of the costs of each. Ask the students to survey bottled water users.

Try using water softening salts to soften a hard water sample and note the results.

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Water Mixer Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students review the physical properties of water and discover how water reacts when mixed with different substances. Students investigate similarities and differences existing between water, cooking oil, food colouring, vinegar and salt. They observe water mixing with these substances and use their five senses to classify the outcome of each mixing experiment.

During this activity, students will review the physical properties of water, hypothesize the outcome of each experiment and discover how water reacts differently with various substances.

Materials (for each student/group of students): 5 clear glasses water 5 clear containers (clear plastic glasses work well) 3 TBSP cooking oil 3 TBSP vinegar 2 TBSP food colouring 2 TBSP salt 2 TBSP baking soda

Procedure 1. Fill each glass with water 2. Display vinegar, oil, food colouring, salt and baking soda in separate containers. 3. Ask students to complete Activity Chart #1. 4. Add 3 TBSP of vinegar to glass #1. 5. Add 3 TBSP of oil to glass #2. 6. Add 2 TBSP of food colouring to glass #3. 7. Add 2 TBSP of salt to glass #4. 8. Add 2 TBSP of baking soda to glass #5. 9. Observe and compare how water has mixed with each of the materials. 10. Have students complete Activity Chart #2.

Discussion See Teacher’s Notes to Activity Chart #1 and Activity Chart #2.

Extension Students can draw connections between this activity and their daily lives by identifying where they have seen similar reactions occur in different environments.

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Water Mixer Activity Chart #1 Teacher’s Notes “Describe each of these substances” Water Vinegar Oil Salt Baking Soda Food Colouring Colour clear clear yellow white grains white powder red, green, blue, yellow very small white yellow, etc brown grains (depending on red the colour being (depending on used) the type of vinegar used) Smell no smell very strong smell no smell or very no smell no smell no smell light smell (some students may say they ‘smell’ salt) Taste no particular sour, strong, thick, oily taste very salty salty no taste taste acidic Feel wet, not sticky wet, not sticky, oily, maybe dry, small grains dry, powdery liquid, thicker similar to water sticky, much grains than water thicker than water 35

Water Mixer Activity Chart #2 Teacher’s Notes “What happened when you added ______to the water?” Vinegar Oil Salt Baking Soda Food Colouring Water diluted the Oil floats to the top - Water seems to melt Water begins to bubble Food colouring disperses vinegar bubbles up to the top in some of the salt. (you can hear it bubble). through the glass of water large, flat circles - billowy show. Vinegar changed the Oil and water did not Salt grains float to the Water colour may blur Colour slowly travels colour of the water (if really mix - separated bottom of the glass and (become clouded), but through the water. coloured vinegar was out after a short period slowly dissolve if not eventually returns to clear used) had elapsed mixed. state. Water tastes sour after Oily film sits on top of Water remains the same Water smells faintly salty Water changes colours - the vinegar was added the water colour, but smells and and tastes salty. becomes the same/almost tastes salty. the same as the food colouring. The water smelled like Salt seems to disappear Baking soda sinks to the Water tastes the same. vinegar after mixing. bottom of the glass and slowly dissolves. If mixed, baking soda dissolves more quickly and bubbles are renewed.

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Water Mixer Activity Chart #1 Describe each of the following substances in the space provided. Water Vinegar Oil Salt Baking Soda Food Colouring Colour

Smell

Taste

Touch

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Water Mixer Activity Chart #2 Describe what happened when you added each of these things to the water in the glass. Vinegar Oil Salt Baking Soda Food Colouring (before mixing) (before mixing) (before mixing) (before mixing) (before mixing)

Vinegar Oil Salt Baking Soda Food Colouring (after mixing) (after mixing) (after mixing) (after mixing) (after mixing)

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Good Water Grade 6 Science, Mathematics

Purpose Students will measure ph, nitrates, and phosphates as indicators of water quality.

Nitrate and Phosphate levels increase when excess amounts of fertilizers or sewage water enter waterways. Nitrate levels above 1 part per million (ppm) indicate contamination. Phosphate levels above 0.1 ppm may cause explosive algae growth. When these algal mats die, the decay process depletes the water of dissolved oxygen and so endangers the aquatic habitat.

In 1909, S.P. Sorensen introduced the pH scale to measure the “potential of Hydrogen”. PH refers to the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) on a scale of 1 to 14. On this scale, pH values of less than 7 indicate an acid, while those greater than 7 indicate a base (alkaline substance). Pure water is neither an acid nor a base - it is a neutral with a pH value of 7. Vinegar has a pH of 3. Rainwater is slightly acidic with a pH of 6.5. Ammonia has a pH of 11 or 12. Most fish tolerate a pH range of between 6 and 8.5.

Materials q water samples from various sources (school water fountain, home, etc.) q plastic vials with tops (cleaned, emptied pill bottles will do) q neutral litmus paper (available from Boreal: 1-800-387-9393; perhaps from local pharmacies; your local high school may be able to provide small amounts) q nitrate and phosphate testing kit (Boreal; local hospital or pharmacy; call the Department of Natural Resources to borrow; local museum; local high school)

Procedure 1. Collect water samples from various sources. Label each sample, contained in a clean plastic vial, with the location of the sample, date and time of day the sample was taken.

2. Test samples with litmus paper in the classroom. Estimate the pH values. Which samples are acidic?

3. Test the samples using the phosphate and nitrate testing kits. Are all water samples equal?

4. Have the students record their observations in a report or on a chart or bar graph.

Extensions Watch the weather. Collect samples again after a rainstorm or an extended dry period. Do pH values change? Do phosphate or nitrate values change? Can the students imagine why the values may or may not change?

Use the local or school library to research acid rain. What types of compounds cause acid rain. What types of industries contribute the most to acid rain production? Has your area been affected by acid rain? 39

One Drop at a Time Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics

Purpose Students will estimate and measure how much water is used during everyday activities

See the Section “Water Facts” for statistics relating to national water consumption.

Materials q empty 2 litre milk or juice jug q empty 2 litre plastic bottle

Procedure 1. Discuss water usage around the home. Have students estimate how many litres some household appliances use and how much the students would use showering or brushing their teeth. Write these estimates down for students and/or the class to keep as a record.

2. Discuss and explore methods of measuring water usage at home. Suggest considering a timing an activity and repeating the activity while catching the water in a jug or bottle. For example, students could record the time they spend brushing their teeth with the water running, then after the activity is completed, run the water from the faucet for the same period of time while catching the faucet water in a container. Students would measure the amount of water they actually used during each activity and report back to the class.

3. Check with manufacturers or local furniture/appliance/plumbing stores for average washing machine, toilet, and dishwasher water usage (or refer to other activities contained in this Kit).

4. Compare the data received with data received during students’ home measuring experiments.

5. Discuss ways to save water at home.

Extensions Have students groups develop a plan to save 25% of the water they are currently using at home. Can their plans be implemented easily? If they can be, the students may develop and commit to a conservation contract aimed at actual reduction of their water consumption. Solicit parental support for this project.

(English Language Arts, Social Studies) Contact your local water utility for an estimate of your area’s total average water needs. Can the students apply conservation principles to formulate a water stewardship or resource management programme for the area? Conduct a mock parliament to debate the merits of the programme with students representing members of environmental agencies, government, the local citizenry, and representatives of industry. Discuss the points of view which might exist between the various parties. 40

Water Weight Grades 5, 6 Science, Mathematics

Purpose Students will investigate water pressure and compare the results of differing pressures on a flow of water.

Scientists measure pressure in atmospheres. One atmosphere of pressure equals 1 kg/cm². As divers descend in water, each 10 m adds another atmosphere of pressure. In the deep sea, pressure ranges from 300 to 500 atmospheres.

Humans have SCUBA dived as deep as 66.5 m (what is the water pressure in atmospheres at this point?). At such pressures, our blood absorbs gases (like nitrogen) from the compressed air we breathe. If we return to the surface too quickly, the gas expands in our bloodstream, causing painful bubbles in tissues and around joints.

Materials q copy of Water Weight Table (copy provided) q two 2 litre bottles q funnel q grease pencil (available at stationery and art-supply stores) q clean overhead transparency q nail q large tub or sink

Procedure 1. Starting at the bottom of one bottle, have student groups measure and mark in a straight line the following four spots: 4 cm, 8 cm, 12 cm, 16 cm.

2. Push the nail through these marks to make four holes in the bottle. Make sure that the holes line up in a straight vertical line.

3. Place the bottle in a sink or tub (water will be spilling!) on the edge of the clean overhead transparency.

4. Mark the bottle’s position on the transparency sheet with the grease pencil.

5. Use the other bottle and the funnel to pour water into the bottle with the holes.

6. Small streams of water will flow out of the holes. Using a grease pencil, mark the spot where each stream of water lands.

Which stream shoots farthest? Why? What happens as the water level decreases?

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How far above the hole must the water level be for it to create a stream away from the bottle, rather than just trickling down the side of the bottle.

Extensions (English Language Arts, science) Use the library to research how hydroelectric power is generated. How do dams create extra weight for more pressure (and power) to turn the turbines.

Grades 4, 5, 6 (English Language Arts, Social Studies) Research how water power was used traditionally to power Nova Scotian industries. Research current small-scale hydroelectric operations in Nova Scotia. Visit the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry to see water power in action. Visit Sherbrooke Village or Balmoral Grist Mill to see actual examples of water powered mills.

Grades 4, 5, 6 (English Language Arts, Science) Research how scientists cope with deep-sea dives. Investigate and report on famous deep-sea expeditions (Titanic, for example), and how scientists prevented exploratory vessels from collapsing.

Research species of deep-sea fish and report on how they have adapted to their environments. 42

Water Weight Name:______Hole Measurement Water stream distance from base of Comments: bottle 4 cm from bottom

8 cm from bottom

12 cm from bottom

16 cm from bottom

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Aquatic Notes Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will explore how the mass of water can affect sound vibrations.

Sound is a form of energy (a vibration) that travels through the air in waves. Sound vibrations have different frequencies. Scientists measure frequency in vibrations per second, or Hertz (Hz). Our sense of hearing interprets the changes in frequencies as a change in pitch. A low-pitched sound has a low frequency. A high-pitched sound has a high frequency. You can change the frequency of a vibrating object by changing its structure. A more secure object may vibrate faster than a loose object when struck.

An easy way to change the structure of a cup it to add weight - fill it with water. As the glass I filled, it becomes more stable and vibrates slower when struck. Sound travels 1,450 metres per second in seawater that has a density of 1.025 grams per cm³ and 334 metres per second through air at 20ºC that has a density of 0.001293 grams per cm³.

Materials q variously shaped and sized drinking glasses (all of the same material - glass works best - and of the same relative thickness) q pencil or other instrument with which to strike the glasses q pitcher of water

Procedure 1. Divide students into groups and assign each group to one shape of cup. Fill cups with water to different levels. 2. Students gently tap the rim of each cup with their pencil. They should hear different pitches: the cups should vibrate at different frequencies. 3. After they’ve tapped the rims several times, ask students to note whether there is any difference in the sounds, and why, if there is a difference, is there a difference. Note: more water makes the sides of the cups more stable and the vibration is slower, which results in lower pitch. 4. Student groups may hear different pitches for different shaped cups filled to the same level. Tall, thin glasses may vibrate faster than short, wide glasses.

Extensions Grade 6 Test the pitch of the cups using a less dense liquid than water (like rubbing alcohol which has a density of 0.791 grams per cm³) or a more dense liquid (like glycerin at 1.26 grams per cm³). Is there a difference in the pitch?

Grades 4, 5, 6 (Music) Students can compare which musical notes are produced by the glasses by comparing sounds with a known musical instrument, such as a piano or guitar.

(English Language Arts) Students may research and report on the ability of some sea creatures (like dolphins and whales) to communicate via sound. 44

Salty Solutions Grade 6 Science, Mathematics

Purpose Students will learn about and use one method of measuring salt content in water.

Open ocean water has a uniform salinity of about 35 parts per thousand or 35 grams of dissolved solids per 1,000 grams of water. Chlorine and sodium account for the majority (more than 85%) of these dissolved solids. Other solids occurring regularly in sea water include sulfate, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Tidal marshes, wetlands and estuaries experience varying salinity values, depending on the addition of fresh water.

Materials q four plastic, litre bottles with the tops cut off q salt q water q scale q waterproof markers or grease pencils (available at stationery stores) q hydrometer (available from Boreal catalogue, or one can usually be borrowed from a high school science lab or local museum)

Procedure 1. Divide students into four groups and give each a bottle. Fill the bottles with water (lukewarm). A litre bottle holds about 1,814 grams of water - add water to bring the weight of the bottle to about 1,800 grams (you’ll have to test this activity out beforehand to determine approximately to what level on the bottle the students will add water).

2. Students weigh the bottles and record their findings on the chart provided (next page).

3. Three groups add salt to their bottles to create differing salinities. Students stir in the salt until it is completely dissolved.

q to one group’s bottle add 63.5 grams of salt for a salinity of about 35 ppt q to another group’s bottle add 31.75 grams of salt for a salinity of about 17 ppt q to the third group’s bottle add 15.8 grams of salt for a salinity of about 8.7 ppt

Leave the fourth group’s bottle free of salt (0 ppt). Mark water levels on bottles with waterproof markers or grease pencils.

4. Use the hydrometer to chart the reading for the three solutions and the ‘salt-free’ water.

5. Set all four bottles on a table in the classroom near a window (where sun can reach the bottles) but away from any heat sources. Chart the changes in water levels and salinity (using the hydrometer) over a two or three day period. As water is lost through evaporation, how does salinity change?

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Extensions Do weather patterns affect salinity? Ask the students to predict whether or not weather patterns affect salinity and record their hypothesis. Then, leave the bottles outside on a rainy day. Check with the local weather channel for information about the predicted/received rainfall totals, and compare those totals to the rainfall caught in the students’ bottles. Test the salinity of the water in the bottles after the rainfall and record the changes. Try leaving the bottles in the sun for a protracted period of time. Again, test and record the salinity of the samples.

Ask the students to imagine the implications of their findings. Ask the students to research information about the Dead Sea. Can they see the correlation between their findings and that body of water?

Use varying weights of water in the bottles and varying amounts of salt. Have the students calculate the salinity of the water by dividing the weight of salt by the weight of water in the bottle. The resulting number, multiplied by 1,000 equals the salinity of the water in parts per thousand (ppt). Can the students explain, mathematically, what effect weather patterns have on salinity? 46

Salty Solutions Bottle Weight with Weight of Hydrometer After 3 Days After 5 Days Rainfall Hydrometer Water salt added Reading Amount Reading 1

2

3

4

Salty Solutions Name:______Bottle Weight Weight of Salt Calculation Percentage of Hydrometer After 3 Days After 5 Days (with water) added Salt Reading 1

2

3

4

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The Water Cycle Educator'sNotes

The fresh water resources of the Atlantic Provinces are related to the larger water resources of the oceans and the atmosphere, which go well beyond our provincial or national boundaries. The total amount of water in the world is estimated at over a billion cubic kilometres. While its forms may change from oceans to clouds, to precipitation, to rivers, to ice fields, and so on, the total quantity of water has remained constant for the past 3 to 5 million years. A closer look reveals that only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh. Most of this is locked into glaciers and polar ice caps. Of the remainder, 12.3% is underground and 0.4% is above ground as rivers, lakes and water vapour. This mans that only one hundredth of one percent of the Earth’s total water serves humankind’s fresh water needs.

This comparatively small amount of water, which is essential to life on land, is constantly being exchanged between the Earth and the atmosphere. The endless circulation of water from the atmosphere to the Earth and its return to the atmosphere through condensation, precipitation, evaporation and transpiration is called the Hydrologic Cycle.

The Hydrologic Cycle All of the water on Earth continually cycles through a process which sees water changing its location or physical state through thermal reactions. In accordance with the law of conservation of matter, water is not created or destroyed in this process; it simply changes form. Water can be found in all three states of matter during the Hydrologic Cycle: solid (in the form of ice), liquid (in fluid water) and gaseous (in the form of water vapour). Hydrology is the study of the movement and distribution of the waters of the earth.

The Hydro logic Cycle (or Water Cycle, as it is commonly known) as it operates in the Atlantic region, generates a high annual precipitation. Rivers, lakes and groundwater reserves are continually being replenished, although the process varies with local geology. In Newfoundland and Labrador, predominantly rocky land surfaces often mean a quick runoff after a rain or snow melt. Just the opposite is true in Prince Edward Island, where a great deal of precipitation (about 20%) infiltrates the porous soil cover4. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have land areas which demonstrate both extremes.

The heating of ocean water by the sun is the key process that keeps the hydrologic cycle in motion. As liquid water is heated, its surface molecules become sufficiently energized to break free of the attractive force binding them together, and evaporation takes place. 97% of all water vapour comes from the world’s oceans which serve as massive storage tanks in the hydrologic cycle.

4 1982 statistic. 48

Water can also evaporate from ground moisture, rivers, and lakes, directly from snow and ice (sublimation) and even from rain drops and they fall to the ground. Plants also give off vapour through their leaves (transpiration). A large oak tree, for example, can give off more than 136,000 litres of transpired water in a year. As much as 40% of Canadian water is evaporated or transpired.5

As water vapour rises higher in the atmosphere, it cools until it condenses into a liquid form once more. Such vapour often condenses around tiny particles of dust floating through the air. When enough water droplets combine together, they form a cloud. As the air continues to cool, the cloud becomes saturated with water droplets and it begins to rain. When water returns to the surface of the Earth in the form of rain, snow, sleet or hail, it is called precipitation.

Some precipitation is intercepted by plants, but most falls to the Earth’s surface and begins to move toward the ocean through the established carrier system of streams, lakes and rivers. Some will infiltrate the Earth to become ground water. Even within the ground, water continues to flow. It can percolate through cracks and pores in soil and rocks down to the water table below; it can move back up to the surface by capillary action; or it can move horizontally under the Earth’s surface until it re-enters a surface water system.

The basic pattern of the hydrologic cycle seems very simple: Evaporation - Condensation - Infiltration - Runoff. But the cycle is not as smooth or regular as it first may seem. There are often seasons when one aspect of the cycle may dominate. Although the cycle balances what goes up with what comes down, one phase of the cycle is ‘frozen’ in the colder regions during the winter season. During the Canadian winter, for example, most of the precipitation is simply stored as snow or ice on the ground. Later, during the spring melt, huge quantities of water are released quickly, which results in heavy spring runoff and (potentially) flooding. Alternatively, in the summer, extensive evaporation and transpiration during long hot spells may decrease stream levels.

The sun’s heat or solar energy draws water into the atmosphere through evaporation, and it is the Earth’s gravity that returns the water to the Earth’s surface as precipitation. The majority of fresh water use takes place in the surface and groundwater stages of the hydrologic cycle

It is hard to believe that there could ever be a serious water shortage problem in Nova Scotia. Our total annual precipitation is fairly high - approximately 1,200 - 1,400 millimetres compared to between 750 and 950 millimetres in central Ontario or between 250 and 400 millimetres in southern Saskatchewan. Flying over our province, you see countless lakes, rivers and streams.

The problem with Nova Scotia’s water resources (freshwater) is that while there is a great deal of water available in the province, most of it cannot be used for drinking water supply without extensive treatment.

5 1992 statistic. 49

6 The Ocean In a way, we are the ocean and the ocean is us. Life probably began in the ocean and thrived there for more than three billion years before some proto-amphibian gathered up its courage and slopped onto the dirt! All of us - humans, wombats and redwoods - still carry an ocean inside. Our blood, eggs, the fluid behind the corneas of our eyes and the insides of our cells are salt water. Just as about 3/4 of the Earth’s surface is salt water, about 3/4 of each of us is salt water.

The ocean has a profound effect on our planet and on ourselves. It moderates and affects weather. The majority of the Earth’s oxygen is generated by ocean plants, and most of the Earth’s reservoir of carbon dioxide (a gas critical to plant survival and the control of climate) is dissolved in the ocean. The ocean provides us with an immense amount of food and other natural resources, and 90% of the world’s trade is transported on its waves. If it weren’t for the ocean, there probably would be no life on Earth.

How Big is the Ocean and What’s it Really Like? The Earth is a water planet. The ocean covers 71% of its surface (61% of the Northern Hemisphere and 81% of the Southern Hemisphere). We use the term “ocean” because it is a single entity. Traditionally, we have divided the waters into ‘oceans’; the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian; and ‘seas’; the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Baltic; using various land masses as boundaries. In reality, these terms are just for our convenience - all of these water masses are interconnected and water flows freely throughout. As far as its chemical makeup is concerned, cups of seawater taken from all parts of the world are almost identical. Because it’s all from the world ocean.

The ocean covers 139 million square miles and its average depth is about 12, 450 feet. By comparison, the average height of the land is 2,772 feet. And it’s cold, too. The average ocean y so cold? Because most of the ocean is deep and, even in the tropics, deep water is cold water.

How deep is the ocean and where is the deepest spot in the ocean? The deepest spot is the Challenger Deep, and additional divot in the cavernous Mariana Trench, located just east of Guam. The ocean floor at this spot is 36,163 feet from the surface. If you put Mount Everest into the Challenger Deep, there still would be 7,191 feet left before you broke the surface.

What’s the Ocean Made of? Most sea water (97.5%) is just that - water - but the rest is dissolved salts. While the most common salt in the ocean is “table salt”, made of sodium and chloride, salts also include compounds formed from various other constituents, such as sulfate, magnesium, calcium and potassium. In fact, sea water is a sort of “Earth Tea”, containing the dissolved atoms of probably every element on our planet. And while the most abundant elements in sea water are chloride and sodium, every cupful contains all the other elements, including such exotics as gold, silver and uranium.

6 Excerpted from the Teacher’s Guide to the IMAX film, “The Living Sea”. 50

So, why is the sea salty? First it’s salty because rivers dissolve and bring down bits of the earth’s crust and have been busily doing so for billions of years. Even thought rivers are ‘fresh’, they contain minute amounts of dissolved elements. But if you take river water and concentrate its salts, they are not in the same proportion as the salts in the ocean. River water has too little chloride. In other words, there is too little table salt in river water to explain its concentration in the ocean.

Fortunately, scientists have recently discovered another major source of the elements for the ocean - the Earth’s mantle.

The molten part of the Earth’s mantle comes to the surface as lava and hot gas. Since the ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, most volcanoes and gas vents are under water, and the materials that escape into the ocean are similar to the chemical composition of the sea. In particular, hot-water vents are a source of mineral-rich water. Hot-water vents occur when ocean water seeps into volcanic fissures, encounter subterranean magma, and return to the ocean loaded with chloride (and hot!).

So, the best explanation for the large amounts of salt in the sea is that much of the sodium in the ocean comes from rivers dissolving away the Earth’s crust, and much of the chloride comes form volcanic vents under the sea.

All of the salt we put on our food originates, one way of another, in the ocean. Worldwide, about one-third of our salt reserves are produced in huge evaporation ponds situated near salt water. The remainder comes from salt mines that recover salt laid down by the evaporation of ancient seas.7 Since salt originally came from the ocean, what is the difference between ‘table salt’ and ‘sea salt’? Table salt is almost pure sodium chloride. When salt manufacturers evaporate sea water, the first salt that comes out is calcite (calcium chloride). When this occurs, the brine is shifted to another pond, more evaporation occurs and gypsum (calcium sulphate) precipitates out. What is left in the brine is primarily sodium chloride, or table salt. Sea salt retains all of the other salts.

Life in the Ocean For all its size, most of the ocean’s life is concentrated in a very small portion, near the surface and in the shallow waters near coastlines. First, remember that most life in the water ultimately depends on sunlight. This is because the bottom of the food web is made up of plants, and these need light in order to survive. Even in very clear water, sunlight only penetrates a short distance, maybe 100 feet or so.

7 One such mine exists at Pugwash, Nova Scotia. 51

The layer of ocean where light penetrates is called the photic zone; this is where most of the action takes place. Since plants require sunlight for survival, all plants live in the photic zone.

The other reason most life lives in shallow water is that it is there that most plant nutrients are concentrated. Many of these nutrients (such as nitrates) are carried from the land by water (in rivers, for instance) and tend to stay near the coast. However, in a few select locations, plant nutrients are extremely concentrated, and here is where life really gets going. These are called upwelling areas.

Upwelling Upwelling is an extremely important process, one that has a profound effect on the productivity of the ocean. Upwelling is the process in which deep, cold, nutrient-rich water comes up to replace surface waters as they are moved offshore by winds. Most upwelling occurs along coastlines, and only a few coastlines at that. Major upwelling occurs along the coasts of California, Peru, Chile, West Africa and a few other scattered spots.

What effect does upwelling have? Well, first remember that microscopic plants (phytoplankton) absorb dissolved nutrients (such as nitrogen) from the water. Plants live near the ocean’s surface, so surface waters tend to be low in nutrients. On the other hand, deeper water has little phytoplankton and, therefore, lots of nutrients. When this nutrient-rich water hits the surface, phytoplankton starts reproducing. Phytoplankton forms the basis for most ocean food webs, and the more phytoplankton there is, the more phytoplankton eater can live in the system. For this reason, upwelling areas usually contain more organisms (by numbers or weight) than any other open ocean habitat.

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The Water Cycle Activities

54

Drop in the Bucket Grades 5, 6 Science, English Language Arts, Social Studies

Purpose Students will investigate the source(s) of the water they use.

Water covers three-quarters of Earth’s total surface, but less than half of one percent is available fresh water. An estimated 97% is seawater, another 2% is locked in polar icecaps and glaciers, and the rest of the unavailable water is trapped deep below the Earth’s surface. Available fresh water comes from many sources: surface rivers, streams, lakes; underground reservoirs or water tables; collected rainwater; and purified seawater.

Materials q information and material about your students’ water supply or supplies. See resource section of this document for some suggestions of where to find this information. q local travel map showing bodies of water

Procedure Have students work in groups to read and review the materials you have collected. Can they determine the water supply of their own or a local town? How many litres of water per day does the population of that town need?

The students may also determine the source of their own drinking water if they live in a rural area that is not served by a municipal water authority. How many litres of water does their water source supply (over a specified time period)? How many litres of water does their family extract from the source?

Have the students choose a local industry for examination. How does the industry use water?

Is there an emergency water supply to which the students’ town or families may turn in case of drought? How would the town or their family cope with a drought of several days’ duration?

Extensions To help explore some of the issues concerning water and water rights, have students discuss facts as a panel. Designate two groups as municipal government or water officials. Designate others to act as representatives of water users: residential, commercial, agricultural, I industrial.

Discuss certain issues (for example: drought, new business coming in, a new dam to be located upstream, local habitat loss) that require reallocation of water from existing supplies. 55

Simulate the Hydrologic Cycle Grades 4, 5, 6 Multi-disciplinary

Lead your class through a hydrologic cycle. Help your students visualize the movement of water by having each student draw and label his/her own hydrologic cycle on a piece of paper. Have your students think of experiments they could set up to show how water moves through the hydrologic cycle. Here are some suggested experiments:

1. Place a pan or pans of water in a sunny area of the classroom. The water will evaporate. The larger the surface area of water exposed to the air and sunlight, the greater the rate of evaporation.

2. Leave a humidifier running in the room and watch the condensation form on the windows.

3. Fill a tray with soil (sand will allow faster response). At one end of the tray, drill an outlet hole. Place a container below the outlet. Elevate one end of the tray slightly. Now, sprinkle water on the elevated end, allowing the water to soak into the soil. Some of the water will run off, forming a channel; the rest will move throughout the soil the length of the tray and eventually flow out of the opening into the container. This demonstration will show runoff, groundwater recharge, groundwater movement and storage, and discharge to a surface water body.

Tell your students that there is a great deal of water moving around the earth in the air, through the ground, in the rivers, etc.; however, the percentage of water stored in major sources (for example, oceans, seas, etc.) Remains relatively constant.

You can also tell your students that the Earth has the same amount of water today as it did a million years ago. People merely use it and pass it on. This should not be interpreted to mean that people haven’t changed the quality of some of the Earth’s water. Over many years of using water, some of the water has been contaminated. It can be concluded that the earth has the same amount of water, but some of the water is not suitable for use any longer. This reduces the amount of water available for human and animal water use. 56

Nature’s Waterwheel Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will identify and describe what ground water is, and will be able to identify and describe how the hydrologic cycle operates.

Hydrology is the study of the movement and distribution of the waters of the Earth. In nature, water circulates through a system called the water cycle or hydrologic cycle. This cycle begins when heat from the sun causes ocean water to evaporate and become water vapour. The atmosphere holds this water vapour while it gradually cools and condenses to form clouds. The water eventually falls as precipitation in the form of rain or snow. Most rain and snow falls back into the oceans, but some falls on the land and eventually either flows back to the seas or soaks into the land (percolation). The water which percolates into the ground is known as ground water, and it is eventually used by nature and either transpired or evaporated into the atmosphere, completing the cycle.

There are two main sources of fresh water on Earth: ground water and surface water. Surface water flows over the land in the form of lakes, rivers, and streams. Ground water seeps through the soil or through cracks and cavities in rock. Ground water is the source of water for wells and springs, and provides approximately 50% of the drinking water to Nova Scotian homes. Most rural areas depend heavily upon ground water for their needs. Ground water may be formed when precipitation percolates through the soil or when water from lakes and ponds seeps into the ground.

A layer or bed of porous earth materials which yields useful amounts of ground water is called an aquifer. Wells are drilled down to an aquifer to draw ground water to the surface. The surface of the aquifer is referred to as the water table.

If we draw more water from the aquifer than can be naturally recharged, then the water table is said to ‘drop’. Many regions of the world are using up their ground water supplies quicker than they can be recharged. This process is called water mining. Lowering the water table causes special problems in coastal areas, because salt water from the ocean can enter reservoirs of ground water if the buffer zone is diminished.

Pollution of ground water is a serious problem, particularly near cities and industrial sites. Pollutants that seep into the ground can come from contaminated surface water, leaks from sewage pipes and septic tanks, and from gasoline and chemical spills, among other things. Ground water may also be polluted by chemical fertilizers and buried radioactive wastes. 57

Materials q water q hot plate q tin or aluminum pie pan (the smaller, the better!) q ice cubes q Worksheets #1 and #2 q glass jar (such as a large mayonnaise jar) or glass pot (Visions pots work well)

Procedure 1. Place ice cubes in the pie pan to begin cooling the pan.

2. Place the jar or pot of water on the hot plate and wait for it to boil.

3. While waiting for the water to boil, pass out Worksheet #1. Read together and discuss.

4. Hold the pan of ice cubes over the steam from the boiling water. Steam from the boiling water condenses when it hits the cold ice cube pan. The condensed water then falls back to be changed to steam again, creating a water or hydrologic cycle.

5. Discuss the demonstration relating to Worksheet #1. Discuss how water seeps or infiltrates into the soil creating (and adding to, or recharging) ground water.

6. Pass out Worksheet #2. Ask the students to complete Worksheet #2 from memory. 58

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The Hydrologic Cycle

Evaporation: As water is heated by the sun, its surface molecules become energized enough to break free of the attractive force binding them together. They evaporate and rise as invisible vapour into the atmosphere.

Transpiration: Water vapour is also emitted from plant leaves by a process called transpiration. Every day a growing plant transpires five to ten times as much water as it can hold at any time.

Condensation: As water vapour rises, it cools and eventually condenses, usually on tiny particles of dust in the air. When water vapour condenses, it becomes a liquid again or turns directly into a solid (ice, hail or snow). These particles collect and form clouds.

Precipitation: Rain, snow and hail are all forms of precipitation that come from clouds. Clouds move around the world, propelled by air currents. When they rise over mountain ranges, they cool, becoming saturated, so that water begins to fall as rain, snow or hail, depending on the temperature of the surrounding air.

Surface Runoff: Some of the water that falls to the ground drains off by running across the land and surface into creeks, ponds, lakes and rivers that eventually take it back to the oceans.

Percolation: Surface water moves downward, or percolates, through cracks joints and pores in soil and rocks.

Water Table: The water table marks the change in the ground water zone between the zone of aeration, where some pores are open, and the underlying zone of saturation, in which water fills all the spaces in the soil and rocks.

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The Water Cycle Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose To create a student-sized example of the water cycle in action. This activity may be performed in sections, but requires a significant time commitment (seed germination). It is best performed when worked into a curriculum plan.

All of the water on Earth goes through a cycle in which the water changes its location or physical state through different processes. In accordance with the law of conservation of matter, water is not created or destroyed by this cycle: it just changes its form. Water can be found in all three states of matter during the cycle: solid (ice caps), liquid (lakes), and gaseous (water vapour).

There are five processes by which water moves through the cycle:

1. Water in oceans and lakes evaporates into the air.

2. Cool air in the atmosphere causes the water vapour in the air to condense into a cloud.

3. Precipitation from the cloud falls to the ground as rain, sleet or snow, depending on the air temperature and atmospheric conditions.

4. The water on the ground percolates throughout the soil and some of it is absorbed by plants.

5. As plants go through photosynthesis (converting water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to form their own food), they absorb water from the soil and release some of it back into the air through transpiration.

These patterns of change can vary, but the cycle occurs continuously. Water has been cycling by means of these processes since the beginning of time.

Materials q Three 2 litre pop bottles (with caps) q Crayon or marker to mark plastic bottles q Scissors q String q Empty film canister 62

Procedure

1. Remove the labels from the bottles.

2. Draw a line with marker or crayon just below the ‘shoulder’ of bottle A, as indicated in the diagram (right), keeping the line at the same height on the bottle all the way around.

3. Using the same method outlined in (2.), cut bottles B and C just above the ‘hips’, as indicated in the diagram (right).

4. Poke a hole in one bottle cap using an awl or a pin. The hole should be just large enough to thread your string through it. Place this cap on bottle B.

5. Cut a 40 cm length of string. Fold the string in half and insert the folded end through the cap hole to make a loop inside. Leave at least 5 cm of each end of the string hanging down from the cap.

6. Place a cap with no hole on bottle C. Tie 20 cm of string around the bottle neck, so that one end hangs down about 7 cm.

7. Assemble the bottle column: B inserts into A; C inserts into B. These three parts of your model will be referred to as ‘chambers’ for the rest of the activity.

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Create a Bottle Environment 1. Wet both strings thoroughly. Add 150 ml of water to Chamber A. This will be the water source for the cycle.

2. Fill Chamber B with enough moist soil to cover the loop of string (about 200 ml will do). The string should run up into the soil, and not be pressed against the side of the column (the students will not be able to see the string running through the soil).

3. Plant several fast-growing, hardy plant seeds in the soil around the sides of Chamber B. While the seeds are germinating, leave Chamber C off - this will help with air circulation and help the seeds grow.

4. Place the film canister (or another bottle cap if you don’t have a film canister) on top of the soil at the centre of Chamber B so that the wick tied to Chamber C hangs into it. If the film can will not fit between Chamber C and the soil, trim it with scissors. This is your rain collector.

5. Once your plants have germinated . . . Place Chamber C back on Chamber B and fill C with ice water.

6. The students are ready to draw the water cycle column and to begin filling in their observation sheets. Your finished water cycle column should look like this diagram:

64 Observation Sheet

Indicate what the following parts of the water cycle column represent:

a) The water and ice in Chamber C:

b) The film canister in Chamber B:

c) The water in Chamber A:

How are the following processes demonstrated in your water cycle column? a) Evaporation:

b) Transpiration:

c) Condensation:

d) Precipitation:

e) Percolation:

65 Experiments

How is your water cycle affected when:

a) you add acid (vinegar) to the water in Chamber A? Does water in other parts of the cycle become acidic?

Hypothesis:

Results:

b) you add acid to the soil in Chamber B? Does water in other parts of the cycle become acidic?

Hypothesis:

Results:

c) Draw and label a diagram of the water cycle chamber

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Diary of a Water Molecule Grades 4, 5, 6 English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Art

Purpose Students will trace a water molecule’s journey through the hydrologic cycle by writing a story about one molecule.

Water is the most abundant liquid in the world. It is also constant - we have the same amount of water on this planet today as we had millions of years ago! Water is continually being cycled through the hydrologic cycle - via evaporation, transpiration, condensation, percolation, precipitation. The water we drink today could have been part of the ocean when Port Royal was established, or it could have been part of a dinosaur’s bath!

Materials q looseleaf paper q pencils / pens

Procedure It might be mood-enhancing to play some water-related symphonic or instrumental music (softly) in the background as the students write.

Ask the students to image that they are a drop of water. They are to write a story about their life as a water molecule. The composition could take the form of a diary of where they have been in the past; a science-fiction, futuristic story about this molecule’s experiences in the 24 th Century; a description of how it feels to be part of the Atlantic Ocean, or a thunderstorm or a snowflake ... whatever their imagination decides.

Set aside a period of at least 15 minutes for them to write their stories, and another period of time if you wish to have them illustrate their compositions. You may want to set aside a couple of time periods during the week so that they may successfully complete their story (they may take as long as the first period simply to decide which aspect of water they wish to portray and jot down some relevant/salient points to include in their compositions).

Extension Use the stories and drawing created in a bulletin board about the water cycle.

Creative students may wish to write and perform a play about a water molecule for younger students in the school.

Some of the bolder students may read their works to the class or to other classes and/or other grades.

Include the compositions in a Water Book. 67

How Wet is Our Planet? Grade 6 Mathematics, Science

Objectives: Students will be able to describe the amount and distribution of water on the earth in oceans, rivers, lakes, groundwater, ice caps, and the atmosphere; students will make inferences about the importance of responsible water use.

The Earth has been called the water planet. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of its surface is water. The Earth’s water can be seen in flowing rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans, locked it he northern and southern ice caps, and drifting through the air as clouds. Water that has seeped into the earth’s crust (groundwater) is more difficult to see, yet all these forms of water are part of a dynamic, interrelated flow that we call the water cycle.

Each of the segments of the water cycle share a portion of the total amount of water on the planet. Students tend to think of water as being limitless, and yet simple calculations will demonstrate the fact that the amount of water on Earth is limited. Scientists believe that all the water we will ever have is on the Earth right now, and has been since the time of the dinosaurs. Whatever amount of water is available to humans and wildlife depends largely on how its quality is maintained. Human beings must act, individually and collectively, as stewards of this vital resource, conserving water, using it wisely, and protecting its quality.

The purpose of this activity is for students to acquire an understanding of how fragile a resource water is.

Materials: q large display map of the world q globe (one showing the ocean bottom is best) q aquarium q pens/pencils q calculators q measuring cup q 2 l container for every three students q measuring tablespoon (market in ml) for every three students 68

Procedure 1. Using a map of the Earth, begin a discussion of how much water is present on the planet. Ask students to comment on why the earth is called ‘the water planet’. Call the students’ attention to the statistic that between two-thirds and three-fourths of the surface of the Earth is covered with water. After general discussion, provide the students with the following percentages:

Water on Earth: Oceans 97.2% All ice caps/glaciers 2.0% Groundwater 0.62% Freshwater lakes 0.009% Inland seas/salt lakes 0.008% Atmosphere 0.001% All rivers 0.0001% Total 99.8381%

2. Discuss the relative percentages. Do the calculations for them, or ask the students to calculate the estimated amount of fresh water potentially available for human use:

Water Available for Human Use: Groundwater 0.62% Freshwater Lakes 0.009% Rivers 0.0001% Total 0.6291% Adding ice caps/glaciers 2.0% Total 2.6291%

3. Discuss these figures, emphasizing that the usable percentage of existing fresh water can be reduced by pollution and contamination. Also, all groundwater is not available and ice caps certainly are not readily available. Discuss the need of humans for usable fresh water. Ask the students to consider what other life forms need both fresh and salt water.

4. Show the students 5 gallons (___L) of water in an aquarium. Tell them how much is in the aquarium. Provide the student with the following quantity: 5 gallons = 1280 Tablespoons.

5. Have the students assume that the five gallons represent all the water on earth. Do the calculations for them or ask the students to calculate the volume of all the other quantities on the water percentage list. This will require the use of decimals. Remind the students that for multiplication all the decimal places must be shifted two places to the left so that the 97.2% becomes 0.972 before they multiply. For example: 0.972 x 1290 tablespoons = 1244.16 tablespoons. The following values result: 69

5 gallons 1.Oceans 1244.16 2.Ice caps/glaciers 25.60 3.Ground water 7.93 4.Freshwater Lakes 0.11 5.Inland Seas/Salt Lakes 0.1 6.Atmosphere 0.0128 7.Rivers 0.0012

6. Once the values are obtained, ask the students to calculate the volume of the water other than ocean water (it is approximately 34 Tablespoons). Ask them to divide up in teams of three and put 34 tablespoons of water in a container and take it to their workplaces.

7. At their workstations, ask the students to remove the amount of water represented by all freshwater lakes and rivers (it is 0.11 tablespoons, approximately on-tenth of a tablespoon). This is less than a drop. Discuss the relative proportions with the students.

8. Consider the fragile nature of the freshwater, wetlands and oceans of our planet. Discuss how all species depend upon this minute percentage of water for their survival. Summarize the activity by using an Earth globe to illustrate that if the Earth were ‘this size’ - the size of the glove - less than on-half cup (eight tablespoons) of water would fill all the oceans, rivers, lakes and ice caps. Also, emphasizing the importance of keeping the Earth’s waters clean and healthy and when we do use water, using it wisely and responsibly.

Extensions Ask the students to estimate the percentage of water that is distributed in each of the following areas of our planet: oceans, rivers, freshwater lakes, inland seas and saltwater lakes, groundwater, ice caps and glaciers and the atmosphere. Why is it important that humans use water responsibly?

Create a mural of the water cycle that graphically includes statistics which represent the relative amount of water in each component of the cycle. Calculate how much pollution is entering our waterways each year. The Information Please Almanac and The Cousteau Almanac are excellent resources for such information.

Calculate the size of a model of the earth that would accommodate all the water in the aquarium used in the demonstration. 70

Water for Life Educator’s Notes

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” Benjamin Franklin

As we approach the next millennium, our planet faces a critical shortage of clean, fresh water. The problem is not the supply of water - Earth has virtually the same amount today as it did when the dinosaurs roamed the planet.8 The problem is people: our increasing numbers and our abuse of one of our most precious resources.

There is no substitute for water. It has already begun to replace oil as a major cause of confrontation in the Middle East. In North America, water rights claims and issues are increasingly in the news. On some level, at least, we are discovering the importance of this vital resource.

On average, Canadian residential water use amounts to 326 litres per person per day. This is more than twice as much as the average European, and astronomically more water than people use daily in most developing nations.

Except during times of flood or drought, North Americans tend to ignore water. It comes to our taps when called and drains away afterward. Most of us can swim when we want, bathe when we want, water our lawns, wash our cars and allow our children to drink from public fountains. Like good health, we ignore water when we have it.

But, like health, when our water is threatened, it’s the only thing that matters. When there is no water, there is no life. Most of us can live for almost a month without food, but will die in less than a week without clean, fresh water. Less than one half of one percent of Canadians are without running water, but, in places like Mexico, 15% of the population must haul or carry their water.

Water Quality Few things are as insidious as bad water. It’s dangerous to your health, but you usually can’t tell if you have it. Water can carry some of our most serious diseases - typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, cholera - and still look clear in the glass. If you pour poison on the ground, even in the driest desert, water will eventually pick it up, molecule by molecule, and, because water is always going somewhere, it will take that poison away. Somewhere.

8 97% of Earth’s water supply is salt water. Only 3% of our water is fresh, and two thirds of that 3% is in the form of ice. Limnologists draw the following comparison: if all the Earth’s water were to fit in a water jug; the type used in water coolers; the total amount of available fresh water would equal just over a tablespoon. 71

The price Canadians must pay to prevent water-borne disease is constant vigilance against bacterial contamination. Periodic beach closures and local epidemics are evidence that the battle has not yet been won. These problems underscore the need to maintain strict control over water quality and to improve water and wastewater treatment.

Of serious concern to us today are the toxic chemicals that enter our water from many different sources, including industry, agriculture and from our own homes. Relatively little is known about the effects of some toxic substances on human health because very often, the effects of toxin ingestion do not become noticeable for long periods of time, and it is difficult to distinguish them from the effects of other factors in our everyday lives (eg: nutrition, stress, air quality). Much more remains to be done to control toxic chemical pollution. Meanwhile, we can all contribute to the prevention of water pollution by not abusing the water or the land, and by becoming stewards of our own watersheds.

Where Does our Drinking Water Come From? When students are asked to answer the question, “where does our usable fresh water come from?" many of them reply in terms of the water they can see: rivers, lakes and streams - surface water (of course, many students will also reply that our usable fresh water comes from the kitchen faucet!). This answer (the former) is partially true. Surface water, precipitation, fog and dew all represent water that is in transit. There is an equally valuable resource of water, however, which usually escapes notice: ground water.

A study of our water supply begins with an examination of rain and snowfall in Nova Scotia. Some precipitation evaporates from the Earth’s surface, some soaks into the ground and saturates the soil and rocks below, and some is used by plants. The remaining water runs off the surface of the land, forming a network of streams, rivers and lakes. Whether a particular raindrop becomes surface water or soaks into the ground depends on many factors, including the soil type and moisture; the slope of the ground; and the amount of forest cover, cleared land and/or paved surface present.

Surface Water The term surface water refers to water stored on the ground in lakes and streams. In Nova Scotia, large areas of exposed or barely covered rock and the effects of glaciation have resulted in the formation of about 6,700 small lakes. These lakes cover about 4% of the province’s land mass.

Lakes and marshes are most numerous where water cannot penetrate the bedrock easily: on granite, quartz or slate formations. In the southwestern part of Nova Scotia, for example, lakes cover about 11% of the land drained by the Tusket River. In areas dominated by sedimentary rock, there is much less surface water, because water is able to percolate through sedimentary formations. In the River Philip drainage area in Cumberland County (where the geologic formation is mostly sedimentary), less than one percent of the surface is covered by lakes and marshes.

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The surface of Nova Scotia can be subdivided into ‘catchment areas’ or watersheds. In each watershed area, the water flowing across the surface of the land ends up in a particular lake or stream. Every lake, river and stream in the province is surrounded by its own watershed.

Ground Water Up to 12% of Nova Scotia’s annual precipitation soaks down through the soil and loose rock near the surface of the land, filling the pore spaces, fractures and joints within the rock below. Water that is so contained and located below the Earth’s surface is referred to as ground water. Twenty- six percent of all Canadians rely on ground water as their drinking supply.

Water is always moving. In order to move, ground water must be able to flow through the spaces between sand, gravel and rock underground. Two geologic characteristics that affect the movement of ground water are porosity and permeability. Porosity refers to the amount of water that a material can hold in its pores. A cubic metre of well-sorted gravel will hold 30 to 40% of its volume in water. The same volume of solid granite (without joints or fractures) is impenetrable and will hold water only on its wet surface.9 Permeability is the ability of a material to let water pass through its pores. Every type of soil and rock formation differs in its ability to hold and transmit water.

Gravels and sands, or highly porous sedimentary rocks (sandstone or limestone, for example) can usually hold the most ground water, but even dense rocks like granite or quartzite can hold some water in the joints and fractures that punctuate formations. How water is stored in the soil, and how available it is, depends on the rock type and strata, or the way the earth is layered. By knowing the type of earth materials present and how they are layered, we can estimate, among other tings, how long it will take for a particular contaminant to reach ground water reservoirs.10

To understand ground water better, it is useful to follow the course of precipitation moving into the earth. Rain or melting snow makes contact with Earth at the upper layer of soil, or soilwater zone, which may vary in depth from centimetres to many metres. Water enters through every hole or fissure, and thin films spread around soil particles and over the surface of joints. Adhesion also holds water in the very small spaces between the openings, where it either evaporates or is withdrawn by plant systems. The soil water zone is important to agriculture because it furnishes water for plant growth. Only when enough water has completely satisfied the water holding capacity of the soil does water move or percolate downward by the force of gravity.

Water may then enter an intermediate zone where variable amounts of the liquid occur in solid openings. Wells drilled into this area will yield no water even though the ground is damp, because the soil particles hold on to their dampness much the same as does a damp towel. During dry periods, capillary action may move the moisture back into the upper layer of soil, where it will be used by plants and organisms living in the soil water zone. The intermediate zone is bordered on

9 For a discussion of the term “wet”, refer to the Water Science section.

10 For a more thorough discussion of pollution, refer to the section “How We Affect Water”. 73 its lower limit by a capillary fringe. Soil particles there draw water up from its more dense concentration below through capillary action.

If precipitation continues to where water is soaking down through the intermediate zone reaches an area underlain by a less permeable layer, the water will collect where it is stopped by the impermeable rock to form the saturated zone. The upper level of the saturated zone is referred to as the water table. Earth formations within the saturated zone which hold water that can be extracted or withdrawn for use are called aquifers. Aquifers are characterized by their ability to both store and transmit water. The water storage capacity of an aquifer is equal to the total amount of space between the particles and joints in the geologic strata. Aquifers vary in composition from loosely packed, or unconsolidated formations (like those of sand and gravel) to consolidated formations (or sandstone or limestone). Aquifers may be the size of a football field or as large as a small province. Several aquifers may be contained in a single area, separated by a layer of less permeable rock.

Geological maps showing cross sections of the Earth’s surface may provide clues as to which geologic strata are likely to store water and at what depths. Records of successful wells previously constructed in an area provide further information on local groundwater quantity and quality.

Ground water is constantly moving from areas of high pressure to areas of lower pressure. The direction of ground water movement within a geologic formation is generally from an elevated ground level toward sea level, under the influence of gravity: that is, groundwater moves from higher ground to lower ground, following a slope, pulled by gravity. This makes sense, but is not always the case. In fact, groundwater also moves horizontally and even uphill, under hydrostatic pressure and the influence of capillary action.

Groundwater moves much slower than does surface water, but it can potentially move huge distances. The speed of ground water movement depends on the slope of the geologic formation in which the ground water is contained and the composition of the strata. Water passes through fine sand at a rate of several centimetres a day, but will move several metres per day through gravel in the same time period. Cracks or joints in granite and sandstone link like great subterranean piping systems that can transmit water quickly in huge quantities.

Ground Water Storage In some areas, aquifers store water that has accumulated through thousands of years. In dry areas, such areas are in danger of permanent depletion of the aquifer due to heavy use of water mining. This is not the case in the Atlantic provinces, where abundant rainfall and snowmelt recharge both surface and ground water. It is estimates, for example, that 20% of the total rainfall in Prince Edward Island becomes ground water.

Streams and lakes overlying permeable beds also recharge the water table. But more commonly, the presence of surface water is an indication of abundant ground water supplies. During periods of little rain, for instance, water flowing in a stream may come almost entirely from ground water. Have you ever heard of water ‘going underground’ in periods of drought? In fact, such surface 74

waters were always rooted in ground water - lowering ground water stocks in dry periods do not allow the ground water stock to support a surface body. Even though aquifers are underground, they are closely connected with the movement of surface water in the natural drainage basin.

The largest and best aquifers in Nova Scotia occur in valleys, such as the Annapolis-Cornwallis Valley, the North River valley near Truro, and the Musquodoboit Valley, where glacial and stream movements have left deposits of sand and gravel. The area around Halifax-Dartmouth is underlain by fractured granite, slate and quartzite. Wells in this region yield 4.5 - 23 litres of water per minute (typically) which is sufficient for a single family dwelling. Fully 50% of the fresh water used in Nova Scotia comes from wells.

Many parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Cape Breton in particular) display a geological formation called the Windsor Group. This formation underlies almost a quarter of each of the two provinces, and while it is known to be a good aquifer, it’s water is exceptionally hard due to a heavy limestone concentration

Ground Water Quality As water infiltrates the ground, soil particles filter out bacteria and debris. Once underground, stored water is less vulnerable than surface water to airborne pollutants like dust, acid rain and industrial contaminants.

Ground water has other advantages over surface water, including a consistent temperature and continuous availability, even during dry spells. Domestic wells often provide water where no surface or municipal water is accessible or available.

Water moving through the different levels of strata dissolves minerals which give it taste, colour and hardness. Just the right amount of dissolved minerals makes water tangy and beneficial to health, but too much makes it undesirable for certain uses.

Ground water containing dissolved metallic ions, particularly calcium and magnesium, is called hard water. These ions affect the chemical action of soap so that it will not lather easily. Hard water leaves a scaly deposit on the inside of kettles, pipes and boilers, which makes it unfit for some industrial uses. Excess iron in ground water causes rusty stains on fixtures and clothing. Both iron and hardness may be removed by domestic or industrial water softeners.

Salt water intrusion is a particular ground water quality problem in Atlantic coastal regions. This can occur in wells constructed close to the ocean. Normally, pressure from the underground fresh water will confine sea water to a zone of diffusion, where fresh and salt water meet. However, during dry periods, water withdrawn by prolonged well use relaxes the seaward pressure and allows salt water to move underground toward the area of the well. Hydrologists advise seaside residents to sink wells less deeply than normal and reduce pumping volumes during dry period to prevent salt water intrusion. In areas where the problem is severe, controls may be necessary to limit the number of wells and thus reduce over pumping.

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Aquatic Ecosystems In nature, nothing exists alone. Living things relate to each other as well as to their non-living, but supporting, environments. These complex relationships are called ecosystems. Each body of water is a delicately balanced ecosystem in continuos interaction with the surrounding air and land.

Wetlands Any area covered by water, or where water is close to the surface of the land for all or part of the year, is called a wetland.

To some people, wetlands are nothing more than areas of soggy ground. Bogs, swamps and marshes across Nova Scotia have been filled in or dredged for use as parking lots and roadways, and have even been used as dumping grounds for municipal and industrial wastes.

Wetlands are not unproductive wastelands. Wetlands play a vital role in nature and their existence provides great benefit to humankind. Wetlands support and maintain a variety of plant and animal life; are of great recreational and economic importance to humans; and help maintain and replenish our water supplies.

Water from rain or melting snow is held on the surface of wetlands, ponds and shallow lakes year- round. Gradually this water soaks into the soil beneath until it meets rock or impervious clay and can go no farther. From this underground reservoir, groundwater is available for plant growth, and to maintain water levels in lakes, ponds and streams. This water also supplies water for wells and other systems.

In early spring, Nova Scotian ground water tabes are generally high. In the fall, ground water levels are lowest because of the demands of vegetation and humans during the hot summer growing season. After a dry summer, ground water levels may drop further than usual, resulting in stunted plant growth and dry wells. Wetlands serve to recharge ground water levels. A ten acre lake contains about 3.5 million gallons of water per foot of depth. A 10 acre bog may be as much as 80% water, and so can store almost as much water per foot as a lake. Wetlands also serve as traps and reservoirs for valuable nutrients washed down from uplands by rain and melting snow. These nutrients support the growth of vegetation, which, in turn, supports many kinds of wildlife. Numerous upland game birds (duck, grouse, pheasant, and song birds) as well as deer, moose, and small game require wetland habitats for water and food.

Coastal wetlands are important breeding grounds for wild fowl, coastal fish stocks and shellfish. Tidal flooding brings breeding fish, fish eggs, fry, and young fish into the salt marsh. Nutrients, washed from the uplands or brought in by the incoming tides, are trapped where the fresh and salt water meet, providing a rich supply of the materials required for growth. The outgoing tide takes away waste products, as well as the plant and animal life nurtured in the shelter of the salt marsh. Not only does the salt marsh and estuary restock the offshore fishery with young, it also provides food for larger marine species which may eventually find their way into fishers’ nets and into our food web.

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The fishing industry depends on salt marsh breeding grounds to assure continuing fish stocks. For the same reason, recreational fishing is also dependent on the salt marsh, as is the inshore shellfish industry. All three fisheries are important to Nova Scotia’s economy. Also important are the ducks, geese, muskrats and other economic species which use the salt marsh as breeding and feeding grounds.

Kinds of Wetlands in Nova Scotia Wetlands are distinguished on the basis of the plant and wildlife species they support, as well as by their geographic location.

Coastal Salt Marshes are subject to tidal flooding and are characterized by a species of cord grass called spartina.

Inland Fresh Water Marshes are seasonally flooded, and generally have a water table at, or near, the marsh surface. The degree of wetness of the marsh is indicated by the presence of cattails (in the wettest marshes), rush, willow and red maple (in the driest marshes).

Swamps are distinguished from other wetlands by the presence of sphagnum moss. They are primarily upland fresh water wetlands, and usually occur as a result of natural infilling of a lake or pond by sediment. In their later stages, they may support black or white spruce.

Fens are inland, fresh water marshes common in lime rich areas.

Coastal and inland wetlands provide a multitude of opportunities for hunters, fishers, and recreationists. Converting them to a singe use (for example, draining them to be used for agriculture) diminishes their total value. The fact that the economic value of wetlands is difficult to measure may account for the fact that their preservation has not been made a priority until lately. Perhaps one simple way to measure the value of wetlands is to consider the cost of losing them.

For example, if your well goes dry because of the loss of an upslope reservoir of ground water (your local swamp), there are a number of options open to you. You can drill your well deeper to meet the new ground water level. You can have a tank truck bring in water to refill your well. If you live in or near an urban area, you may be able to hook into central services and receive piped- in water. All of these alternatives cost money.

Wetlands are a valuable resource which should be protected and carefully managed so that they may continue to support diverse plant and wildlife species. Alterations to and contamination of wetland cannot always be reversed - these are delicate ecosystems, and human intrusion into wetlands should be carefully considered and minimized.

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How Does Water Clean Itself? Whatever occurs on the land and in the air also affects the water. If a substance enters a river or lake, the water can purify itself biologically - but only to a degree. Whether it is in the smallest stream or lake - or even in the ocean - the water can absorb only so much. It reaches a point where natural cleaning processes can no longer cope.

Water is purified, in large part, by the routine actions of living organisms. Energy from sunlight drives the process of photosynthesis in aquatic plants, which produces oxygen as a by-product. Bacteria use this oxygen to break down some of the organic material, such as plant and animal waste. Decomposition of plant and animal waste produces carbon dioxide, nutrients and other substances needed by plants and animals living in the water. The purification cycle continued when these plants and animals die and the bacteria decompose them, providing new generations of organisms with nourishment.

Unfortunately, there are many toxic substances which are affected only slowly, or not at all, by this and other purification processes. These persistent substances are of great environmental concern.

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Water for Life Activities

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Keeping Pond Specimens - Some Tips! Setting up an aquatic habitat in the classroom (teacher focus)

If you intend to collect specimens for classroom use, it’s best to make preparations well in advance of your field trip. You will need clean containers to collect your specimens, samples of their native water, you may need a fish/aquarium net to capture your specimens, and you’ll certainly need a holding tank for your specimens once you’ve returned to the classroom. And remember, its best to keep pond specimens for a very short period of time (a day or two) if you’re not familiar with the specimens’ habits.

For more information about keeping pond specimens, see the Nova Scotia Museum Info Sheet, “A Native Freshwater Aquarium”.

Please note: The keeping of captive wildlife from nature is regulated by the Department of Natural Resources, because some animal populations are declining. Captive Wildlife Permits will not be issued for native species of reptiles and amphibians, but individuals may temporarily keep small numbers of amphibians for educational purposes without a permit (see “Tadpole Talk”, below). Contact any Department of Natural Resources Regional Office for more information on Captive Wildlife.

Tadpole Talk (J. Sherman Boates in Nova Scotia Conservation, Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 1994)

Enthusiasm and curiosity for nature have been awakened in many people by an early spring trip to a local pond to collect tadpoles. These creatures, lugged home in a mayonnaise jar and placed on a window sill, provide a firsthand educational experience of the marvels of animal development. Embryos develop withing the eggs, the eggs hatch, the limbs are developed, and the tail disappears, giving rise to an adult frog or salamander.

Unfortunately, a number of amphibian species - frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts - are declining in number. No single factor explains this decline, but the loss and deterioration of their habitat, climate change, acid rain, and collecting have all been implicated. We need to learn more about these intriguing animals and consider how we might, in small ways, be contributing to this decline.

If you decide to collect tadpoles this spring, make an effort to minimize the effect you have on amphibian populations and their habitat. Make sure you take the proper safety measures around the pond. Stirring up the water will get silt on the egg masses and can suffocate them. Take a small number or clump of eggs, or a few tadpoles, and share with friends. Not everyone needs their own amphibians.

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Keep the collection in a large jar (4.5 litre) or an aquarium filled with pond water. Place it where it is cool and bright, but not in direct sunlight, and add a few plants from the pond. Blow bubbles in the water with a drinking straw a few times a day. This is a simple way to provide oxygen to complement the oxygen produced by the plants. Change the water if it becomes discoloured or smelly. Observe the tadpoles to see that they are eating the plants you provide. If not, give them small amounts of lettuce or fish food, but remove the uneaten food. Make careful notes and share your observations with your family, friends, and schoolmates.

When you are finished observing, be sure to return your specimens to the same place where you found them. This way, the amphibians are not introduced to unsuitable habitat. It is less intrusive and just as much fun to study amphibians in their natural habitat, listening and watching away from the edge of the pond. Learn the distinct calls of the different species and observe eggs, tadpoles, and adults with binoculars. Green frogs, spring peepers, bull frogs, wood frogs, mink frogs, leopard frogs, red-bellied newts, and yellow-spotted salamanders are some of the fascinating species you can enjoy and help protect. 82

What Can I Do to Improve Water Quality? More Water Facts (Parental / Adult focus)

Each individual effort to protect water quality is vital. Individual actions can and do make a difference to water quality and to the environment as a whole. You can start by taking the following actions:

Avoid hazardous household products Most household chemicals are safe to use and are environmentally friendly when used according to the directions on the package. However, some have a harmful cumulative effect on the environment when they are over-used or incorrectly disposed of. Ø Check the label for hazard warnings. The symbols used on hazardous chemicals indicate poisonous substances (skull and crossbones), explosive substances (exploding circle), flammable substances (fire) and corrosive substances (submerged skeletal hand). The warning symbols are based on the outside shape of the symbol: the more corners the symbol has, the greater the risk (triangle - diamond - octagon). Ø Buy only those environmentally hazardous products you really need, and buy them in quantities you will be able to completely use up, so that you will not have to worry about disposing of left-overs later. Ø Use ‘environmentally’ friendly products. Ø The federal government endorses products that are environmentally friendly. Look for the Environmental Choice EcoLogo. Products bearing this label have been tested and certified by the Canadian Standards Association. For more information about making environmentally- friendly choices, contact:

Environmental Choice Program Terra-Choice Environmental Services Inc. 2781 Lancaster Road, Suite 400 Ottawa, Ontario K1B 1A7

Don’t Misuse the Sewage System Don’t throw waste down the drain just because it’s convenient. Toxic household products can damage the environment and return to us though water and food. Ø Toss such items as dental floss, hair, disposable diapers and plastic items into the wastebasket, not the toilet - these items create many problems at the sewage treatment plant or in your septic tank. Ø Always completely use the contents of oven, toilet bowl and sink drain cleaners; carpet and furniture cleaners and polishes; bleaches, rust removers and solvents; paints and glue; and most other acid and alkali products. Ø Save food scraps (except dairy and meat) and compost them - don’t dump them down the drain. Ø Choose latex (water based) rather than oil based paints and use it up instead of storing or dumping it. 83

Don’t use pesticides or other hazardous materials in your garden Ø Adopt alternative pest control methods - hand-pull weeds; snip and discard infested leaves; dislodge insects with insecticidal soap or a water hose; practice companion planting; set ant and roach traps instead of using chemical sprays; apply natural insecticides like diatomaceous earth; and fertilize with natural materials like bone meal or peat.

Don’t dump hazardous products into storm drains Storm drains empty directly into nearby streams in many areas. The contents of storm sewers are generally not processed at sewage treatment facilities and can therefore do immediate harm to fish and wildlife. Beach closures are a typical example of storm water pollution in many communities. Ø Don’t pour oils, paint compounds, solvents and other products into storm sewers, onto the street, or into your driveway. Ø Do take these products to local recycling or disposal facilities. Some communities even organize hazardous waste disposal days - your local department of health office may be able to provide details. If nothing comparable exists in your community, introduce and promote the idea. Ø Do contact your local fire department, which will normally accept unwanted remainders of barbecue starter fluids, lighter fluids, gasoline and furnace oils.

Don’t forget about water quality - even when you’re having fun! Ø Power boats can pollute the water through gasoline leaks and spills - consider using a boat that isn’t powered by an engine. If you do choose to use a power boat, make sure it’s in good working order. Ø If you own a cottage, make sure you have a proper sewage disposal system. Ø Bury biodegradable waste at least 60 metres from any water source when you’re camping. Use only biodegradable soaps, and take your non-biodegradable garbage with you for proper disposal.

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Ground Water Quality Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will learn how water is stored in ground water aquifers and how pollutants enter our ground water.

The best aquifers are composed of gravel or coarse sand and gravel mixtures. In some aquifers, water is buried just beneath the land’s surface, while in others, the water may be buried up to several hundred feet. There are still other areas where ground water exists, but is either buried too deeply to pump out or is of too poor a quality to be of value. In some areas, no ground water exists.

Aquifers can be recharged when water percolates downward from streams, lakes, and even from rainfall on the soil surface. Water percolating through the soil and through the geologic formations can carry pollutants into the ground water supply. Good quality water can be polluted through this process.

Some types of pollutants that commonly enter ground water supplies include fertilizers, pesticides, soaps or detergents, sewage wastes, and fuels. Proper management of these substances will usually keep them out of our ground water.

Materials q 2 large mason jars (one 3/4 full of sandy soil and one 3/4 full of gravel) q 1 measuring cup q water q red food colouring q sheet of white paper

Procedure 1. Ask the students to identify where their drinking water comes from (either from ground water or surface water).

2. Demonstrate an aquifer. Fill the two jars with earth materials (as indicated above) and pack the materials as tightly as you can. Tell the students that you are going to pour some water into each of the jars, and ask them to predict which type of earth material will let the water move through faster. Ask them to defend their responses. Record their predictions and their defences. (The gravel will allow faster percolation because of the larger pore spaces in this earth material - the spaces between the grains of gravelly material are larger than the spaces between the sandy material)

3. Slowly pour one cup of clean water into each jar. Compare the rate at which the water moves through the earth materials (you can either visualize this comparison, or ask students to time how long it takes the water to move through each jar).

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4. Notice the zone of saturation in each of the jars. The saturated zone represents a water- bearing aquifer. The top of the water represents the water table. This is the way ground water lies beneath the soil. Ask the students to describe how we are able to use the ground water in an aquifer. (Wells are drilled into the aquifer, and pipes fitted with pumps are inserted to pump the water out.).

5. Put a lid on the jars and gently tip them to a horizontal position. Notice that the gravel gives up the water easily, and that the water flows out of this type of earth material. The sandy material does not give up the water as easily. (The sandy soil particles have more surface area than do the gravelly particles. Water in the soil is held as a thin film around the individual soil particles so tightly that it cannot be poured off. Gravel has fewer particles per square centimetre, and so has less surface area - believe it or not - to which the water molecules can cling. Also, more of the water is held in the pore spaces of the gravelly material, and the water is freely released from these spaces.) Ask the students to describe some implications they see arising from this experiment (for example: sandy soil is a better medium for growing plants than is gravelly soil, since the sandy soil holds more moisture than does the gravelly soil - and whereas gravel is a poor growing medium, it creates a better aquifer).

6. Add the one half cup of water with red food colouring dissolved in it to each of the jars. The red food colouring represents a pollutant. Again, compare the rates at which the pollutant moves through the earth material. Discuss the implications of this experiment.

7. Carefully drain most of the water out of each jar, being careful not to lose any of the earth materials. Resettle the jars. Pour in a cup or so of clean water. Wait a minute or so - you can use the waiting time to ask the students to predict whether any further ‘pollutants’ will be found in the ‘aquifer’, now that the original ‘pollutants’ have been drained off. Pour off the clean water and hold the white sheet behind the measuring cup to show the students that the clean water does, in fact, have a slight reddish/pinkish tinge. What are the implications of this experiment?

Extensions Discuss management techniques for various types of pollutants: a. Fertilizers (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus) - apply only the amount that the current crop will use in one growing season. Irrigate properly so that the water does not percolate below the crop root zone (when irrigation water percolates below the root zone of plants, it carries some nutrients out of the reach of plants, and the nutrients are wasted). b. Pesticides - apply according to package directions. Excessive application can cause pollution. On the soil, some chemicals decay faster than others. The ones that decay the fastest pose the least threat to ground water. c. Water containing soaps and detergents should be disposed of through sewage or septic systems. These systems allow filters to remove the detergent residue or microorganisms to digest the residues, respectively. Ask a representative from a treatment plant or a town/city engineer to speak to your class about waste treatment systems. d. Sewage wastes should be run through appropriate treatment systems. Livestock manures should be spread on crop land soil in the summer to increase biologic breakdown by microorganisms. e. Care should be taken to see that fuels are not spilled on the soil. Waste hydrocarbons should be recycled. Contact a local fuel distributor for recycling information.

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Stream Scanners Grade 6 Science

Purpose Students will investigate the quality of water in a stream, lake, or pond by examining chemical, physical and/or biological characteristics.

Most plants and animals depend on clean water for healthy growth. A stream with good quality water supports a variety of plants and animals. Water polluted by chemicals or organic matter often supports only a few kinds of plants and animals. If the pollution is severe, the stream water may kill all life around it.

Biologists can assess stream quality in a number of ways: visually by documenting the surrounding physical habitat, chemically by testing the water for specific pollutants, biologically by noticing types of plant and animal species present.

Healthy streams have a pH of about 7.0, clear water, and a temperature lower than 20ºC. Nitrate concentrations are below one part per million; phosphate levels are below 0.03 pars per million.

Materials q accessible stream or lake q Stream Scanners worksheet q pencils, clipboards, rubber boots (students should ‘dress for the q pH litmus paper (available from Boreal, or perhaps from local high school lab) q nitrate and phosphate testing kit (available from Boreal, or perhaps from local high school lab, or local museum) - nitrate and/or phosphate testing is optional q water thermometer q clear plastic cup q field guide of local aquatic plants and animals

Procedure 1. Distribute worksheets and divide students into groups.

2. Instruct students to examine the physical characteristics of the stream, to record plant and animal life (or signs thereof) present in and around the stream, and to conduct chemical testing on the stream.

3. Assign groups to different sections of the stream or lake. Instruct the students to avoid disturbing stream banks or shallow waters. Remind students to walk carefully and return any overturned rocks to their original positions.

4. Record data on worksheets (one worksheet is suitable for linguistic data; the other is suitable for artistic data). 87

Stream Scanners Name:______Date:______Location:______Physical Characteristics Overall Conditions:

Lake or Stream bottom:

Land around Lake or Stream:

Unusual smells?

Biological Characteristics Plant life in the water

Animal/fish/insect life in the water

Plant life on the land

Animal/fish/insect life on the land

Chemical Characteristics Temperature Clarity (1=cloudy/murky 10=crystal clear) pH 88

Stream Scanners Diagramming Worksheet

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Wells: A Deep Subject Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics

Purpose Students will discover and explain how a well works and examine the well’s relationship to the water table. Students will further apply the principles of well placement.

About half of us get our drinking water from ground water.

A well is a hold in the ground that reaches into ground water. In ancient times, these wells were dug by hand and lined with stones or bricks to prevent the sides from collapsing. Today, most are formed by drilling a 5 - 10 cm hole and lining it with metal or plastic piping.

A well must be dug deeper than the water table (the top surface of the saturated zone). Water is usually pumped by hand, by windmill, or by a motor-driven device.

The biggest problem facing well water is contamination. Sources of groundwater pollution include: leaking underground storage tanks; leaking septic tanks; landfill seepage; animal wastes; fertilizer; pesticides; industrial waste; road salt; and some naturally occurring contaminants. When a ground water source is contaminated, it is very difficult and expensive to de-contaminate. The best way to protect well water is to prevent contamination from occurring. Wells should be properly located in order to avoid contact with contaminants.

Materials Listed are materials sufficient for one demonstration q 2 litre plastic bottle q gravel (fish tank type) q sand q pump from the top of a soap or hand lotion dispenser (keep intact - long tube remains) q blue and yellow food colouring q three paper cups q student sheets q teacher key q markers

Procedure Prepare the well for demonstration by cutting the top off the plastic bottle and filling its bottom with gravel. Position the pump in the bottle.

Ask the students about wishes - what are wishes, and if someone could give you one wish, what would you wish for? Where do you think you would to make a wish (a wishing well) and what would you have to do at a wishing well to have your wish granted? (throw in a coin). 90

Explain that wells, in some cultures, are believed to hold ‘magical’ powers. Why? Because people were amazed that water could come up through the ground, appearing from deep within the earth. They developed rituals and superstitions about wells.

Explain the importance of wells today - that about half of us get their water from wells. Explain that while most wells are safe, they can become contaminated or polluted.

Activity Position the demonstration so that all may observe, or have the students do this activity in small groups, each with their own set of materials.

Pour sand in the bottle, so that there is about 10 cm of gravel and sand in the bottle bottom. Pour in about 7 cm of water, coloured with blue food colouring.

While the water is being carefully poured into the bottle, explain that water found beneath the ground is called ground water. Explain that the top surface of the saturated zone is called the water table. Mark the level of the water table on the outside of the bottle, using the marker. Sink you well, so that the long tube of the pump is embedded in the gravel (you’ll know it is by feel), but not so deep that the tube touches the bottom of the bottle.

Tell the students that today, a well is usually drilled. Tell them that the well is usually between 5 and 10 centimetres wide and is lined with a metal or plastic pipe. Ask them why they think the well needs to be lined (to keep the dirt / sides from falling in). Ask the students to notice that for the well to work, the tubing must extend below the water table.

Pump water out of the model (catching the water in a cup). Ask the question, “when we take water out of the ground, what happens to the water table?” (It goes down). Mark the new level of the water table with a marker on the outside of the bottle.

Ask the students how water gets back into the groundwater supply (recharge - when it rains, when snow melts into the ground) . Demonstrate recharge by pouring more of the blue water back in to the ground until the level of the original water table is restored. Remind students that some groundwater sources cannot be replenished because they are sealed both above and below by solid rock or another ground material that will not let water soak through.

Explain to the students that just as the rain water or snow melt can soak down into the ground water, so can harmful contaminants like agricultural waste, sewage, road salt, and other chemicals. Pour water coloured with yellow food colouring into the bottle. Ask the students to describe what has happened to the ‘ground water’ (it changed colour - greenish - after the ‘contaminated’ water reached it). Pump some of the ‘new’ water into another cup (the blue water is water that was already in the pipe when the contaminated water was added to the ground water).

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Explain to the students that while many contaminants can be seen, others cannot. Ask the students how they would determine if well water was contaminated (by testing the water). Explain that contaminants are not always of human origin - some are naturally occurring.

Distribute copies of “Well, Well, Well” and the accompanying map.

Tell students that one way to keep a well free of contaminants is to select a good site for the well (this exercise does not require that the students consider the direction of ground water flow, which would be a major consideration in a real case. For age appropriateness, we only discuss distances). Instruct the students to read the instructions and guidelines to the handout and select a place to drill the well. Students may draw a symbol to illustrate the well.

Compare the student responses to the teacher key (note: the key may be used as a transparency to better illustrate the correct procedures for well placement).

Extensions Have the students draw a cross-section of a well (or their well) and the water table. Instruct them to write a sentence or two describing how a well affects the water table.

Ask the students to list at least four possible sources of ground water contamination.

Students may research legends, folklore and superstitions about wells (use the sheet “Wishing U Well). Research may result in an ELA assignment of a modern-day well ‘legend’.

Ask the students to contact the Department of Health and/or the Department of Natural Resource for information and guidelines about digging new wells.

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The Long Haul Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Mathematics, Social Studies

Purpose Students will develop an awareness of various volumes of water as well as an appreciation for our readily available water supply. Students will also learn how easy access to water may encourage people to use large amounts of water

Materials q Four 4 litre buckets q Two 100 litre garbage buckets q water course or outdoor spigots q containers of different sizes

Procedure Discuss how we use water today. Where does our water come from and how does it get to our homes? What did people have to do 100 years ago to get their water? What do people in developing countries have to do to get their water? Ask students to list some of the chores they do around the house and estimate how much time each chore takes. How much free time do they have after school? How much free time would they have if they were required to pump or bail the family’s water and haul it home?

Tell students they are going to play a water-hauling game. Discuss in advance what they think the purpose of the activity is.

Divide the class into two teams. Each team gets two 4 litre buckets. The task is to haul water from a source (a stream or pond is ideal, but a water spigot or another garbage bucket of water will work) to a destination (the garbage bucket) about 45 metres away.

Organize the game as a relay race. Team members line up at the water source. One team member fills the bucket, to represent pumping water or drawing it from a well, then carries it to the destination and pours it into the team’s garbage bucket. He or she returns to the water source and gives the bucket to the next team member, who fills it and relays it. The first team to fill its can wins the race.

Ask students to predict how many trips they think it will take to fill the can. How much time will it take? Record their responses for future reference, and begin the race!

Extensions Have students estimate the volumes of different sizes of containers traditionally used for hauling water - choose vessels used by early settlers in their own region or vessels used traditionally by Native people or vessels used historically by people of other cultures or vessels used by people in developing nations. Ask the students to express their feelings about hauling water through illustration or in written form.. Ask the students to design a skit demonstrating the positive and negative aspects of easily available water.

Assess students’ abilities to describe how water is transported from its source to a household tap, and how students relate to life without modern conveniences and/or in less-developed regions of the world.

Have someone from the municipal water service speak to the class about water delivery systems (see the resource listing at the end of this document for suggestions). 93

Making Drinking Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Social Studies

Purpose Students will learn about methods of purifying water used by early settlers, as well as those used currently in water treatment facilities.

Early settlers learned (the hard way) to drink from flowing waters and not to drink from still waters. And while the water in lakes, rivers, and streams often contained impurities that made them look and smell bad, sometimes their water could be ‘cleaned’ to make it safer to drink. Early settlers used citric acid or alum, which clung to suspended particles and made them sink to the bottom of a water vessel. Simply allowing the water to sit for several hours also took out some (solid) impurities. Finally, the settlers would strain the water through material to extract the rest of the nasty bits. To further purify the water, particularly if disease were suspect, settlers boiled their water before drinking it.

Several of these methods are currently used by water companies to treat our drinking water. The water that is processed in treatment facilities comes from lakes, rivers, streams, or aquifers and has usually been transferred and stored before it is processed.

The following steps are typical in a water treatment plant:

Aeration water is sprayed into the air to release any trapped gases and to absorb additional oxygen

Coagulation powdered alum is dissolved in the water to remove any dirt that is suspended in the water. When the alum is mixed with the water, it forms tiny, sticky particles called “floc”, which attach to the dirt particles. The combined weight of the dirt and the alum particles is heavy enough to sink the dirty floc to the bottom of the vessel during the next process (of sedimentation).

Sedimentation heavy particles settle to the bottom of the vessel and the clear water above the particles is skimmed off for use

Filtration clear water is passed through layers of sand, gravel and charcoal to remove tiny particles

Chlorination (the final process of water treatment) small amounts of chlorine gas are added to the water to kill any bacteria or microorganisms that may be present. Early settlers generally boiled their water to kill bacteria and microorganisms. 94

Materials (per group or per classroom) q 1 cup of water with approximately ½ tsp of dirt dissolved in it - stir well! q 2 clear plastic cups capable of holding about 1 cup each q 2 pieces of cheesecloth q 1 tsp powdered alum (available at pharmacies)

Procedure If you wish, you may allow the water to settle, so that the students can see the effect of sedimentation on dirty water. You may also choose to demonstrate only sedimentation and skip using the alum (particularly with the lower grades), but using alum allows the students to see how citric acid worked for the early settlers. You should allow several hours for sedimentation to occur (it’s best to leave the vessel overnight).

Discuss water purification. Talk to the students about how our drinking water is purified before we drink it - even ground water is cleaned, naturally, as it filters through the soil. If the class is divided into groups, pass out one clear plastic cup with water that has ½ tsp of dirt mixed in it. Or use muddy water from a local stream (or even a puddle in the school yard).

Review the steps in the water purification process and discuss how the modern methods compare to or contrast with those used by our early settlers and Native people.

The students can ‘aerate’ the water by pouring it back and forth between two cups.

Ask the students to add ½ tsp of alum and watch the floc form. Allow the glass to sit undisturbed for several minutes. At this point, you may wish to discuss sedimentation. Next, have the students hold a piece of cheesecloth over the empty glass and pour the water through the cheesecloth into another glass or a larger bowl (opt for the larger bowl with early grades). Have the students examine the cheesecloth. Pour the filtered water through the second piece of cheesecloth. Examine the differences between the two pieces of material.

Discuss the pioneer’s final step of boiling out impurities, and compare that step to our modern method of adding chemicals to purify water. Which do the student’s think is the better method? The more environmentally-friendly method? Which method would they prefer to use? Which method is more practical in the modern age?

Extensions Go on a field trip to a water treatment plant or invite someone from such a facility to visit the class.

Mix up and compare the various processes used in water treatment / purification. Are there other methods that the students know of? Research how water is purified for use in other cultures and/or in developing nations. Is water always purified before use? 95

Water for Work Educator's Notes

Water is a basic necessity of life. Water contributes not only to our survival, but also to the quality of our lives.

Human beings have harnessed water to improve their lives since the dawn of time. In some ways, the history of civilization is the story of how we have made water work for us in increasingly ingenious ways. As early as 5,000 BC, our predecessors used irrigation to increase crop production. Archaeologists have found masonry sewers dating back to 2,750 BC - and amazingly, water-flushed toilets have been found, dating back almost as far!

Water played - and continues to play - a special role in the growth of our nation. The first residents of the Atlantic Coast - the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Beothuk people - relied heavily on inland waterways to travel through the dense forests of what are now the Atlantic Provinces. The fur trade, which stimulated the exploration of Canada’s vast interior, was totally dependent on water for transportation. Water powered the many mills that dotted the waterways of the Maritimes and Upper Canada, enabling the production and export of grain and lumber (among other products), two early economic staples. As Canadian industry diversified, water was put to new uses: as a coolant, a solvent, a dispersant, and as a source of hydroelectric energy.

Transportation of goods by water is still an efficient way to move bulk goods. Water is also the basis of cheap energy. Water is a raw material in the manufacture of chemicals, drugs, beverages, and hundreds of other products. It is an essential part of manufacturing processes that end in every kind of good: from airplanes to zippers. In other words, we depend on water for most of our technology, comforts and conveniences, and, or course, for personal hygiene and to flush away our waste.

Many people think that it really makes no difference how much water we use, or what we use it for. Actually, the way we use water is very important. Some uses, for example, are incompatible with others. Some uses remove water from the natural cycle for longer periods than do others. Worst of all, most industrial water uses may actually lower the quality of the water.

Much of the water in North America has been developed. In less than 100 years, we have developed thousands of huge lakes; some more than a hundred miles long; and have created more than 500,000 smaller lakes and ponds. We turn rivers into staircases for ships and we live in what some ecological writers call the ‘Age of Dams’11.

11 The energy potential of a major river system is enormous. A single major system spends as much energy (every half hour) falling from its mountain sources to sea level as was released by the explosion of the Hiroshima bomb. 96

Hydro-Québec’s La Grande River power plant, completed in 1982, is the world’s largest underground generating station. Three great rivers; the Eastmain, Opinaca, and the Caniapiscau; were diverted to feed the 500-mile-long La Grande project, doubling the mean annual flow of the La Grande River and increasing its winter flow by a factor of eight. In the resulting trade-off the Eastmain was reduced to little more than a stream, and over 6,000 square miles were flooded. Political leaders see such hydro-power projects as economic miracles, creating jobs, power-for- sale and a vast network of economic spin-offs. Environmentalists argue that such projects are ecologically devastating, and, in 1992, equated the damage to be caused by the proposed James Bay Hydroelectric Project to be on par with the destruction of the Amazon rain forest.

Québec is not the only Canadian province seeking to develop its water resources. Manitoba has dams, diversions and altered flows on the Churchill and Nelson Rivers; Ontario has considered the redevelopment of Hudson Bay-bound rivers. Consider the impact of such development on the Hudson Bay region. How will it affect the ecological flux of the bays, the arctic char, the beluga whale, the bearded seal, the Canada goose, the Cree, the Inuit, even the fishermen of Newfoundland? What we do affects our neighbours - locally and globally.

Water quality should be of great concern to all water users - that is, to everyone in the world. Ultimately, we all draw from the same supply of water. Most Canadians live downstream from somebody else. Even if they don’t, everyone in the world and everyone through the ages has drawn from the same basic supply of water. This basic supply has been used billions of times and is replenished continually through the hydrologic cycle. People are only now becoming aware of the real limits to the use of water, and are more conscious of when and where it is returned to nature, particularly if it is returned diminished in quality and/or quantity. We must learn to understand water use - where we use water, what to measure, what the main uses of water how, how our main uses compete and interfere with each other, and how to manage the growing competition for water resources.

Where We Use Water The most obvious and immediate uses of water occur in its natural setting. These are referred to as instream uses. Fish live in water, and some birds and animals require aquatic habitat to survive. These are examples of non-human instream uses. Hydroelectric power generation, shipping and water-based recreation are examples of human instream uses.

Instream uses are not always harmless. For example, oil leaking from boat motors and freighters causes pollution. The large reservoirs required by hydroelectric power generating stations remove water by evaporation and completely change the river regime for downstream users.

The greatest number and variety of water uses occur on the land. These are called withdrawal uses. This terms is appropriate because the water is withdrawn from its source (a river, lake or ground water supply), and is piped or channelled to different locations and users before it is collected again and returned to water source. Household and industrial uses, thermal and nuclear power generation, irrigation and livestock watering all fall into this category.

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Most withdrawal uses “consume” some of the water, meaning less is returned to the source than was taken out. Furthermore, the water which is put back into its natural setting is often degraded. For example: water leaving our houses contains human and household wastes. The same is true of water used in many industrial processes. Often this liquid waste is only partially treated, if at all, before it is returned to nature.

A Brief Examination of Five Occurrences of Withdrawal Use

Thermal Power Generation The production of one kilowatt-hour of electricity requires 140 litres of water for fossil fuel plants and 205 litres of water for nuclear power plants. Some of this water is converted to steam, which drives the generator producing the electricity. Most of the water used in thermal power generation, however, is used for condenser cooling.

Why is so much cooling water necessary? Because today’s thermal energy production processes can only convert about 40% of the fuel’s energy into useable electricity. The rest of the fuel’s energy is wasted. This is a doubly inefficient process, in that firstly, about 60% of the energy from the fuel is wasted and secondly, the water required to cool the heat (to a temperature where it can be safely released into the environment) is itself wasted. This cooling requires a continuous flow of water to circulate through the condenser. All the cooling water is returned to the environment much warmer that its original temperature. Evidence of this warmed water can be found in the cooling ponds located on the grounds of most thermal powered generating stations (there’s one located in Trenton, Pictou County).

Manufacturing Water is the lifeblood of industry. It is used as a coolant, a solvent, a transport agent, and as a source of energy. An automobile coming off the assembly line, for example, will have used at least 120,000 litres of water - 80,000 litres to produce the tonne of steel from which the car is fabricated and 40,000 more for the actual fabrication process. Many thousands more litres of water are involved in the manufacture of the auto’s glass, plastic and fabric components. Manufacturing accounted for 19% of water withdrawals in Canada in 198612. Paper and allied products, chemical- and primary metals manufacture were the three main industrial users of water that same year.

Municipal Use Can you imagine a city without water? People use water for drinking, cooking and for other household requirements. Water is also needed to clean our streets, fight fires, fill swimming pools, and water lawns and gardens. Where would this used water go without a sewerage system? Residential, commercial and public uses, along with the water lost from reservoirs and pipes, amounted to about 11% of all withdrawals in Canada in 1986. This figure does not include rural area usage, where water use is not measured. If rural domestic uses were included in the total domestic withdrawal statistic, it is expected that the total domestic withdrawal in Canada would rise to about 13%.

12 Environment Canada statistic 98

Agriculture Farmers depend on water for livestock and crop production. Although 99% of the farms in Canada depend on natural precipitation, agriculture was still the fourth largest use of water in Canada in 1986, accounting for 8.4% of total withdrawals. Water is withdrawn mainly for irrigation and livestock watering. Irrigation is necessary primarily in the drier parts of Canada, such as the southern regions of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Irrigation is also used in Ontario and the Maritimes for frost control (primarily of fruit crops in the Annapolis Valley). Most of the water withdrawn by agriculture ends up evaporating. Thus, very little of the water withdrawn is put back into the system, agriculture use is thought to be highly consumptive.

Mining This category includes metal mining, non-metal mining, and the extraction of fossil fuels. Water is used by the mining industry to separate ore from the rock, to cool drills, to wash the ore during production, and to carry away unwanted material.

Water is also used to extract and process oil that cannot be recovered by conventional drilling methods. Deep well injection, for example, involves pumping water into wells under pressure to force the oil to the surface.

Although the mining industry had a gross use almost as great as agriculture, mining accounted for only 1.4% of all water withdrawals in 1986. This was the smallest withdrawal use, but mining recirculates its water intake to a greater extent than any other sector.

A Brief Examination of Six Instream Water Uses

Instream uses cannot be measured in terms of quality because the water used is not removed from its natural environment. Instead, instream uses are described by certain characteristics of the water or by the benefits they provide to us and the ecosystem.

Flow rates and water levels are very important factors for instream water users. When these conditions are changed by a dam, for instance, it is easy for conflicts between users to arise. The most common conflict that arises between instream users is between hydroelectric developers and other users (with respect to aquatic life, wildlife, water supply and water transportation). Storage of the spring freshet13 removes the natural variability of streamflows. The life processes of aquatic species may depend on this variability, in particular, the highly productive ecosystems of deltas, estuaries and wetlands. To make the best use of our water, all needs must be carefully assessed and considered.

13 A freshet is a high river flow caused by rapidly melting snow. 99

Hydroelectric Power Generation This water use provides the principal source of electricity in Canada today. Billions of dollars have been invested in its development. With large undeveloped hydroelectric sites still available in Quebec, Newfoundland, Manitoba, British Columbia and the Territories, this form of energy development is expected to retain its prominent position for years to come. However, the potential of these type of developments to affect the environment and human culture makes their development increasingly difficult and costly to plan and to build.

Water Transport Inland waterways in Canada have historically played a major role in getting Canadian goods and raw materials to market. Some traditional uses, such as log driving, have now disappeared. However, water transport is still the most economical means of moving the bulky raw materials which are our main exports: wheat, pulp, lumber, and minerals. The main transportation waterways of Canada include the St. Lawrence River, which allows passage of ocean-going ships from the Atlantic Ocean deep into the heart of North America (almost as far as the prairie wheat fields),; the Mackenzie River, a vital northern transportation link; and the lower Fraser River on the Pacific Coast. Cargo in the hundreds of millions of tonnes is transported along these routes each year. Reliable and predictable lake and river levels are very important to this industry.

Freshwater Fisheries Canada is blessed with hundreds of thousands of freshwater lakes and rivers, and provides some of the most spectacular sport fishing in the world. According to a 1985 survey, 6.5 million people make use of our waterways every year for sport fishing: $4.4 billion dollars were spent that year on goods and services directly related to sport fishing. In addition, inland commercial fisheries employ some 10,000 Canadians, mostly in Ontario and the Prairies. The fish they catch has a market value of about $140 ,million. Moreover, coastal rivers provide spawning grounds for salmon and other fish populations which support major saltwater fisheries.

Wildlife many wildlife species live in, on, or near water, and require access to it throughout their lives. Other species may not use water as their primary habitat, but it is nonetheless essential to their well-being. Watching, photographing, and studying wildlife are all popular forms of recreation for Canadians. About 70% of Canadians participated in these activities, according to a 1987 survey, and spent about $2.2 billion that year on them. Hunting (controversial as it may be) attracts nearly one in ten Canadians and accounts for $1.1 billion of wildlife-related spending each year. And these activities are all on the rise, according to statistics compiled by Environment Canada and provincial Departments of Natural Resources.

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Recreation Canadians value opportunities for outdoor recreation and in recent years have sought the outdoors as never before. Swimming, boating, canoeing, fishing, and camping activities allow us to experience the beauty of our lakes and rivers. While not all outdoor recreation requires water, the presence of water tends to enhance the experience. Expenditures on water-related recreational activities and tourism also contribute billions of dollars each year to the national economy.

Waste Disposal It has been convenient for water users to view lakes, rivers and oceans as logical receivers of human and industrial wastes. While water is capable of diluting and ‘digesting’ society’s wastes to some degree, there are limits to what even the largest body of water can absorb. The extent to which instream processes can accept contaminants depends on factors such as the nature of the contaminant, how much of it there is compared with the volume of water, how long the contaminant stays in the water, the temperature of the water, and the rate of flow. Many of our waterways are now overloaded with wastes. This problem can best be resolved by increasing regulation and/or monitoring. 101

Water for Work Activities

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Wind and Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose A windmill uses the force of the wind to do useful work. Water wheels turn the energy of running water into useful power. Before the first steam engines were invented, windmills and water wheels were almost the only machines that were not powered by human or animal muscles. Farmers often used them to grind corn and pump water.

When engines fuelled by coal and oil came along, windmills and water wheels began to disappear. However, they are becoming popular one more. Today, we are mor aware of the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. Wind and water power are clean and quiet sources of energy. Water wheels can be built wherever there is fast-flowing water that will turn the blades of the wheel.

Most modern water wheels are complicated machines that are used to make electricity. They are called hydroelectric turbines, and the electricity they produce is hydroelectricity. Hydroelectric turbines are usually built along big rivers or in dams, where water is forced to pass through a turbine in order to get out of the reservoir. Electricity can even be generated in coastal areas, by the movement of the tides through a turbine.

Materials q cork q funnel q scissors q modelling clay q plastic tube q tape q stiff plastic q two toothpicks q glass dish q sharp knife (teacher assistance required) q plastic 2 litre pop bottle q nail

Procedure Create the turbine Cut four slits lengthwise in the cork, evenly spaced. Cut four pieces of stiff plastic. Make all pieces the same length as the cork and fit the pieces of plastic into the slits. Make sure the blades fit snugly into the cork. 103

Create the turbine assembly Using the nail, pierce two holes in opposite sides of the 2 litre bottle. Cut the bottom off of the bottle. Make sure the edge is straight, so that the bottle can stand upright. Push a toothpick into one end of the cork, then fit it into one hole in the bottle. Push the other toothpick through the other hole and into the cork. The water wheel must be able to spin easily in its cradle.

Create the sluice Push the narrow end of the funnel into one end of the piece of plastic tubing. Wind tape around the joint to hold the funnel and the tubing tightly together.

Place the bottle in the dish. Fit the tube (with the funnel attached) into the neck of the bottle, making sure that the stream of water will hit the plastic blades of the wheel (hold the funnel at a higher level than the bottle neck opening so that the water will run downhill).

In a hydroelectric power station, water falling down a pipe (the plastic tubing) from a dam (the funnel) spins the blades of the turbine (the water wheel). The turbine drives a generator that makes electricity.

Predict the results of a change in the rate of flow Raise the funnel so that it is straight above the opening of the bottle. Ask the students to pour water into the funnel at this height, and to predict any change to the motion of the water wheel blades. The water moves faster because it is falling a greater distance, and, as a result, the water wheel moves faster.

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Lift a Load with Water Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Using water to lift a heavy weight is known as hydraulic lifting. Very powerful machines allow workers to pull, press or lift things that they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. Hydraulics greatly increase the force produced by these machines.

In hydraulic machines (like earth movers), pipes carry a liquid from a pump to cylinders where the liquid pushes out pistons with great force. In an earth mover, pistons drive the earth moving shovel into the ground and let the machine raise a heavy load of soil. The mechanics of this hydraulic movement are demonstrated in this activity. When the funnel is raised above the level of the book, and weight of the water in the tube pushes water into the balloon. The swelling balloon then exerts enough pressure to push the heavy book upwards.

Materials q rubber band q plastic tube q tape q heavy book q plastic bottle (500 ml) q water q balloon q scissors q funnel q small soup can

Procedure Fit the neck of the balloon over the end of the tube and seal the joint tightly with tape.

Cut the top off the bottle, making a hole in the side, near the base of the bottle.

Push the balloon through the hole in the side of the bottle, so that the plastic tube is sticking out through the side.

Tape the funnel firmly to the ‘free’ end of the tube.

Place the can inside the bottle, on top of the balloon. The sides of the bottle should extend just past the top of the can. Lay the heavy book on top of the bottle.

Lift the funnel so that it is raised about six inches or more above the upper rim of the bottle. Pour some water into the funnel, so that it runs down the tube and into the balloon. As the balloon swells, the can on top of the balloon is raised, and so is the book! 105

Make It Sink – Then Float! Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose A huge ship floats on water, even though it is very heavy. Yet a small, light object – such as a marble – will sink. Why? The weight of objects alone does not suggest whether or not something will sink or float. Whether or not something will float depends on how much water it displaces, or pushes aside.

Have you ever noticed the marks painted low on the hulls of ships? These marks show safe loading levels. An overloaded ship settles too low in the water, and risks sinking.

Materials q modelling clay q marbles q a glass tank or large (wide) bowl of water

Procedure Drop marbles into the water. Notice that they quickly sink to the bottom of the container.

Ask the students to predict what will happen if the clay is dropped into the container.

Roll the clay into a ball, and drop it in. The clay will also sink. Just like the marbles, it does not displace much water.

Remove the marbles and the clay ball. Shape the clay to make a flat-bottomed boat (or a plate- like form). Float the clay in the container of water. This new shape displaces more water than the ball form did: more water has been displaces, and it pushes with more force, supporting the clay boat, making it float.

Add the marbles to the clay boat – they are its ‘cargo’. The boat will settle lower in the water, but displaces more water and still floats. 106

Water Dangers Educator’s Notes

Of Tides and Time14 Tides have long intrigued us. Perhaps it’s the fact that they represent a predictable and wholly unstoppable force. Tides are rhythmic, predictable and periodic changes in the height of a body of water, caused by a combination of the gravitational pulls of the moon and sun, and the motion of the earth. The contribution to tidal height of the moon (lunar tide) is about twice that of the sun (solar tide). Even though the sun is 27 million times more massive than the moon, the moon is about 400 times closer to the Earth, and exerts a much stronger gravitational pull.

Throughout the month, tides vary in their heights. The highest highs and lowest lows occur together during the new and full moons, when both moon and sun are pulling in the same direction. In this case, the pulls of the two bodies are added together. These extreme tides are called spring tides, which comes from the Old English word springen, meaning “to jump or move quickly”. Spring tides occur when the Earth, moon and sun form a right angle.

Tidal patterns (how often highs and lows occur within 24 hours) and ranges (the difference between high tide and low tide water levels) differ throughout the world. Some areas, such as much of the east and west coasts of North America, usually have two high and two low tides per 24 hours. These are semi-diurnal tides. On the other hand, the Gulf of Mexico tends to have one high and one low tide (diurnal tides) during the same period.

Tidal ranges vary dramatically, depending on the shape of the water basin the tides flow through. The narrow Bay of Fundy has tides of about 50 feet. Remember, this does not mean that the water goes inshore for 50 feet. It means that the water level rises in height by that amount - 50 feet! If the land is pretty flat, the sea might flow inshore for miles before reaching the necessary elevation. Tidal ranges for most of the ocean are much smaller. On the west and east coasts of North America, tidal ranges tend to be around six to eight feet. In the Gulf of Mexico, the tides are even narrower, often only a foot or two.

Tides are a major (perhaps the major) controlling force in many marine intertidal habitats, because they help dictate how long organisms are under water. In areas with wide tidal ranges, organisms must have adaptations that allow them to survive in the air. These include facing such hazards as drying out, wide temperature fluctuations, influxes of fresh water (from rain) and attacks by various terrestrial predators.

14 excerpted from the Teacher’s Guide to the IMAX film, “The Living Sea” 107

Wind and Waves15 Just what are waves? While waves are caused by various forces, most of the waves we see are caused by the wind. In the ocean, wind waves are generated by air molecules from the wind blowing along the sea surface and transferring energy to adjacent water molecules. As the water molecules begin to move, they start to travel in vertical circles, producing tiny wavelets. These tiny waves expose more water surface to the wind and more wind energy is transferred to the water, creating larger and larger waves. When winds slow or cease, waves continue on, though they become more rounded; these are swells.

Waves come in various parts. The crest is the highest part of the wave (above the still-water level) and the trough is the lowest part. A wave’s height is the distance between the crest and trough, and its length is the horizontal distance between each crest. In the open ocean, wave length averages 200 to 500 feet, but may reach 2,000 feet in extreme cases. A wave’s period is the time it takes for two successive waves to pass by a particular point; wave frequency measures how many waves pass that point in a given time period. Wind period varies from a few seconds to as much as 20 seconds.

How high do waves grow? Really high. The highest waves ever officially recorded were measured by the Executive Officer of the US Navy tanker Ramapo on February 7, 1933, in the North Pacific Ocean. The tanker was heading from the Phillippines to San Diego and for days a steady 66 mph wind had blown, with gusts to 80 mph. At about 3:00 am, with a bright moon illuminating the seas, the personnel on watch noted a particularly large set of waves bearing down on them. When the ship settled into the trough of one, the Executive Officer noted that the crow’s nest of the main mast was level with the crest of the next wave. He calculated that the wave had to be 112 feet high.

How Does the Ocean Move?16 Water is in constant motion in the ocean and much of that motion occurs within currents. The term current usually refers to water flowing horizontally (parallel to the ocean’s surface), but masses of water can move vertically, as well. Currents can be rapid and almost river-like (such as the Gulf Stream) or they can be slow and diffuse.

What causes water to move? Ultimately, the sun does the job. Warm water expands and cold water contracts. Ocean water is warmer at the equator (the sun shines on it more) than at the poles. Equatorial water is actually about three inches thicker than polar water, because it is warmer and has expanded slightly. This global difference creates a very slight slope and warm equatorial water flows “downhill” (poleward) in response to gravity. However, this movement is only the beginning. Surface water also is propelled by winds. Winds move water through friction between moving air molecules and water molecules. As the surface water molecules begin to move, they pull with them some of the molecules below, which triggers the current.

15 excerpted from the Teacher’s Guide to the IMAX film, “The Living Sea”

16 excerpted from the Teacher’s Guide to the IMAX film, “The Living Sea” 108

Water also moves vertically, as was earlier stated. Winds can drive surface water away from the coast and deep water can move upward (upwelling). However, water also moves downward. Ocean water sinks when it is saltier or colder than surrounding water. A prime example of this takes place in Antarctica, where Antarctic Bottom Water is formed. This is the most dense water in the ocean, and it is created in the water when sea ice forms. This . This only takes up about 15% of the ocean’s salt, and the rest forms an extremely cold brine. This sinks to the bottom and spreads northward from Antarctica. In the Pacific Ocean, this water actually may reach the Aleutian Islands, a trip that takes about 1,600 years.

Ocean currents have a profound effect on the weather. Mark Twain exemplifies this fact in his apocryphal remark, “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”. Summer months there are cool, windy and foggy. On the other hand, Washington, D.C. - at about the same latitude but on the Atlantic Ocean - has hot and muggy summer. The reason for this difference is that San Francisco wits on the edge of the cold California Current. Winds approaching the California coast lose heat to this cold water and chill San Francisco. Washington, D.C., is hit by winds that have lowed over the warm Gulf Stream, picking up heat and moisture as they pass over that current.

Did You Know? The rainiest place on Earth is in Tutenendo, Columbia. It gets about 11,770 mm of rain a year. The greatest precipitation in one year in Canada (recorded so far) has been 8,122.4 mm at Henderson Lake, British Columbia in 1913. The driest place on Earth is Arica, Chile. Over a 59 year period, the average yearly rainfall was only 0.76 mm! The least precipitation in one year in Canada was recorded at 12.7 mm at Arctic Bay in 1949. 109

Water Dangers Activities 110

Changing Tides Grades 5, 6 Science

Purpose This demonstration shows the gravitational force of the moon and sun can displace water toward these sources of gravity.

Materials q clear-coloured (or white) large round balloon q water q one circle, 5 cm in diameter, cut from construction paper (decorate as the Earth)

Procedure Fill the balloon with water, let out all excess air and tie the top with a know. Tape the paper circle to the centre of the balloon. Notice as you hold one hand at the bottom of the balloon and the other at the knot that the water is evenly distributed around the paper circle (form the balloon into the shape of a ball).

Remove the hand supporting the bottom of the balloon and notice how elongated the balloon becomes. The gravity of earth pulls the balloon and water down. Likewise, the moon’s and sun’s gravitational pulls cause the ocean tides to rise and fall. 111

A Current Affair Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will create their own water currents, using differences in water salinity and water temperature.

Deep currents are generated by differences in salinity and temperature between two bodies of water.

Salinity Currents - salt water is more dense than fresh water and sinks below it17. In the first experiment, the blue salt water on top will soon replace the clear fresh water below. Similarly, in the second half of the exercise, the clear tap water above will remain on top of the blue salt water.

Temperature Currents - like salt water, cold water is more dense than hot water18. When place on top it will sink down and displace the hotter water. Hot water will sit on top of cold water. However as the temperatures equalize, they will begin to mix.

Materials q 2-2 litre plastic bottles (smaller plastic bottles also work well - make sure that the bottles are of equal size. q index cards q food colouring q table salt q measuring spoons q basin (to catch drips)

Procedure Students will fill one bottle with clear tap water and the other with tap water salt and food colouring. They will predict what will happen to the coloured water before doing the experiment, then will observe and record the direction of the actual water flow. Students should record their predictions before beginning the experiment.

17 For an explanation of this phenomenon, refer to the Water Science section of this Resource.

18 For an explanation of this phenomenon, refer to the Water Science section of this Resource. 112

Salinity Currents 1. Divide the students into small groups (preferably a group with an adult helper), or do this activity as a class. Perform this experiment over a basin that can catch any drips (or results of mishaps).

2. Fill both bottles with room-temperature tap water. Add approximately 1 TBSP of salt and 8 drops of blue food colouring to one bottle and shake well. Don’t add anything to the water in the other bottle. Make sure both bottles are completely filled to the top.

3. Place an index card over the mouth of the coloured water bottle and turn the bottle over, all the while holding the index card over its mouth. Align the bottle of coloured water directly over top of the bottle of clear water, and when the mouths of the bottles are aligned, GENTLY slide the index card away, and observe the results for a few minutes. Ask the students to describe how the coloured water moved and where it ended up.

4. Empty and rinse the bottles and repeat the experiment, but this time, the clear water goes on top. Again, the students should record their predictions, the actual results and any difference between the prediction and the result.

Temperature Currents 1. Fill one bottle with ice-cold tap water, add 8 drops of blue food colouring and shake well. Fill the second bottle with hot tap water. Make sure that both bottles are completely filled to the top.

2. Alight the bottles over each other with the index separating the contents as directed in the experiment above. Slowly slide the card from between the bottles and observe the results for a few minutes. Ask the students to describe how the water moved and where it ended up.

3. Empty and rinse the bottles and repeat the experiment, but this time, the bottle containing the hot water goes on top. Again, the students should record their predictions, the actual results and any difference between the prediction and the result. 113

Tornado in a Bottle Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose In this experiment, water forms a spiralling, funnel-shaped vortex as it drains from a 2 litre pop bottle. A simple connector device allows the water to drain into a second bottle. The whole assembly can then be inverted and the process repeated. This experiment works well in activity centres.

Vortices occur in nature in many forms: tornadoes, whirlpools, weather systems, galaxies, etc.. The essence of a vortex is that objects are drawn together toward the centre, then miss! Spiral waves form in the water surface of the vortex. These waves appear to move in slow motion as they travel upward through the downward flowing water.

Violent weather is an unwelcome and often unexpected fact of life in most regions of the world. Coastal regions experience periodic rain accompanied by high winds (in excess of 117 km/h) that are called ‘hurricanes’. Hurricanes are produced in tropical regions, and, when fully developed, are the most destructive of all storms. Meteorologists give human names to hurricanes in order to keep track of concurrent storms.

The most violent, and perhaps the most spectacular of all storms is the tornado. The tornado is similar to the hurricane, but is much smaller - usually only a few hundred metres across. In a tornado, the air moves around the central core very fast – sometimes at speeds of 600 kn/h. These fast winds can uproot trees, demolish houses, and even fling automobiles hundreds of metres.

Materials q 2 empty 2 litre pop bottles q 1 Tornado Tube plastic connector q (available at science centres and specialized toy stores - try Discovery Centre or the Museum of Natural History for starters) q ** or tape the two bottles together with a flat washer between - the washer should have a 3/8" hole in the centre – use electrical tape or duct tape to join the bottles ** q optional: one small bottle of food colouring q optional: tsp of plastic confetti (greeting card confetti works well)

Procedure Fill one of the 2 litre bottles about 2/3 full of water. For effect, you can add a little food colouring and/or the bits of plastic confetti. Screw the bottles onto both ends of the plastic connector, making sure that you do not screw the bottles together too tightly.

Place the two bottles on a table with the filled bottle on top. Watch the water slowly drip down into the lower bottle as air simultaneously bubbles up into the top bottle. The flow of water may come to a complete stop. 114

With the filled bottle on top, rapidly rotate the bottles in a circle a few times. Place the assembly on a table. Observe the formation of a funnel-shaped vortex as the bottle drains. Ask the students to notice the shape of the vortex. Also, ask the students to pay attention tot he flow of the water as it empties into the lower bottle.

Background Notes When the water is not rotating, surface tension creates a skin-like layer on top of the water and across the small hole in the centre of the connector (see the section “Water Science” for further discussion of surface tension). If the top bottle is almost full, the water can push out a bulge in this surface to form a bulbous drop, which then drips into the lower bottle. As water drops into the lower bottle, the pressure in the lower bottle builds until air bubbles are forced into the upper bottle. The pressure that the water exerts on the surface in the connector decreases as the water level in the upper bottle drops. When the water level and pressure drop low enough, the water surface can hold back the water and stop the flow completely.

If you spin the bottles around a few times, the water in the upper bottle starts rotating. As the water drains into the lower bottle, a vortex forms. The water is pulled down and forced toward the drain-hole in the centre by gravity. If we ignore the small friction forces, the angular momentum of the water stays the same as it moves inward. This means that the speed of the water around the centre increases as it approaches the centre of the bottle. This is the same principle at work when ice skaters increase the speed of their spins by pulling in their arms.

To make the water move in a circle, forces called centripetal forces must act on the water. These ‘centre pulling’ forces are provided by a combination of air pressure, water pressure, and gravity.

You can tell where the centripetal forces are greater by looking at the slope of the water. Where the water is steeper, such as a t the bottom of the vortex, the centripetal force on the water is greater. Water moving with higher speeds and in smaller radius curves requires larger forces. The water at the bottom of the vortex is doing just this, and so the wall of the vortex is steepest at the bottom. Think about race cars: race tracks have steeper banks on high-speed, sharp corners to hold the cars in their circular paths around the track.

The hole in the vortex allows air from the lower bottle to flow easily into the upper bottle. This enables the upper bottle to drain smoothly and completely.

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Some Snowy Facts Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Shades of White Most people think of snow as white, but snow can be other colours as well. Walking outside on a snowy day can show students how many different colours of snow can be found - of course, there’s the ever-present brownish-grey slush, but students will be able to find snow with soft blue or other pastel hues as well. What makes particular areas of snow a certain colour? The addition of naturally occurring (organic) life forms and/or compounds. For example, snow can be coloured a soft shade of pink by algae . . .

Snow Temperatures Snow can act as an insulating blanket. Prove this by taking the air temperature. Measure the air temperature in the shade so that the thermometer is not heated by the sun. Whenever you take a temperature, hold the thermometer in place for several minutes to get a valid reading. Then take the following readings: at the top of a snow drift; halfway down through the drift; under the snow at ground level. How does the temperature of the snow compare to the air temperature? Where is it coldest? Where is it warmest? What did the students predict?

Snow Density Snow density (how compact the snow is) varies with the depth and age of snow, air temperature, and wind. Take four samples of snow: freshly fallen snow; snow that fell several days ago; snow from a drift; snow that has been walked on. Collect a sample by carefully pressing the full length of a can (both ends removed) into the snow until the can is level with the surface of the snow. Lift the can out of the snow, and place a piece of metal or cardboard against the bottom of the can to hold the snow in. The snow should be level with both ends of the can: if it isn’t use a ruler or other straight-edge to level it. Put each of your snow samples into separate containers and mark the containers. Bring the samples indoors and allow the snow to melt. Then, use a measuring cup to compare the water from each sample. Which sample produced the most water - and therefore had the densest snow? Why?

Some areas of the world stay very warm all year round and do not get any snow. In other areas of the world, winter is a time of year when temperatures dip below freezing and snow is common. Some areas of the world have opposite seasons to our own. As a Technology/Language Arts activity, students could communicate with students in other areas of the world via Internet school links . . .

Snow Melt On a sunny, mild day, lay different coloured sheets of construction paper on the snow, using rocks or other small weights to keep the sheets in place. Each sheet should be exposed to the same amount of sunlight throughout the day. At regular intervals during the day, measure and record how deeply each sheet has melted into the snow. Why does colour affect melting? How

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does this relate to the colours of clothing we wear for different season? How does it affect the way snow melts in the Spring? For example, why does snow melt more quickly on a black road surface?

Technically speaking, the term ‘snowflake’ is defined as a cluster of snow crystals that have stuck together as they fall to the ground. The world’s biggest snowflake was 38 cm in diameter.

A large snowflake can fall at a speed of 5 km/h. Different kinds of snow crystals result from certain combinations of conditions, particularly temperature and moisture level, in the clouds and near the Earth’s surface. There is an international system for grouping snow crystals into ten general categories. The system is based on the structure of the crystals. The international system applies to falling snow. Snow crystals change when they reach the ground and lose their original identity. As a snow crystal melts, its parts blend into a spherical shape and it ends up as a drop of water.

Have you ever noticed that snow sometimes squeaks when you walk on it? When the temperature is well below freezing and you walk on snow, the ice crystals rub and grind against one another. This produces the squeaking noise. If the temperature is just a little below freezing, the pressure of your foot melts some of the snow. This creates a thin layer of water underneath your foot, which lubricates the snow crystals so that they don’t make any noise.

Weather ‘Weather’ refers to the atmospheric conditions in a specific place at a specific time. ‘Climate’ refers to the average weather conditions (for example: temperature, wind, precipitation) of a place, usually taken over all days throughout the year (for example: an area which has high temperatures is said to have a hot climate). The difference between weather and climate is like when your friend, who is generally a very nice person (climate) is in a bad mood one day (weather).

A major factor in climate is ‘latitude’, the distance of a place from the equator. More of the sun’s energy reaches the area close to the equator and so it is hottest there. Another important factor in climate is ocean currents. Newfoundland is at about the same latitude as Britain, but has a cooler climate, because of the cold Labrador Current. Yet another factor in climate is height above sea level.

“Rain before seven, Fine after eleven” . . . this saying indicates a truth about rain at any time, not just before seven. Belts of rain brought by fronts tend to last less than six hours. 117

How We Affect Water Educator’s Notes

Pollution It is easy to dispose of waste by dumping it into a river or lake. In large or small amounts, dumped intentionally or accidentally, waste may be carried away by the current . . . but it will never disappear. The waste you dump in a body of water will reappear somewhere down stream, sometimes in a changed form, or simply diluted. Bodies of fresh water have a great ability to break down some waste materials, but not in the quantities discarded by today’s society. The waste overload that results is called pollution, and eventually, it puts the ecosystem out of balance.

Sometimes nature itself can produce these imbalances. In some cases, the natural composition of the water makes it unfit for certain uses. For example, water flowing in the salty (saline) terrain of the Prairies or gushing from mineralized springs in some parts of Canada cannot sustain fish populations.

Most often, our waterways are polluted by municipal, agricultural and industrial wastes, including many toxic synthetic chemicals which cannot be broken down at all by natural processes. Even in tiny amounts, some of these substances can cause serious harm. The Great Lakes, the Fraser River, and the St. Lawrence River are seriously contaminated by such toxic chemicals.

Pollution is not always visible. A river or lake may seem clean, but still be polluted. In groundwater, on which over one quarter of all Canadians rely for their water supply, pollution is particularly difficult to discern. Nor are the effects of pollution necessarily immediate – they may take years to appear.

When pollution makes water unsuitable for drinking, recreation, agriculture and industry, it eventually also diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and rivers. Even more seriously, when contaminated water destroys aquatic life and reduces its reproductive abilities, it eventually threatens human health. Nobody and nothing escapes the effect of water pollution.

Water pollution can be divided into two types: point-source pollution - waste dumped by factories or sewage plants - and non point-source pollution - otherwise called polluted runoff. Polluted runoff is what happens when you spill oil on the driveway, then hose it down; when a farmer’s cows stroll through a stream; when a gardener sprays a lawn with fertilizer. Water picks it all up - oil, manure, lead, nitrogen, phosphorus - and adds it to the system.

Until very recently, most pollution regulations and enforcement agencies in North America have targeted only point-source polluters. And remember, what we do affects our neighbours. Case in point: during the early 1990s, a study of fish from Lake Laberge in the Yukon Territories turned up a variety of chemicals, including the insecticide toxaphene, widely used in Russia. Scientists determined that the insecticide probably blew east from Russia, and was raked into Lake Laberge by the rain. 118

Acid Rain: Byproduct of the Industrialized World Acid rain is a global phenomenon, in which Canada ranks high as both a contributor and an unwilling victim. Like all industrialized nations, we discharge millions of tons of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen into the atmosphere every year through industrial and automobile emissions. Some of these gaseous emissions return to us in the form of acid rain, causing serious environmental damage.

Moreover, since precipitation patterns are affected by winds and other meteorological influences, acid rain doesn’t necessarily fall on the heads of those who are creating it. Like global warming, caused by the greenhouse effect, acid rain knows no international boundaries. It simply falls where weather patterns take it, affecting the environment wherever it lands.

Because of the abundance of fresh water lakes in Canada, the effects of acid rain are easily documented, and we are finding ourselves facing considerable ecological and economic strains as we wrestle with this problem.

Magnitude and Cost q North American industries and automobiles annually discharge 50 million tons of acidic sulphur and nitrogen into the atmosphere q Some parts of Eastern Canada receive as much as 45 kilograms of acid rain per hectare annually. q Approximately 14,000 lakes in Canada are biologically dead because of acid rain. One hundred thousand have been damaged, and 600,000 are estimated to be at risk. Unless acid rain is reduced, another 10,000 to 40,000 will certainly die. q Twenty-four species of birds are endangered in eastern North America as a result of the impact of acid rain on the food chain. q The growth rates of spruce, pine and fir in parts of Quebec and Ontario have more than halved. This decline, caused in part by acid rain, is bad news for the forest industry, which indirectly employs one in 10 Canadians. q Half the automobile corrosion in Canada may be due to acid rain. q Acid rain causes at least $285 million in damage annually to building materials in Canada. q Some researchers claim that the maple sugar industry in Canada and the Northeastern United States is being threatened because of damage caused by acid rain to maple trees.

What is Being Done? Governments of industrialized nations the world over are taking steps to regulate the emission of industrial gases causing acid rain. However, the economies of these countries, including Canada, require continued industrial growth to sustain our standard of living.

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What Can We Do? Automobile emissions account for a percentage of the acidic gases released into the atmosphere. By taking public transit where and when it is available, forming car pools and riding bikes or walking, the public can play an important role in cleaning up the atmosphere. This is especially true in North America and Europe, where the use of automobiles has become a major social and environmental problem. We can also write to our government representatives and put pressure on our industries to increase regulations and research aimed at decreasing acidic gas emissions.

Are We Changing the Earth’s Atmosphere? Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of clear, natural gases that extends approximately 100 kilometres over our heads. The atmosphere is what we breathes, and is the cradle from which our different climates spring. It creates the weather patterns that influence our lives and activities. And it is a finite resource.

A major international conference, “The Changing Atmosphere”, held in Toronto in 1988, warned the world that ongoing industrial and transportation pollution of the Earth’s atmosphere must be curbed or there will be serious consequences to life on this planet. Experts at the conference predicted that because so much pollution has entered the atmosphere already, climatic changes are inevitable. They called for an immediate 50 percent reduction in carbon dioxide gas emissions world-wide, to moderate the severity of these changes.

The Greenhouse Effect The conference made it clear that the potential of man-made chemical substances to bring about a change in the Earth’s climate, affecting the distribution of biological life forms in the very near future, is as big a threat to our continued existence as the nuclear arms race. In fact, the general warming of the Earth’s climate, caused by the build-up in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, has reached such critical proportions that the greenhouse effect and global warming have become topics of world-wide concern.

The Greenhouse Effect on Canada Studies by Environment Canada and several Canadian universities suggest some of the following implications of global warming on Canada. Most of these implications will directly affect our water resources. q water supplies in southern Canada and elsewhere could be significantly reduced by changes in rainfall patterns and increased evaporation rates q more crops will be lost to drought, and there will be greater emphasis on water conservation and water management than ever before q there is a possibility that more crops will be produced further north than it is possible to do today q lower water levels will force a decrease in the size of cargo ships using navigable rivers and lakes, but the shipping season will be extended due to the shorter winter freeze q lower water levels will reduce hydroelectric power generation 120

q a one-metre rise in global sea level by the year 2050 - dykes will be necessary to prevent flooding in some coastal areas q inland marshes and wetlands will dry up or decline, resulting in a loss of wildlife

Quantity, Quality and Conservation How does saving water help water quality? Water saved is water that does not end up in the wastewater stream and require treatment. Less wastewater in the sewage treatment plant also means that the plant has a better chance of doing the job it was built to do.

How do we begin to conserve water at home? The first step is to identify where we use water in our homes. Then we must decide on what to do to reduce the amount of water we use, either by eliminating wasteful practices and habits or by improving the efficiency of our water-using fixtures and devices. Since we waste so much, this should really be a relatively easy and painless process. The prime area to target in your initial efforts at water conservation is the bathroom, where nearly 75% of all indoor water use occurs. 121

How We Affect Water Activities

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What is Acid Rain? Grade 4 Science

What does Acid Rain look like? is sludgy and gross? No - and this is part of the problem with detecting certain types of pollution - Acid Rain looks clear. As a matter of fact, lakes that have been destroyed by acid rain tend to look clear and clean, mainly because thy no longer support plants or algae. Neither do they support fish, birds, or animals.

Here’s a simple way to show younger students what acid rain might taste like to a fish or plant. You will need: q clear drinking glasses q drinking water q vinegar

Have the students get a glass of drinking water. Smell it, feel it and taste it. What does it taste like? Would they like to swim in it? Do they think a plant would like to drink from it or grow in it? If any of the students have pet fish at home, ask them how the fish like the water to swim in.

Pour approximately one tablespoon of vinegar into each student’s glass. Explain that vinegar is not what is actually causing acid rain, but the effects of the water are similar. Ask them to smell, feel and taste this new, acidic water. Would they like to swim in it? What do they think it would feel like in their eyes? Could plants grow in it or be watered with it? Would a fish like to swim in it?

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Building a Better Planet Grades 4, 5, 6 Social Studies

Purpose Students will begin to develop critical thinking skills.

There is a critical link between land use and the protection of water and other natural resources. Ground water quality is directly linked to water pollutants from a variety of land use practices -- disease-causing organisms such as bacteria enter the water through sewage and animal waste; synthetic organic compounds such as those found in industrial, household and agricultural chemicals; inorganic compounds found in water from acid rain or from mining; radioactive substances; plant nutrients from agricultural and home use; sediments from erosion.

Land management practices have been created to protect our resources by developing regulations pertaining to solid waste disposal and solid waste treatment and regulating industries and what industry is allowed to dump into the water supply. In parts of North America, land use policies have been in effect for over one hundred years.

Different groups are involved in planning land management policies: developers; environmentalists; farmers and other private landowners; private citizens; public officials; the list goes on and on. Planning land management policies involves all sorts of different considerations: traditional land use; traffic use; environmental concerns; zoning regulations, etc..

Materials q cards with roles q (surface water irrigators, ground water irrigators, wildlife advocates, recreation interests, Star City interests, Province of Misery interests) q worksheets q background information

Procedure Discuss land use and the implications of land use on the environment. Hand out the History of the Populous River Valley sheets. Students will create members of the task force and represent each of the following groups: surface water irrigators, ground water irrigators, wetland protectionists, wildlife advocates, recreations interests, Star City officials, and the downstream Province of Misery.

Extension Invite a land planner, and/or an engineer, and/or an environmental advocate to speak to your class about their viewpoints regarding land planning and management activities. 124

History of Water Development in the Populous River Valley

Farmers in the Middle Populous River Valley had a problem. Not only did their crops burn up in the region’s periodic droughts, but they were also affected by frequent floods. If only there were a way to trap all those flood waters and deliver them when the crops needed them, instead of when they would wash out fields and farms. The Populous Valley Conservation Association was formed to figure out a solution to this problem.

The Association tried to convince the federal government to provide funds for a water project, but after years of lobbying, the Association was still unsuccessful. Then, a massive flood swept through the Populous Valley. By the time the flood waters receded, over 200 citizens had drowned and the entire valley was laid to waste. Legislation was quickly passed by the government which authorized and financed a water project. The government agreed to finance the overall project -- one that would provide flood control, irrigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. It was a reservoir and dam.

The Middle Populous River Valley lies in the province of Pandemonium. The Populous River Valley receives a uniform amount of rainfall and the population was almost uniformly happy about the opportunities the reservoir would bring. However . . . downstream water users in the neighbouring province of Misery were afraid that the project would greatly reduce the amount of water flowing into their province. The two provinces reached an interprovincial agreement that stated that at least 20% of the annual level of water flowing into the reservoir must be delivered to the border downstream.

Over a 2 year span, the Populous Dam was built and with another few years, it held back the vast expanse of the Middle Populous River. It soon became apparent to everyone that the project had benefits that no one had counted on. Before the dam was built, nearby Star City had experienced problems finding an adequate water supply. After the building of the reservoir and the dam, all pumping problems stopped. City engineers attributed this good fortune to the recharge leaking from the reservoir toward the city’s well fields. At last, this city of 10,000 had an adequate and secure water supply!

Upstream from the reservoir was an upland area where wheat had been grown for a hundred years. About five years after the reservoir was completed, the province of Pandemonium began an educational campaign to teach farmers how to stop erosion and hold moisture on their land. The farmers quickly adopted the measures and cut their soil loss and recorded impressive gains in production. A few years after that, inventors came up with a machine that drew upon ground water reserves to easily and cheaply irrigate fields. Luckily, the areas upstream of the reservoir had lots of ground water supplies and that region’s farmers bought and used the new irrigation system. Soon, just as many acres were irrigated by ground water above Populous Dam as by surface water below it.

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The recreation area that developed around the reservoir was even better than the planners had expected. Fishing was great, and boating was fine -- except for the crocodiles. The area to the north of the reservoir developed into a wetland that provided an excellent habitat for wildlife. The endangered Jayhawk began using the wetland as a resting place in its annual migration, since its habitat elsewhere in the province had been destroyed by land development years earlier.

Fiver years of prosperity and happiness were experience by the residents of the Middle Populous River Valley, and then . . . engineers from the province of Pandemonium noticed that they weren’t getting as much water flow as they had projected. At first, they thought that this was just due to dry weather that year, but after some time, it became apparent that something was seriously wrong. They began to limit the amount of water they released to downstream surface water irrigators, allowing them to apply only limited amounts of water to their crops. Soon, the downstream irrigators began to have trouble growing crops, and they lost money. To help these irrigators and to deliver more water to the downstream province of Misery, the engineers began releasing more water from the dam. Soon, lake levels began to drop. Mud flats soon surrounded the lake, and fish died in the shallows. Wetland wildlife areas began to shrink. The endangered Jayhawks began to decrease in numbers as their habitat disappeared. Boaters could only reach the dock through a dredged channel filled with angry crocodiles (they were angry because their food supplies were dwindling as their habitat decreased). There was still lots of surface water, but things were changing for the worse.

Hydrologists suspected that the problem was being caused by the conservation measures and ground water pumping that were occurring upstream. While legal rights to surface water were allocated on a ‘first in time, first in right’ basis, almost anyone could put in a ground water well. Pandemonium’s scientists and government officials decided that the best approach would be to commission a study to determine who was using the vanishing water. Then, if necessary, they would try to change their legal system to be fair to water users and to provide the maximum benefit to their province.

What can be cone to save the reservoir? Should the dam be destroyed and the land returned to the way it was? What about costs to the taxpayers? To the environment? Is there any solution? What do you think? The Premier of the province of Pandemonium has assembled task forces to develop recommendations for water management in the Populous River Valley. Represented on the task forces are: surface water irrigators, ground water irrigators, wildlife advocates, recreation interests, Star City interests, and the downstream province of Misery.

As loyal citizens and conscientious water users, you are asked to express your point of view and help the government develop a policy that benefits everyone. Time is of the essence. Water managers for the reservoir are up to their eyeballs in hungry crocodiles and the reservoir needs water! Task force members will discuss both their own group’s solution to the problems, and their own reaction to solutions presented by other groups. They will compare the strengths and weaknesses of the solutions presented, and, finally, will compromise on a solution that provides maximum benefits and minimum hardships for all parties involved. 126

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Water Uses Worksheet Grades 4, 5, 6 Mathematics, Social Studies

Purpose Students will develop an appreciation for the amount of water they use daily and strategize a method of reducing their personal water consumption.

There is little danger of North Americans running out of water. There is a very real danger, however, of running short of pure water.

Materials q Water uses work sheet

Procedure Instruct the students to study the two charts on the Water Uses Worksheet (attached). Ask that they keep the sheet with them for one day, marking it each time they use water. Students may use the back of the paper for mathematics. Students are to be reminded that the amounts shown are estimates only, not an exact measure of how much water is used. Some amounts seem extraordinary, but are real estimates: for example, the figure shown for ‘getting a drink’ assumes that people allow the water to run from the tap to get cold before they drink.

The chart entitled “Your Share of Your Family’s Water” helps students estimate their share of the daily household water use.

Extension Ask students to imagine ways that they can measure their actual water use.

Ask students to plan and then to implement a strategy to decrease their wasteful use of water.

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Water Uses Worksheet

Water You Use Yourself How You Use It Average Amount for One Use Tally Each Use Total Taking a Bath 115 litres Taking a Shower 75 litres Flushing a Toilet 12 litres Washing Hands or 8 litres Face Getting a Drink 1 litre Brushing Teeth 1 litre Other you estimate Other you estimate Other you estimate Other you estimate Other you estimate

Total

Your Share of Your Family’s Water How You Use It Average Amount for One Use Tally Each Use Total Washing dishes 30 litres after one meal Cooking a meal 20 litres Using an automatic 120 litres clothes washer Others you estimate Others you estimate Others you estimate Others you estimate

Total

Total water used by you in one day: (add the totals of the two charts together for your answer)

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Water Information Sheet Grades 4, 5, 6 Mathematics, Social Studies

Purpose Students will learn some simple ways to save water in their homes after studying their family’s total water usage in a week.

Material q Water Uses Worksheet q Water Information Sheet

Procedure Distribute handouts and enclose a letter to parents or guardians, explaining the activity. Students may want to post the information sheet on the bathroom door or near the kitchen and encourage family members to mark it when they use water in each of the categories. After one week or fuse, students are to return the sheets. You may then incorporate the sheets into several math lessons.

Extensions Have the students ‘invent’ water saving devices for the various uses of water throughout their homes.

Have the students plan realistic strategies for conserving water in their homes.

English Language Arts Have the students design a family commitment to conserving water in their homes. 130

Water Information Sheet (all values are approximate)

A. Activity B. Water Used C. Times Done D. Water Used

Flushing a Toilet 12 litres

Taking a Bath 112 litres

Taking a Shower 75 litres

Cooking 3 Meals 60 litres

Cleaning House 30 litres

Washing Dishes (3 30 litres meals)

Washing Clothes 120 litres

Watering a Lawn 130 litres

Washing a Car 130 litres

Other you estimate

Other you estimate

Total Water Use (add all numbers in column D)

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Protect the Dolphin Grades 4, 5, 6 Science, Social Studies, Physical Education

Purpose Students will evaluate how the actions of a group can affect the entire ecosystem.

Many countries are concerned about the future of dolphins and whales. In the last few years, many of these aquatic mammals have been killed by fishing nets or by people who hunt them. Many are now nearing extinction. It is important that - while this is a game - the teacher visits with the class after the game is over to discuss what can be done to save these mammals.

Materials q playground or gym q dodge ball

Procedure Several children are chosen to act as dolphins, several are commercial fishers with their nets (dodge balls), and the rest of the class serve as dolphin guards. The dolphins can not run, but may walk quickly. The protectors can run and catch the ball to ward off the throws of the fishers. When a ball hits a dolphin, the dolphin is out of the game, and sits on the sidelines. The fishers stand in the middle of the group and can only rotate -- they cannot chase a dolphin. The fishers throw the balls to try to hit a dolphin.

Students should rotate to experience all points of view. The game may be juggled so there are more dolphins than protectors, or more fishers and dolphins than protectors.

After all students have played, gather the class to discuss their feelings about the game. How did it feel to be a dolphin? What did the dolphins feel like when the ball was headed their way but they couldn’t escape? How did the dolphins feel about their protectors? About the fishers? How did the protectors feel? How did it feel to be a fisher?

Extensions What can the class do to stop dolphins from being caught? Several years ago, children were instrumental in getting tuna companies to label their tuna indicating that dolphins were not harmed in the fishing of the tuna.

Have the class research commercial ocean fishing. Ask a local fisher or a member of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to speak to the class about humane fishing practices.

Research dolphins and/or other endangered marine species. Write a story or poem about being a dolphin. 132

To Dam or Not To Dam Grade 6 Social Studies, English Language Arts

Purpose Students will evaluate the potential positive and negative effects of constructing a dam on a river.

Background The town of Big Sky, population 22,000, is located along the Scenic River. The people of Big Sky and other towns nearby are concerned with the recently developed Scenic River Dam proposal.

The Big Sky Metropolitan Association proposed the construction of the dam as a result of a study they commissioned. They want to ensure the continued growth of the suburbs of Big Sky Metropolis -- and the suburbs need water. The study says that the most efficient way to provide the suburbs with water is by constructing the Scenic River Dam. The Scenic River Dam will also generate hydroelectricity for the local communities.

The Scenic River Dam will be located about 40 kilometres from the town of Big Sky. Construction of the Scenic River Dam will take up to 25 years to complete, and will create a 7,300 hectare reservoir on the Scenic River. Wildlife will be affected in the following ways: q 40 km of a trout stream will be destroyed q wildlife habitat will be altered and/or threatened q water supplies near the Scenic River Dam will be depleted q wintering grounds for migrating birds may be affected q the upstream/downstream movement of fish on the Scenic River will be affected

Environmentalists and dam engineers know that the water levels below the dam will be very low for at least part of the year. Water going over the dam will drop a very long distance. Another consideration is that very cold water from the bottom of the dam will be released into the river below.

Other environmental impacts include the loss of a white-water section of the river that is now used by private and commercial rafting, kayaking and canoeing enthusiasts. Residents of Big Sky and the surrounding areas will also experience an increase in their power bills of about $10 a month for the next 30 years to pay for the new dam that will, eventually, generate hydroelectricity.

While the people of Big Sky and surrounding communities are concerned about the potential for problems the Scenic River Dam will create, they are also interested in the benefits the dam will bring their area in terms of jobs and development. They know that the dam will provide work for approximately 2,000 workers during its development, and that it will employ 200 people permanently when the dam is complete. They can imagine how these new jobs will positively affect their community. They also know that the hydroelectricity the dam will generate when it is completed will probably be less expensive for them to pay for than the electricity they buy now, which is generated by the burning of fossil fuel. The hydroelectricity will also be more cleanly produced than the electricity that is generated now.

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Procedure Divide the class into groups of three students. Ask the students to individually choose a role from the list provided. They should prepare for their individual roles by writing background for their character of at least five sentences long.

Have the students share, in groups of three, the position of each of the characters they have selected. While one student is speaking about their character’s position, the other students are recording what is being said.

Discuss as a class the pros and cons of constructing the dam.

The students discuss and record the following: q possible benefits to the people of Big Sky and area q negative consequences of the building of the dam for the people of Big Sky and area q positive impact on habitat - plants and wildlife q negative impact on habitat - plants and wildlife

You may choose to hold a mock public hearing with class members playing out these roles, or to have the class produce and videotape a play.

Choose from the following list of characters: 1. Rick Green - a representative of the local farmers’ coalition interested in the irrigation potential of the dam. 2. Lotta Power - a representative of the electrical power company interested in developing the dam. 3. Sam Fish - a local sporting goods store owner and avid trout fisher concerned with the loss of migration routed of fish on the river and the destruction of trout fishing. 4. Lynn Dripper - director of the Big Sky Water Quality Authority. She is responsible for providing high quality drinking water to the people of Big Sky, and is excited by the dam’s potential to provide a reservoir of high quality water that is usable during the long, hot summer months. 5. Irma Floaten - owner of a white-water rafting company who uses part of the Scenic River for commercial rafting. 6. Buddy Sky - president of the local bird watching club, who has organized eagle-watching trips to the Scenic River every year for the past 15 years. 7. Homer Owner - representative of home owners in the lower Scenic River Valley (below the dam) who are concerned about flood control. 8. Robert Law - the local police chief concerned about maintaining police protection, peace, health and safety regulations with only a three person staff as the only legal authority in Big Sky. 9. Cy Entist - a respected biologist prepared to testify about the potential effects of the dam on wildlife. 10. Virgil Economy - a businessperson concerned about the long range business potential of the Big Sky area. 11. Foress Terr - a person who has worked in the woods around Big Sky for more than 50 years. 12. B.G. Bottomline - a wealthy land developer who has architects working on designs for lakeside condos and resort homes. 13. Joe Average - a resident of the suburbs who says that Big Sky’s greed for water far exceeds

14. Josephine Average - a resident of Big Sky who says that there must be plans that involve less construction than the current proposal for the Scenic River Dam. 134

Down the Hill Grades 4, 5, 6 Science

Purpose Students will learn about water drainage patterns, discover the geographic interrelation of different landscapes and explain how pollution might enter rivers and lakes. Students will develop an understanding of point source and non point source pollution.

Students will create a simple watershed model, discovering hills, rivers and lakes from a bird’s eye view. They add rain to the model and describe water’s flow pattern. This activity can be used to introduce the topic of water pollution.

Materials for one batch of salt dough - teacher prepared q 2 cups of flour (250 ml) q cup of salt (125 ml) q TBSP of cooking oil (15 ml) q tsp cream of tartar (10 ml) mix and heat ingredients until a ball forms q pans for each salt dough relief model (9x11 cake pans work great!) q watering cans for each group (or jars with small holes poked in their lids) q packages of powdered drink mixes (Kool Aid or similar) q Coloured water (food colouring)

Procedure Break the class into small groups and have each group construct a simple watershed relief map in their pans. One end of their landscape should be higher than the other, and part of the landscape should include a Y shaped valley, with the tail of the Y ending in a depression. You can use the diagram at right for a model. Explain that water runs downhill. River water is water that has drained off the surrounding ground and water that comes from underground. Have students sprinkle rain over their model and observe the path of the water as it runs through the model. Where does the rain collect?

Explain that areas where water has collected become bodies of water (lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, etc.). Let the “rain” continue until the pan begins to fill. Explain that if water has no way to be carried off, then flooding occurs. Flooding can also occur when water cannot be carried off quickly enough.

Sprinkle a bit of Kool Aid on the model, and explain that the Kool Aid represents chemicals that come from products we use daily. Ask the students to name some of the products the Kool Aid might represent.

Sprinkle water on the model, and explain that now it is raining again. You’ve just demonstrated ‘runoff’. Discuss how pollutants enter the water and are carried by the water.

Discuss point source pollution and non point source pollution. Simulate these by pouring coloured water into the river at one point in the model (point source) and by raining coloured water (non point source). 135

Water For Fun Activities

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Wishing You Well Grades 4, 5, 6 English Language Arts, Social Studies

Background In medieval Scotland, people believed that wells, or places where water came out of the ground, held magical powers that could heal illnesses or grant wishes. While wells were thought to have power to heal sick people, certain wells were believed to specialize in certain illnesses. Here are a few:

Illness Well to Visit

deafness Craig-a-Chow

skin diseases Fergan Well

insanity Saint Fillan

stomachache Well at Newhills

toothache St. Mary’s Well

warts Well of Warts

To insure another year of life Carbet’s Well

It was not enough to visit these wells. Those requesting favours of the well had to follow certain rules in order for their wishes to be granted. For example: q visitors were well advised to go to the well only on certain days. It was thought that the first week of February, May, August and November was the most effective time to visit. q Water from the well was to either be drunk by the visitor or bathed in after dark and in complete silence. q The visitor was obliged to leave part of their clothes or rags at the well in order to rid themselves of the evil causing the affliction. q Visitors were advised to throw money into the well as a gesture of thanks. To not leave money was considered (by the well) to be an insult, and no wish would be granted as a result.

Materials q looseleaf q pen / pencil q lots of imagination! q atlas referencing the British Isles (optional)

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Procedure Ask the students to imagine and describe their own wish-granting well. They should decide on a name for the well, what the requirements of the well will be (for granting wishes), and what wishes the well will specialize in granting. This well could exist in the present, or be a well from ‘ancient folklore’.

Extension Research and discuss what particular properties of wells led medieval people to believe that they had magical or curative powers. Are there other bodies of water that are supposed to have magical or curative powers? Discuss. You may wish to include Canadian / Native Canadian folklore and belief in your discussion before branching out to other countries - Banff hot springs are a good place to start . . .

Using the atlas, identify the provenance of these wells. Students may have to use a good deal of imagination to match the names of these wells to existing place names. Do the boundaries of ancient Scotland seem to coincide with the boundary that exists today? Discuss.

Students may wish to write and perform a skit based on this subject matter. If the students find it difficult to personify a well, you may suggest that they develop a water sprite or gnome act as guardian and spokesfairy for the well. 138

Make Some Waves! Grades P - 6 Science, Art activity

Purpose Students will simulate the effect of wind across the surface of water and learn how water moves in the direction of the wind. This activity is accomplished by blowing air through a straw across watered-down paint.

Most waves we see are caused by wind. Air molecules from wind blowing along the sea surface transfer energy to adjacent water molecules. As the water molecules begin to move, they travel in vertical circles, producing tiny wavelets. These tiny waves expose more water surface to the wind and more wind energy is transferred to the water, creating larger and larger waves. When winds slow or cease, waves continue on, though they become more rounded: these are referred to as swells. A wave’s height is the distance between its crest and trough; its length is the distance between crests.

Materials q white construction paper q tempera paint (2 or 3 colours) q water q small bowls q small spoons q drinking straws

Procedure Prepare for this activity by covering the work surface with protective paper/plastic!

1. Give each student a sheet of white construction paper and a drinking straw.

2. Place tempera paint in shallow bowls. Water down the paint to the consistency of water.

3. With a spoon, apply a puddle of paint to the centre of the paper and blow through the straw across the paint. Apply one colour of paint at a time. q Notice how the air moves the paint in the direction you blow it.

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Raining Cats and Dogs Grades 4, 5, 6 English Language Arts

Purpose Proverbs are frequently-used statements that describe well-known facts. Understanding a proverb can give us insight into the lives, values, and beliefs of the people who use it. Water-related proverbs are can be found in all cultures. This activity explores some well-known water North American water expressions.

Procedure Ask students to describe what each (or several) of the following expressions means. Can they imagine how these expressions may have come into common use?

q Just a drop in the bucket q A flush of excitement . . . q Still water runs deep q I’m up the creek without a paddle q You can lead a horse to water, but q You’re all washed up you can’t make him drink q We’ll hang you out to dry q We’ll cross that bridge when we q You’re a drip! come to it q He’s a little wet behind the ears q This is just the tip of the iceberg q You’ve got your head in the clouds q Sink or swim q You’re in hot water q When it rains, it pours q Don’t be a wet blanket q He fell for it - hook, line, and sinker q You’re the spitting image of . . . q Walking on Cloud Nine q I’m feeling under the weather q I’m just waiting for my ship to come in q Crying crocodile tears . . . q Walking on thin ice q That’s water under the bridge q It’s raining cats and dogs Rain, rain, go away . . . come again some q I wash my hands of the whole matter other day! q He has his head in the clouds

Extension Ask the students to compile their own list of water-related expressions and proverbs.

Have the students research water proverbs from other parts of the world. Compare these expressions / proverbs to those commonly known in North America. What does the comparison suggest about the similar or different ways various cultures view water? 140

Resources

Publications Exploratorium Science Snackbook: Teacher Created Versions of Exploratorium Exhibits. Paul Doherty and Don Rathjen, eds., California: Exploratorium Teacher Institute. 1991. ISBN 0-943451-25-6

The Canadian Green Consumer Guide. Pollution Probe Foundation, Toronto: McClelland & Steward Inc.. 1989

Canada’s Green Plan. Government of Canada, Ottawa: Canada Communication Group. 1990.

Simple Experiments: A Child’s First Library of Learning. Virginia: Time-Life Books. 1994. ISBN 0-8094-9470-1

Science Is . . . . Susan V. Bosak, Richmond Hill: Scholastic Canada Ltd.. 1991. ISBN 0-590-74070-9

Clean Water for Nova Scotia: New Directions for Water Resource Management. Nova Scotia Department of the Environment, Halifax: Queen’s Printer. 1991.

Curriculum Ideas for Teachers - We Really Care About Water and Air. Ontario Ministry of Education and Training. Toronto. 1995.

Water - Nature’s Magician (Freshwater Series A-1). Environment Canada. Ottawa. 1992.

The Jumbo Book of Science: 136 of the Best Experiments from the Ontario Science Centre. Carol Gold, et. al., Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd.. 1994. ISBN 1-55074-197-7

The Science Book for Girls (and Other Intelligent Beings). Valerie Wyatt. Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd.. 1993. ISBN 1-55074-113-6

The 1993 Information Please Environmental Almanac. World Resources Institute. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1993.

“Truro and Area Flood Risk Map”. Canada-Nova Scotia Flood Damage Reduction Program, Environment Canada / Nova Scotia Department of the Environment, Halifax: Queen’s Printer.

101 Great Science Experiments: A Step-by-Step Guide. Neil Ardley, Toronto: Doubleday Canada Limited. 1993.

Wally and Deanna’s Groundwater Adventure . . . to the Saturated Zone. Leanne Appleby, Peter Russell. Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research. Waterloo, Ontario. 1993.

A Teacher’s Science Companion. Dr. Phyllis J. Perry, New York: Tab Books. 1994. ISBN 0-07-049518-1 141

“Flooding in Nova Scotia - An Overview: 1759-1986". Environment Canada, Conservation and Protection, Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, Canada. 1989 ISBN 0-662-16747-3

“The Environment and You - Wetlands in Nova Scotia”. Nova Scotia Environmental Control Council, Halifax: Queen’s Printer.

“Clean Water - Life Depends on It!” (Freshwater Series, A-3). Environmental Citizenship, Environment Canada, Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, Canada. 1992 Disponible en français sur demande ISBN 0-662-18069-0

“Water - The Transporter” (Freshwater Series, A-8). Environmental Citizenship, Environment Canada, Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, Canada. 1992 Disponible en français sur demande ISBN 0-662-18080-1

Our Coastal Environment. Committee of Atlantic Environment Ministers (New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia), Halifax: Queen’s Printer. 1978.

The Sea Around Us. Rachel Carson, New York: Oxford University Press. 1951.

The Sea and Its Mysteries. John S. Colman, New York: W.W. Norton and Co.. 1950.

Frontiers of the Sea. Robert C. Cowen, New York: National General. 1970.

The Water’s Edge. B.H. Ketchum, Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.

Fundy National Park. Mary Majka, Fredericton: Brunswick Press. 1977.

The Frail Ocean. Wesley Marx, New York: Ballantine Books. 1967.

Fundamentals of Ecology. E.P. Odum, Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1971.

The Atlantic Coast (The Illustrated Natural History of Canada). Franklin Russell, Toronto: Natural Science of Canada Ltd.. 1970.

Life on the Seashore, A.J. Southward, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1965.

Life and Death of the Salt Marsh. Mildred and John Teal, Toronto: Little, Brown and Co.. 1969.

“The Use of Rainwater for Domestic Purposes in Nova Scotia”. Nova Scotia Department of Health, Halifax: Queen’s Printer.

Water, Water Everywhere . . . ? Protecting the Municipal Water Supply in Nova Scotia. Anne Muecke, Halifax: Queen’s Printer. 1990. “Water - Here, There and Everywhere” (Fact Sheet 2 - Water). Environment Canada, Conservation and Protection. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada. 1988. Disponible en français sur demande ISBN 0-662-16278-1 142

Canadian Aquatic Resources. M.C. Healey and R.R. Wallace (ed.), Ottawa: Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1987.

Canadian Survey on the Water Balance of Lakes. Canadian National Committee, International Hydrological Decade, Ottawa: Environment Canada. 1975.

The World in Figures. Victor Showers, Toronto: John Wiley and Sons. 1973.

Our Fresh Water Resources. Committee of Atlantic Environment Ministers (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland), Halifax: Queen’s Printer. 1983.

The Life of the Pond. Wm H. Amos, New York. 1967.

A Primer on Ground Water. Baldwin and McGuinness, Washington. 1963.

A Primer on Water. Loepold and Langhein, Washington. 1967.

Our Land and Water. Mullen and Evans, Charlottetown. 1979.

Patterns of the Pond. Mullen and Evans, Charlottetown. 1977.

“Water In Trust”. Crop Protection Institute of Canada’s Task force on Crop Protection Chemicals in Water, Ottawa: Environment Canada.

“The Agriculture Industry and Nova Scotia’s Water Resources”. Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing (submission to the Minister’s Task Force on Clean Water, February 15, 1990).

“Nova Scotia Farm Well Water Quality Assurance Study, Phase I - Final Report”. Nova Scotia Department of the Environment, Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Marketing, Nova Scotia Department of Health, June 4, 1990.

Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality (4th ed.). Federal/Provincial Subcommittee on Drinking Water, Ottawa: Health and Welfare Canada. 1989.

Water Supply: Protection for the Future. Committee on Land Use Policy, Water Issue Group, Halifax: Queen’s Printer. 1982.

Policy for the Management of Fish Habitat. Ottawa: Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 1986.

Water For Tomorrow. The Canadian Guider, Vol. 60, No. 5, November/December, 1990. 143

Organizations This is to be considered, at best, a ‘good effort’ at capturing an accurate portrait of the organizations currently working in water resource education - many, many more exist. If you know of some, please contact us . . . we’ll include your suggestions in future Resource Kit updates!

Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) - National Office - Pauline Nystrom, Canadian Water Resources Association, 300-2365 Albert St., Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 4K1 (306)780- 8312.

Blue Thumb Project - Canadian Water and Wastewater Association - 45 Rideau St., Suite 402, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 5W8

Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History - 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3A6

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic - 1675 Lower Water Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 1S3 (902) 424-7490

Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic - P.O. Box 1363 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia B0J 2C0 (902) 634-4794

Nova Scotia Museum of Industry - 147 North Foord Street, P.O. Box 2590, Stellarton, Nova Scotia B0K 1S0 (902) 755-5425

Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) - P.O. Box 395, 148 St. George Street, Annapolis royal, Nova Scotia B0S 1A0 (902) 532-7533

Newfoundland Freshwater Resource Centre - Box 5, Nagle’s Place, St. John’s, NF A1B 2Z2

Minister’s Task Force on Clean Water - Nova Scotia Department of the Environment, P.O. Box 2107, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3B7 (902) 424-5300

Environment Canada - Conservation and Protection

Canada-Nova Scotia Flood Damage Reduction Program, c/o Nova Scotia Department of the Environment, P.O. Box 2107, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3B7 (902) 424-5300

Inland Waters Directorate, Environment Canada, 4th Floor, Queen’s Square, 45 Alderney Drive, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 2N6 (902) 426-3266

Provincial Map Library, Department of Lands and Forests, Torrington Place, 780 Windmill Road, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B3B 1T3

Environmental Control Council - P.O. Box 2107, Halifax, NS B3A 4E1

Enquiry Centre, Environment Canada - Ottawa Ontario K1A 0H3 1-800-668-6767

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Interpretation and Access Division, Surveys and Information Systems, Ecosystem Sciences and Evaluation Directorate - Environment Canada, Ottawa Ontario K1A 0H3 (819) 953-1547

Pictou County Rivers Association

Pictou Harbour Environmental Protection Project - P.O. Box 414, 111 Provost Street, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia B2H 5E5 (902) 928-0305

Nova Scotia Land Use Policy Committee - 1660 Hollis Street, P.O. Box 2254, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 3C8 (902) 424-4963

Nova Scotia Department of the Environment - 5151 Terminal Road, P.O. Box 2107, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3B7 (902) 424-5300

Department of Community Affairs - P.O. Box 2000, Charlottetown, PEI C1A 7N8 (902) 892-0221

Department of the Environment (NF) - P.O. Box 4750, St. John’s, Newfoundland A1C 5T7 (709) 737-2561

Information Programs, Environment New Brunswick - P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1 (506) 453-3700

Environmental Health, Nova Scotia Department of Health - P.O. Box 488, Halifax, Nova Scotia (902) 424-4034

Water Planning and Management Division, Nova Scotia Department of the Environment - P.O. Box 2107, Halifax, Nova Scotia (902) 424-4060

Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources - P.O. Box 68, Truro, Nova Scotia (902) 895- 1591

Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources - P.O. Box 516, Kentville, Nova Scotia (902) 678-8921

The Nova Scotia Government Bookstore - 1597 Hollis Street, P.O. Box 637, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2T3 (902) 424-7580

Pollution Probe - 12 Madison Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2S1 (416) 926-1907

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) - 200 promenade du Portage, Hull, PQ K1A 0G4 (819) 997-5456

The Canadian Red Cross Society - through your local branch or the National Office, 1800 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 4J5 (613) 739-3000

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UNICEF Canada - National Office, 443 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario M4S 2L8 (416) 482-4444

WaterCan - 323 Chapel Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7Z2 (613) 230-5182 146

Teaching Resources on the INTERNET

Kids on the Web http://www.zen.org/-brendan/kids.html

Canada’s Schoolnet http://schoolnet2.carleton.ca/

Canadian Water Resources Association http://www.cwra.org/cwra/

Environment Canada http://www.ec.gc.ca/

Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History http://nature.ednet.ns.ca

NS Science & Technology Awareness http://is.dal.ca/~stanet Network

Federation of Nova Scotia Naturalist http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/FNSN/ Hp-fnsn.html

Ecology Action Centre http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/EAC/ EAC-Home.html

Clean Nova Scotia http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/CNSF/ Cnsf.html

Water’s Edge http://www.cbcl.ca/wateredges/default.htm

Nova Scotia Environmental Industry http://nseia.ns.ca Association

National Water Resource Institute http://www.cciw.ca/nwri/intro.html

Canadian Groundwater Directory http://gwrp.cciw.ca/canada/cgwd/contents_e.html

Natural Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/

Watershed Education Resources http://www.igc.apc.org/green.resources.html on the Internet

Nova Scotia Museum System http://www.ednet.ns.ca/educ/museum

USEPA Office of Water http://www.epa.gov/owow

USEPA http://www.epa.gov

“Science and the Environment” magazine http://www.voyagepub.com/publish/stones/wat.html

American Water Works Association http://sd68nanaimo.bc.ca/schools/nroy/student.html

Biodiversity, Ecology, etc. http://ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu/environment.html

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Earthnet Information Server http://denrl.igis.uiuc.edu/isgsroot/dinos/earth sci/links.html

Planet Earth Home Page http://www.nosc.mil/planet earth/info.html

Science & related links on the web http://kilburn.keene.edu/earth science/geolinks.html

Great Lakes Information Network http://www.great-lakes.net/

Waterloo/Wellington Groundwater http://darcy.uwaterloo.ca/events/festival.html Festival

A list of 100 curricula for educating youth about water can be found at: (predominantly American resources) http://www.uwex.edu/erc/ywc/sumlist.html

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Check out these sites: Science Court http://www.teachtsp.com/classroom/scicourt/watercycle.html http://www.ncet.org.uk/projects/gest- science/activities/water/guide.html#intro The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/education/wx_class?guide4.html http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/WEATHER/lesson1.html Project WET http://www.bev.net/education/schools/ces/lesson3.html#LESSON1 Project WET http://www.coil.com/-thumper/GuideTexts.html Utah Water Research http://www.publish.uwrl.usu.edu/h20cycle1.html WNET school http://www.wnet.org/nttidb/lessons/dn/waterdn.html Virginia DEQ http://www.deq.state.va.us/deq/ecology.html http://www.met.fsu.edu/k12/pilot/water_cycle/grabber2.html Smithsonian http://www.seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/ search_educational_materials.html http://education.si.edu/lessons/currkits/ocean/main.html Tom Snyder http://www.teachtsp.com/classroom/activities/GOR2Act.html http://inspire.ospi.wednet.edu:8001/curric/weather/adptcty/watrcycl.html Illinois EPA http://www.epa.state.il.us/kids/fun-stuff/water-cycle/wheel-part-1.html Bill Nye http://nyelabs.kcts.org/nyeverse/episode/e47.html http://www.nwf.org/nwf/kids/cool/water2.html http://www.eskimo.com/-nud/watcycl.html http://www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/k12p...ter_cycle/teacherpage. html#activity_setup http://faldo.atmos.uiuc.edu/w_unit/LESSONS/precipitation.html NASA http://mars.ivv.nasa.gov/k12/pilot/water_cycle/teacherpage.html Guide Zone http://www.guidezone.ski.com/watercyc.html http://gilligan.esu7.k12.ne.us/-lweb/Lakeview/science/cycle.html http://www.ncet.org.uk/projects/gest-science/activities/water/guide.html Earthscape http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/eng.fkarner/pages/cycle.html http://www.situweb.stockportmbc.gov.uk/pages/links/schools/primary/ Banksjnr/water1.html http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Earth/EAR0024.html U. West Florida http://science.coe.uwf.edu/SH/Curr/watercycle/watercycle.html Sea World http://www.seaworld.org/Water/water.html Watershed Links http://relax.ltc.vanderbilt.edu/vw/links.html USGS http://water.usgs.gov.public/outreach/wrel.html KidLink http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/overview.html Univ.Nebraska http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/waterctr/wegw.html Groundwater Found. http://iisd1.iisd.ca/agri/Nebraska/Seacrest.html Terrene Institute http://www.terrene.org/index.html Groundwater http://www.site.net/mainsite.html Protection Council wysiwyg://59/http://www.drinkingwater.org/resource.html Purdue http://www.ctic.purdue.edu/cti-bin/KYW.exe 149

Pictou Antigonish Regional Library Pathfinder - Water

This pathfinder was prepared by the staff at the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library to assist you in finding the many materials available to you in your library about WATER. All items listed are available through your local branch of the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library. Should you not be able to locate what you are looking for, please ask our staff - they will be happy to assist you.

The ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGUE is available in the library or on the Internet.

Useful subject headings for WATER include: water; water - experiments; water - conservation; water - pollution; water - quality; renewable energy resources; science - experiments.

Various pamphlets and articles on the topic of WATER are available and can be borrowed. Subject headings are: water; oceans; conservation of natural resources.

Books and videos relating to the subject of WATER are listed below. Please rememeber that this is only a partial list of what is available. If you need assistance, please ask a staff member.

Books: J333.79 Arn Arnold, Guy Facts on Water, Wind, Solar Power

J 532 Ori Orii, Eiji Simple Science Experiments with Water

J 532 Tay Taylor, Barbara Liquid and Buoyancy

J 535 Bro Broekel, Ray Experiments with Water

J 546.22 Parker, Steve The Marshall Cavendish Science Project Book of Water

J 551.4 Lef Lefkowitz, R.J. Water for Today and Tomorrow

J 551.48 Leutcher, A. Water

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J 574.5263 Coc Cochrane, J. Ecology

574.92 Pla Platt, Rutherford Water: The Wonder of Life

J 628.168 Ryb Rybolt, Thomas Environmental Experiments about Water

Videos: 333.79 Ene Energy in Canada 363.728 Ear Earth Aid 551.6 Wat Water and Weather 551.31 Sec Secrets of Ice

Magazines: General magazines such as National Geographic, Canadian Geographic and Nature Canada often contain information on the topic of WATER.

Internet Resources: EPA Office of Water (U.S.) Has compiled resources especially for kids: http://www.epa.gov.OGWDW/kids/

University of Wisconsin has a program called Give Water a Hand htto://www.uwex.edu/erc/

Groundwater - Nature’s Hidden Treasure http://www.ns.doe.ca/udo/trea.html

The Pictou Antigonish Library has a web page for kids called “Kid’s Stuff”. There you will find a Science Subject that will take you to Science Made Simple: http://www.water.,com/-science/kids.html

How To Reach the Library: Antigonish Library 863-4276 New Glasgow Library 752-8233 River John Library 351-2599 Trenton Library 752-5181 Books by Mail 755-6031 Pictou Library 485-5021 Stellarton Library 755-1638 Westville Library 396-5022 151

Glossary

Acid Drainage A process which occurs naturally (or can be human-induced) by the interaction of acidic compounds in water with vegetation, soil and bedrock (slate), resulting in acid runoff. This acid runoff can alter the chemical quality in a receiving body of water.

Acid Rain Rain water that has been contaminated with chemicals introduced into the atmosphere through industrial, automobile, and/or other emissions, causing the acidity of the rain to be increased from that of unaffected rain water.

Aeration Exposure to mechanical or chemical action of air; charged with carbonic gas

Air Mass A vast body of air having fairly uniform meteorological characteristics, formed in the troposphere

Algae Simple plants containing chlorophyll or other photosynthetic pigments: found widely in water and other damp environments.

Anadromous Fish Any kind of fish which spends much of its life in the sea but which returns to fresh water to spawn

Aquaculture The organized cultivation of marine plants and animals for human use and consumption; provision of artificially-controlled fish habitats and food supplies.

Aquaculturalist One who develops and maintains human-controlled fish habitats and food supplies.

Aquifer A geological formation through which water may percolate slowly and for long distances, eventually yielding ground water to springs and wells. Underground water is stored in dozens of reservoir-like layers. Most of the water in aquifers is contained in beds of sand, gravel or other materials and can be pumped to the surface.

Atmosphere Layer of gases and air surrounding the Earth.

Bacteria Large group of unicellular (one-celled) filamentous microscopic organisms lacking chlorophyll that multiply rapidly by simple fissure (division).

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Buffer Zone (Sometimes referred to as a Green Belt) A variable width of land adjacent to watercourses and wetlands, established to protect water from adjacent land uses. The criteria used to determine the width and type of vegetative cover for the buffer zone is based on the soil, geology, slope and sensitivity of the water and the proposed use of the adjacent land.

Carbon Cycle Biological circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into living organisms; eg: plants and animals; and from them, upon death and decomposition, back into the atmosphere.

Carnivore Organism obtaining energy from the consumption of animals.

Chlorination The use of chlorine to disinfect water.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) Chlorine and fluorine particles attached to carbon molecules, which attack ozone molecules, ripping off an oxygen atom, thereby changing ozone’s composition to oxygen; found primarily in blowing agents used to make Styrofoam, propellants for aerosols, coolants and cleaners.

Chlorophyll Pigment of green colour used by plants for photosynthesis to manufacture carbohydrates, using sunlight, carbon dioxide and water.

Clean Water Water from any source that can be safely used by humans, domestic animals and wildlife.

Climate Weather conditions of a place or region, averaged over a long period of time.

Cloud A visible mass of minute water and/or ice particles in the atmosphere.

Conservation The thoughtful use of Earth’s renewable and non-renewable resources; preservation and enhancement of areas and resources that contribute to science, education, aesthetics, recreation and the protection of wildlife.

Contamination A condition or state of the environment that represents danger to life because of the presence of live pathogenic bacteria or toxic chemicals. Any physical, chemical, biological or radiological substance found in a water source. Contaminants can be naturally occurring, or human-made.

Dam A structure made of earth, rock, concrete or other materials designed to retain water, creating a pond, lake or reservoir.

Dehydration The process of deprivation of water. 153

Depletion Water supplies that are being used up; gradually in most cases; without being replaced.

Detritus Particles of plant matter in an ecosystem which are acted upon by bacteria and exist in varying stages of decomposition.

Dew Droplets of water condensed from the air onto warmer surfaces.

Domestic Sewage Wastes carried by flushing water from kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, floor drains, etc..

Ecology The study of the relations of animals and plants to one another and their surroundings.

Ecosystem A system made up of a community of animals, plants and bacteria along with the physical and chemical environment with which the system is related; the natural community of plant, animal and bacteria populations and their physical and chemical environment.

Effluent A liquid, solid or gaseous product that is discharged either treated or untreated by homes, communities and industries.

Elephantiasis A skin disease causing the part affected to resemble an elephant’s hide.

Environment A collective term referring to the factors, conditions and influences that affect an organism or its community.

Erosion The process by which rock particles and soil are detached, transported and deposited from their original site to a new site.

Estuary Any confined coastal water body which acts as a transition zone between fresh and salt water.

Eutrophication A natural process by which lakes and ponds become enriched with dissolved nutrients, resulting in increased growth of algae and other microscopic plants. Evaporation The process by which a liquid is changed into a vapour.

Evapotranspiration The process which combines evaporation and transpiration in the Earth’s hydrologic cycle.

Fertilizer Materials that stimulate the growth of crops when added to soil or water. 154

Filter Feeders Marine animals which feed by sifting nourishment from water which flows through their bodies (for example, oysters).

Floodplain Relatively flat or lowland area adjoining a river, stream, watercourse, lake, ocean or other body of standing water which has been or may be covered temporarily with floodwater during storms of specified frequency.

Flow of Energy In an ecosystem, this principle refers to the way in which food energy from the sun is converted to living matter and transferred from plants to higher organisms through the food web.

Flow Regime The pattern (or patterns) in which a body of water flows.

Food Chain The order or organisms that feed upon each other, from lowest plant life forms, to fish and animals, to humans. Toxins present in lower forms tend to become more concentrated as they climb the food chain.

Global Warming The general warming of the Earth’s climate caused by a guild-up of greenhouse gases (greenhouse effect) - a major result of which will be a severe change in the distribution of the world’s water supply.

Ground Water Water the occupies the pores and crevices of rock and soil; water located below ground level. Ground water is usually obtained from a well or spring.

Groynes Man-made structures extending into the sea in order to prevent erosion of a particular beach area.

Habitat The native environment of a plant or animal.

Hardness A characteristic of water representing the total concentration of calcium and magnesium ions.

Health A general condition describing the physical, mental and social well-being of humans and other organisms - or of the ecosystem in general.

Herbivore An organism obtaining energy from the consumption of plants.

Hummock A rounded hill, knoll or ridge. On beaches, hummocks are formed when sand is blown against an obstacle.

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Hydrogeology The science that deals with subsurface waters and related geologic aspects of surface waters.

Hydrologic Cycle The continual exchange of water between the Earth and its atmosphere. This cycle uses the same amount of water now as a million years ago.

Hydrology The study of the waters of the Earth, including their properties, circulation and distribution; environmental and economic aspects.

Impoundment Water can be seized or impounded in storage areas known as reservoirs, behind dams. Impoundment prevents flooding and allows for irrigation, recreation and power generation.

Intertidal Zone The coastal area which lies between the highest and lowest points reached by the tides.

Invertebrate A life form having no backbone or spinal column.

Ion An electrically-charged atom.

Limnology The study of the physical, chemical and biological condition(s) of lakes, ponds and streams.

Limnologist One who studies limnology.

Marram Grass A plant commonly found growing on sand dunes, which is essential for their stability.

Meteorology The study of the structure, physical characteristics and phenomena of the atmosphere.

Mining If you take more water out of the ground each year than you put in, you are mining water.

Neap Tides The tide occurring just after the first and third quarters of the lunar month. At these times, the difference between the highest and the lowest tides is smallest.

Omnivore An organism obtaining energy from the consumption of both plants and animals.

Ozone A molecule of oxygen containing three atoms (O³); the oxygen we breathe in the lower atmosphere contains two atoms (O²).

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Ozone Layer The region of concentration of ozone molecules located in the stratosphere at an altitude of 15 to 35 kilometres that shields all biological life forms on Earth from most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.

Pathogen A bacterium that produces disease.

Pest Any plant, animal or organic function of a plant or animal which may be noxious, injurious or troublesome.

Pesticide The collective name for a variety of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, fumigants and rodenticides; any substance or mixture of substances which directly or indirectly prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate the damage caused by any pest. pH Refers to the measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution.

Photosynthesis The process by which plants containing chlorophyll use light as an energy source to absorb carbohydrates from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water, while simultaneously releasing oxygen to the atmosphere.

Photosynthetic An organism which facilitates photosynthesis.

Plankton Minute forms of aquatic plant and animal life inhabiting oceans, seas, rivers, ponds or lakes which swim weakly or drift.

Pollution Deterioration of the quality of the environment caused by the introduction of undesirable substances, organisms or energy.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Synthetic chemical compounds consisting of chlorine, carbon and hydrogen used in a wide range of industrial and consumer products (mainly industrial transformers and capacitors) that are very hazardous to the environment because of their extreme resistance to chemical and biological breakdown by natural processes (Note: the production of PCBs in North America was banned in 1977, by which time 635,000 tons had already been produced. Canada imported some 40,000 tons, 24,000 tons of which are currently in use or storage - most of the remainder is assumed to have entered the environment).

Potable Anything considered ‘fit for human consumption’.

Precipitation Water falling in liquid or solid state from the atmosphere onto a land or water surface. 157

Predators Animals which feed mainly on other animals.

Preservation The action of maintaining life forms, natural resources, structures and environments that exist on Earth or in space.

Producers In ecological systems, producers are green plants. These are photosynthesizers, or plants which, in the presence of light, convert carbon dioxide and water into simple sugars and oxygen.

Protection Steps taken to protect current or future releases into the ground or groundwater.

Quartz A crystal form of silica which is the principal component of sand.

Recharge Putting water back into the ground, via rainfall or melting snow. Water from passing rivers and streams also percolates downward.

Recycling The return of discarded or waste materials to the production system for use in the manufacture of goods for economic gain and the conservation of resources.

Relative Humidity A ratio expressed as a percentage of the quantity of water vapour in the air compared to the quantity of water vapour the air can hold at that temperature.

Resource Management The exploration of approaches to safeguard the future of renewable resources and uphold the principle of sustained yield, including the introduction of enforcement restraints and technical practices.

Saturation The point at which one substance absorbs or holds the greatest possible amount of another substance (for example: the point at which a sponge has absorbed all the water it can hold). The region below the ground’s surface in which all pore spaces are filled with water. The upper surface of this zone is known as the water table.

Soil Naturally occurring, loose material that forms the upper layer of the Earth - made up primarily of very small particles of inorganic and organic mineral matter.

Stored Energy In a biological system, this principle refers to the energy held in any one or more of the components of the system.

Storm Water Water which runs off the land during and after rainfall 158

Surface Water Water found in rivers, streams, lakes, oceans.

Toxic Refers to anything capable of killing, injuring or impairing an organism through chemical action.

Toxin A substance that is toxic.

Transpiration The process by which water, absorbed by plants (usually through the roots) is evaporated into the atmosphere from the plant’s surface (usually through the leaves).

Trihalomethanes Organic compounds occurring in water as a reaction to the use of chlorine for disinfection. The guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality specify maximum allowable concentrations of trihalomethanes, however, most Canadian drinking water supplies contain negligible amounts of the substances.

Turbidity Muddiness, thickness, lack of clarity of a liquid or colour.

Vector A carrier of disease or infection.

Vertebrate An animal life form having a backbone or spinal column.

Waste Liquid, solid or gaseous energy or matter left over from human activities or rejected as useless or worthless.

Waste Water Industrial, municipal and domestic effluent which includes sewage, wash water, and process water.

Water An odourless, colourless, tasteless liquid formed by the combination of two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom, forming a water molecule.

Watercourse A natural, well defined channel produced entirely or in part by intermittent or continuously flowing water.

Water Table The surface of an underground body of water that defines the zone of saturation within a soil or subsoil. The term ‘water table’ refers to the position of the underground water or the depth to which you must drill to reach it. The water table may be a few feet down or hundreds of feet. The depth depends in part on the amount of water that has been removed (see ‘mining’).

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Watershed The area drained by, or contributing water to, a stream, lake or other body of water. Imagine a maple leaf. The stalk in the leaf is a river. The veins threading into the stalk are the tributaries flowing into the river. The complete leaf represents a river drainage system, or watershed.

Watershed Management Administration and control of all the resources in a watershed for the production of water, including the control of water quality, stream flow, and floods.

Wetlands Land in which the soil is saturated with water throughout the year. They may be associated with rivers, lakes, streams, or coastal habitats. The types of wetlands usually described are marshes (fresh or saltwater), bogs, fens, swamps, sloughs and ponds. Wetlands have the ability to provide an improvement to water quality, preserve water quantity or moderate a flood event and provide wildlife habitat.

World Environment Day An annual day (June 5th) adopted in 1972 by the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment to celebrate efforts to conserve and protect the Earth’s environment.