Groundwater Model

If this is used in a teacher training workshop it would take about an hour.

If it is used in a classroom it could take 2-3 class periods.

Upon completion of this lesson the participants will be able to:

• Identify locations where water can be found;
• Identify how water moves and the form it takes as it moves;
• Identify soil types that affect the movement of water;
• Experiment to classify soil types;
• Recognize that pollution is present in water;
• Demonstrate the plume effect;
• Use Excel to model the problem including iterations;
• Use Excel to graph the data;
• Use Fortran to model the problem including iterations;
• Import the data into Excel and graph it;
• Use reasoning abilities to form conclusions about the problem;

Information on groundwater can be found at the following locations:

1. Show the Groundwater PowerPoint presentation and explain:

1. the movement of water,
2. forms of water (gaseous, liquid, solid)
3. identify locations of each form of water
4. identify locations of water (soil, plant, rivers, clouds, oceans, lakes, animals, ground water, and glaciers)
5. pollution in water (plumes)

1. Do the Incredible Journey Game (See enclosure for instructions for the game)
2. Discuss how pollutants could be added to the water movement.
3. Discuss soil types and their possible effect on the movement of water.
4. Discuss or do the soil type experiment (see attachment for instructions)
5. Brainstorm project ideas that could be investigated using the ideas expressed thus far.
6. Do the Arsenic and Old Waste Problem

8. Discuss possible project ideas for all levels.

• Use of Power Point presentation to present the problem.
• Formation of teams for investigation and discovery
• Student presentations
• Student Journals
• Display boards to display results

What are the social implications regarding stopping the source of the arsenic?

Who should make the decision about stopping the arsenic?

What happens if it isn't stopped?

What causes flash floods in areas that are not in a flood plain?

Teaching Standards:

This lesson meets the following teaching standards:

• The planning of inquiry-based science programs.
• The actions taken to guide and facilitate student learning.
• The assessments made of teaching and student learning.
• The development of environments that enable students to learn science.
• The creation of communities of science learners.

Professional Development Standards:

• The learning of science content through inquiry.
• The integration of knowledge about science with knowledge about learning, pedagogy, and students.
• The development of the understanding and ability for lifelong learning.
• The coherence and integration of professional development programs.

Assessment Standards:

• The consistency of assessments with the decisions they are designed to inform.
• The assessment of both achievement and opportunity to learn science.
• The match between the technical quality of the data collected and the consequences of the actions taken on the basis of those data.
• The fairness of assessment practices.
• The soundness of inferences made from assessments about student achievement and opportunity to learn.

Science Content for grades 5-12

• Life science.
• Earth and space science.
• Science and technology.
• Science in personal and social perspective
• History and nature of science.

Mathematics

Science

Groundwater movement

Forms of water

Absorption rate of soil

Pollution

Plume Effect

History and Social Science

Historical significance of the Civil War cemetery

Socioeconomic questions of how to test the wells

Social implications of moving the cemetery

How to solve the problem of the arsenic

Language Arts

Technical Writing of the project

Peer review of ideas

• Have students brainstorm where water can be found (it should include rivers, lakes, oceans, animals, plants, clouds, soil, groundwater, and glaciers)
• Divide students into 9 teams and assign each team one location of water. Have the team determine
• How water gets to their location;
• What form the water is in before it gets to their location;
• Where water can go from their location;
• What form water is in while it is in their location;
• Have team report their findings to the rest of the class
• The rest of the class may provide feedback, suggesting other possible answers.
• Have the teams revise their findings reflecting the feedback
• Have teams reassemble and draw on a piece of newsprint or posterboard a picture of their location (the picture can be used while playing the game The Incredible Journey)
• Have each team assemble a list of different types of soil with a description of how water would run go through each type of soil.
• Have teams do the soil type experiment to determine the rate of absorption of the soil in the school yard, and two other places
• Have teams do the plume effect experiment and discuss actual occurrences of pollution in their community and how it might move with the water
• Have each team report to the class on their findings
• The rest of the class may provide feedback
• Develop a master list of different types of soil and the rate of absorption
• Develop a master list of local occurrences of pollution and how students might encounter pollution from these sources
• Have students individually keep a journal of the Arsenic and Old Waste problem with ideas as the problem progresses
• Have teams do the computational model (with graphs) of Arsenic and Old Waste and present their findings to the class in an oral presentation.
• Students will individually determine the next course of action after investigating and discussing social implications involved with the source of the arsenic