global concerns toolkit:...
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Global Concerns Classroom Concern Worldwide US • 355 Lexington Avenue • New York, NY 10017 • 212-557-8000
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Global Concerns Toolkit: WATER In this toolkit, you will find activity ideas and lesson plans to complement GCC’s Water student resource guide and video (contact us for free hard copies or download them from our website).
I. Activity Ideas for Water - Explore the Issue - Speak Out - Take Action
II. Using the Water Video
- Water video transcript - Water video suggested guide - Water video student handout
III. Lesson Based on Water Resource Guide
- Lesson Plan: Clean Water for Everyone - Student Handout #1: Citoya’s Story - Student Handout #2: How Can We
Increase the World’s Access to Clean Water?
These tools are meant to inspire ways in which you can introduce this theme to your students, help them make connections from the global context to their own lives, and engage them to take action.
Feel free to choose, adapt, and modify pieces of the toolkit as they fit with your curricula needs and extracurricular purposes. Let us know how you have used the toolkit and we will feature it on the GCC blog: http://gccblogs.concernusa.org/
Please contact us for further support and resources at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!
Global Concerns Toolkit Water: Explore the Issue
Watch our Student-Narrated Video on Water:
Our GCC Water video is about 7 minutes long and serves as a great tool to introduce the problem of the global water crisis. It explores the reality and consequences of not having access to clean water, using Haiti as a country of focus, and challenges students to think about possible solutions to overcoming the water crisis particularly for the poor. The video complements well with the GCC Water resource guide, which students can refer to afterwards to explore the issue further with research and other related activities.
Use our GCC Water Resource Guide: The GCC student resource guides use background information, case studies, and stories from Concern Worldwide’s work around the world to bring issues to life. The topics addressed are complex and students must have a cooperative and safe environment to explore and debate these issues where all opinions are listened to and valued. Every resource guide begins with a question that provides a focus for classroom discussion and activities. The guide is intended to be a flexible resource that can be adapted to the needs of each class. Please feel free to pick and choose from this resource and use the information it contains in a way that fits best with your existing curriculum or extra-curriculum program. Invite a Concern Speaker to Your Class:
GCC’s “Voices from the Field” allow students to have the opportunity to hear firsthand from humanitarian aid workers in a number of fields what it is like working in some of the poorest countries in the world and helping to improve the lives of people struggling to survive on $1/day. Concern’s New York and international staff bring global issues into the classroom by sharing their own field experience and case studies from Concern’s work.
Contact [email protected] to book a Concern staff speaker for your school. GCC visits schools directly within the NYC area or can present via Skype video conferencing for schools outside our area. Ask us for more details!
Global Concerns Toolkit Water: Explore the Issue
Follow-Up Discussion Questions: After you have introduced the topic of water to your students, have a discussion with them about what they have learned, allow them to wrestle and ask questions about the issue, and then brainstorm ways in which they can do something and get involved (suggested ideas on the “Speak Out” and “Take Action” pages).
1. What did you learn about the global water crisis that you did not know before? 2. In what ways do you think lack of access to clean water may affect us? 3. Do you think youth like you can do anything to make a difference and how?
Take it to the Next Level: GCC Student Workshop on Water GCC facilitates hands-on globally themed student workshops at schools for secondary students. The workshops are a UN-type simulated day, where students are invited to participate in a Global Summit. For the Water workshop, students are divided into different country teams and are given the task of solving the water crisis in their country given a $3 million budget.
GCC provides a water presentation to introduce the theme, resources for research, and staff members who act as advisors for students. At the end of the day, student groups present their proposals and budgets to the Global Summit Committee (consisting of Concern staff and teachers) and a winning team is chosen. The GCC student workshops are a practical, hands-on, and engaging way for students to explore the complexity of the water issue in depth and to find solutions.
For more information about our Water student workshop, contact [email protected].
Global Concerns Toolkit Water: Speak Out
Speak Out: Create an Awareness Campaign
Make an impact by sharing what you have learned about the water crisis with the rest of your school by creating an awareness campaign. Grab people’s attention by making posters with water facts and put them around the school by water fountains, vending machines, bathroom sinks, around the cafeteria…wherever it can get noticed! This is Concern’s water poster – see what you can make to spread the word about the severity of the water crisis. Download our poster: http://www.concernusa.org/GCC
Speak Out: Teach a Lesson on Hygiene There’s no point constructing wells and water points in communities if members do not understand why they need to use it for hand-washing and hygiene. It’s hard for us to understand since it’s intuitive for us, but that’s because we grew up learning about germs and having been taught hand-washing as a habit to prevent getting sick. What if this was not the case? Create a lesson on hand-washing and personal hygiene and teach it to a younger grade at your school. Be creative – health workers have to do the same, sometimes using object lessons to show what a difference it makes to use soap to wash your hands. For more ideas, check out: http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/ Speak Out: Join Concern’s Annual International Writing Competition Concern’s Annual Writing Competition focuses on a different theme every year and is usually held from January to March. Contact us at [email protected] for updates on details.
In 2009, students wrote to President Obama on the issues of child labor, climate change, and world hunger. In 2010, students wrote speeches to the United Nations’ Secretary General addressing one of the Millennium Development Goals. Participate in the competition and possibly have your winning or selected entry published in the Concern Writing Competition Book. Read the winning entries from 2010 on our website: http://www.concernusa.org/Public/News.aspx?Id=825
Global Concerns Toolkit Water: Speak Out
Speak Out: Take it to the Streets!
UNICEF created a bold campaign by bottling dirty bottles of water with 8 “flavors” that feature common water-borne diseases – malaria, cholera, typhoid, dengue, hepatitis, dysentery, salmonella, and yellow fever and – and packaged it in a vending machine and brought it to the streets of New York! Imagine the reactions of street by-passers when they stopped to pay $1 for a bottle of dirty water! It’s a way to send a strong message about the realities of having unclean water, effects that hit the global poor on a daily basis. Think about creating your own bold message about this issue and take it to the streets! Capture people’s reactions and share it. UNICEF’s Dirty Water campaign: www.dirtywaterinfo.com
Global Concerns Toolkit Water: Take Action
Take Action: Make Your Own Water Filter
There are many different types of water filters and you can make a simple one using a plastic jug and a few other materials. Try it to see how effective it is – it’s easy! Step 1: Cut the bottom off of a 2-L plastic jug Step 2: Stuff the neck with cotton balls Step 3: Add small pebbles, gravel, and sand Step 4: Mix soil and water in a jug to make muddy water Step 5: Pour the muddy water into the top of the water filter and
watch it drip into the glass See if there is a difference – is the water drinkable?
Take Action: Organize a Soap Campaign When we think about access to clean water, we must always consider proper sanitation and hygiene as well. Unhygienic conditions can cause diarrhea, which an estimated 1.5 million children die from each year. Simple hand washing can avoid diarrhea and other infections IF people have access to clean water and soap. Experiment: Make your own soap. You can buy basic soap bases to melt and pour into molds or find a recipe to make soap from scratch. Take Action: Sell your soap as a fundraiser to tell others about the issue and to raise funds towards a water project that will help a community gain access to proper water and sanitation. Take Action: Construct a Water Tap-Tap
Tap-taps are a smart way communities have adapted to saving and using clean water. By using string to connect a water jug to a stick on the ground, one can step on the “pedal” to tilt the opening of a jerry can for hand-washing. Many tap-taps have soap inside it as well. By constructing these, communities have access to their own “taps” or sinks for quick hand-washing without wasting any water. Very important when clean water is hard to come by! See if you can construct your own water tap-tap and test it out! It will make a great conversation-starter at school or for a campaign focus.
Global Concerns Toolkit Water: Take Action
Take Action: Have a Water Walk Fundraiser Many children around the world have to travel far distances to fetch clean water for their family’s daily necessities. Each day, they travel to a water point and carry jerry cans full of water back home. Some have to walk for up to two hours each way to get clean water!
Sounds easy to carry two jugs of water back home? Try it! Fill two big buckets with water and walk around your school to see what it is like. You will experience only a glimpse of what many children have to face daily in order to get the clean water they need for the day. Have people sponsor you for every block you walk with filled jerry cans of water and donate the funds towards building a water point or well in a community in need.
Learn more and watch a video of a school’s water walk fundraiser for Haiti: http://gccblogs.concernusa.org/2010/04/30/trevor-h20-walk/
Global Concerns Toolkit Water Video: Transcript
A child dead every 15 seconds The leading cause of death for children under 5 1.5 billion are barely surviving without it PART 1 Clean water, we take it for granted, but one out of every six people on this planet do not have access to a reliable source. And while a person can last weeks without food, none of us can last more than a few days without water. In fact without clean water, when a child gets sick with something as common as diarrhea, she can die. The impact of this is devastating. More than half of the world’s diseases are caused by unclean water and sanitation, resulting in the deaths of over 1.8 million children each year. Just think about that, that’s one child every 15 seconds. And those aren’t the only effects. Because children have to collect water every day for their families, they must travel up to 5 hours on foot, leaving them no time for school. This creates a cycle of poverty, where children do not have the opportunity for a better life. The water crisis is only compounded by global warming. Given all of these trends, by 2025, 2.3 billion people will be living in areas where it will be impossible to meet basic water needs. HAITI Population: 8.9 million Life Expectancy: 57 years Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere Haiti’s Capital Port-au-Prince Population 2.5 million Seventy-five percent of the population does not have access to portable water. You will see people in the streets using the street water just to wash themselves because water may not be available in their house. People go and look for the water all over where they can find it. Sometimes people wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning walk two, three miles just to find a bucket of water and by the time they get to the well, if the well is available, the well may be dry. A visitor tried if for himself… “Two buckets, fill them with water. Travel four hours and travel back four hours with two full buckets...Ok, so I’ve just completed the trip down to the bottom of the valley where the source is, where the spring is, and I’ve just I guessed took one-tenth of the journey that little kids take every day to fill those little canisters of water to take back to their families so that they can drink. It’s like 100 degrees. I don’t know how they do this every day. I just don’t know.”
Global Concerns Toolkit Water Video: Transcript
Can you imagine doing that every day? And he wasn’t even carrying a bucket of water. We’ve seen how big a problem access to clean water is for some of the world’s poorest communities. Now let’s turn our focus from the problem to possible solutions. The water crisis is a problem that is going to be facing all of us for decades to come that is going to be the responsibility of our generation to solve it. Let’s start that process now. Can you think of practical solutions that will ensure that all families in the world’s poorest countries will have access to clean water? Let’s come up with a list of five ideas. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination. PART 2 Despite the overwhelming challenges, there are solutions to the water crisis. In humanitarian emergencies, like the current situation in Sudan’s Darfur region, displaced families have no access to food, water, or sanitation. A simple but effective response: the distribution of buckets to families so they can collect their daily rations of water for cooking and washing. For earthquake survivors in the mountains of Pakistan, providing portable water tanks means families have access to water to meet their daily needs. Just as important are the long term solutions that involve families and communities in finding the most locally appropriate solutions. Collecting rainwater run-off from roofs and building storage tanks hopes to ensure they have a longer term supply of water, not only for their daily needs but also for crops and animals in times of chronic water shortages. The construction of wells and the connecting of thousands of families to clean water sources by laying miles of pipes are bringing this life-saving resource closer to people’s homes. Every day, Concern is tackling the problem and finding effective solutions to the water crisis. Through community involvement, education, and with your participation, we can continue to change lives by making clean water a reality one community at a time. By now, you’ve learned a lot and probably thought a lot about the problem and you’ve seen some of the solutions that Concern is creating to increase access to clean water. Now, imagine that you have been appointed by the United Nations to come up with a set of recommendations to bring clean water to Haiti, where right now over 4 million people are barely living without it. Put together your plan to confront this crisis, they’re waiting for your recommendations.
Global Concerns Toolkit Water Video: Suggested Guide
Video Overview: The GCC Water video is a student-narrated video about seven minutes in length and split into two parts. The first part introduces the severity of the water crisis including the impact unclean water has on the poor especially children, with a focus on Haiti. The second part highlights some of the immediate and long term solutions to alleviating the water crisis and challenges students to make their own set of recommendations to bring clean water to Haiti. Grades: 5-12 (Please preview the entire video before showing it to any class to judge whether you think it is appropriate for your students.) Student Objectives: After watching the video and taking part in the suggested discussion questions and activities, students will be able to Realize the severity and impact of the global water crisis on the planet Understand the effects of not having access to clean water and sanitation Identify and explore practical solutions to providing clean water for all
Suggested Lesson (Approximately 45 minutes): Introduce the lesson by telling your students that they are going to watch a short video on the global water crisis with a focus on Haiti. You may want to brainstorm ideas with your class about what they think the global water crisis means and how many people it affects. You may also want to point out where Haiti is on a map and find out what students know about the country, recent events around it, and how access to clean water may be a challenge there. Distribute the Water Video Guide Student Handout to the class. Use the pre-viewing questions as an individual pre-activity and class discussion before starting the video. Ask students to take notes for the video questions as they are watching. Please note that after Part 1, the video should be paused to allow students to answer question 4 and then proceed with the second half. After the video, go over the questions with your class and continue the discussion with some of the suggested post-viewing questions. As a follow-up to exploring practical solutions to the water crisis, choose or adapt one of the suggested post-viewing activities for making a list of recommendations to solve the water crisis for students to work on individually or in small groups to hand in or present to the class. Pre-Viewing Questions:
1. Make a list of when and how you used water since you woke up this morning (individual brainstorm) a. What would you do if you did not have access to clean water at home or at school when you
needed it for each item on your list? (class discussion) b. What do you think would happen if you used unclean water instead for all the times you
used water today? (class discussion) Video Questions:
1. How many people in the world do not have access to clean water?
Global Concerns Toolkit Water Video: Suggested Guide
1.5 billion people on Earth are barely surviving without access to clean water or about one out of every six people on the planet.
2. What are some of the consequences of living with unclean water and sanitation?
The impact of having unclean water and sanitation include diarrhea and water-borne diseases which can lead to death, especially for children. Furthermore, many children have to travel far to collect water every day, leaving no time for school and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
3. How do people in Port-au-Prince cope with the water crisis?
People use street water to wash themselves because water is not available in their homes. People go and look for water all around, sometimes waking up very early to walk a few miles to find a water source which may not be available or has run dry.
4. After watching Part 1, make a list of five practical solutions that you think will ensure that all
families in the world’s poorest countries will have access to clean water.
Student answers will vary.
5. What are some of the short and long term solutions mentioned in Part 2 for solving the water crisis?
In emergency settings, the distribution of buckets and the provision of portable water tanks is an immediate response. Longer term solutions include collecting rain water, building storage tanks, constructing wells and laying down pipes.
Post-Viewing Questions: (Suggestions for class discussion)
1. Based on what you saw in the video, what do you think would be the biggest challenges of not having access to clean water and sanitation where you live?
2. What was the most interesting piece of information that was featured in the video?
3. What do you want to learn more about? Post-Viewing Activity: Make a Set of Recommendations for Haiti – Look at the solutions you came up with after Part 1 and turn them into a strategic set of recommendations for the UN to bring clean water to Haiti. Suggestions for implementation:
1) Turn your set of recommendations to the form of a speech addressed to UN world leaders. 2) Write a letter to the President of Haiti proposing your long term solutions to providing clean water. 3) In small groups, feature your ideas by presenting the problem of the water crisis and some solutions
in the form of a skit and perform it to the class. Use Haiti as your example.
Student Handout
WATER VIDEO GUIDE Pre-Viewing Questions:
1. Make a list of when and how you used water since you woke up this morning.
Video Questions:
1. How many people in the world do not have access to clean water?
2. What are some of the consequences of living with unclean water and sanitation?
3. How do people in Port-au-Prince cope with the water crisis?
4. After watching Part 1, make a list of five practical solutions that you think will ensure that all families in the world’s poorest countries will have access to clean water.
5. What are some of the short and long term solutions mentioned in Part 2 for solving the water crisis?
Post-Viewing Activity: Make a Set of Recommendations for Haiti – Look at the solutions you came up with after Part 1 and turn them into a strategic set of recommendations for the UN to bring clean water to Haiti.
Global Concerns Toolkit Lesson: Clean Water for Everyone
Adapted from Concern Worldwide Student Resource Guide on Water: Focus on Haiti Subject: Social Studies- Global Studies Learning Standards: National Standards for Social Studies: http://www.socialstudies.org/standards
IXd. Analyze the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to persistent, contemporary, and emerging global issues, such as health, security, resource allocation, economic development, and environmental quality. Xi. Construct a policy statement and an action plan to achieve one or more goals related to an issue of public concern.
Grade Level: 5-12 Materials: Markers, crayons, pens, pencils, poster paper, tape, chalk/wipe board, access to the internet, copies of student handouts Goal: Students will be able to analyze and understand the scale of the global water crisis and evaluate the best solutions to the problem. Objective: Students will be able to analyze and understand various solutions to the global water crisis through working in small groups to conduct research, organize ideas, and present their project to the class. Procedure:
1. Introduce the issue of ‘Clean Water’. Instruct students to brainstorm a list of all the times they use water each day. Then ask students to share how many gallons of water they use each day (the average American uses 176 and the average African uses 18).
2. Hand out a copy of the Case Study: Citoya’s Story to each student and instruct the class to write
down a list of ways that Citoya’s life is different from their own (see Student Handout #1). 3. Instruct students to work in groups of 3 to read out loud their lists and discuss Citoya’s Story.
Instruct them to come to consensus about the biggest challenges in her life. 4. Ask each group to select a speaker to read their list out loud. 5. While students are still working in the same groups, instruct them to list the possible solutions to
the challenges brought up in Citoya’s Story. 6. After the students have analyzed the hardships faced by Citoya and other children of Haiti, inform
students that they will be working in small groups to research and understand in detail some of the solutions to the water crisis currently utilized around the world.
Global Concerns Toolkit Lesson: Clean Water for Everyone
7. Organize students to work in 7 small groups (number of students varies based on class size, could
be up to 6). Read the directions to the activity out loud (see Student Handout #2).
Each group has been assigned a different solution to the growing water crisis. It is your group’s responsibility to prove to the rest of the class that your solution is the most effective, practical, and sustainable. You will present your case in the form of a creative project that must include a written description and also a visual element, such as a poster, comic strip, drawing, or graph. Your group will present your solution to the class - be as creative as you can! Have fun!
8. Students conduct research and work on their projects. 9. Students present their projects to the class.
Assessment: Create and use a rubric to evaluate the quality of the student projects, based on the following indicators: creativity, ability to follow instructions, organization, group work, and knowledge of topic. Ideas for Elaboration: Students could participate in a class debate about the best strategy. Students could write a creative writing piece imagining a new world where everyone worldwide had access to clean water. How would it change the opportunities available to communities in terms of health, education, and income generation?
Student Handout #1
CASE STUDY: CITOYA’S STORY
Citoya is seven years old and lives in Saut d’Eau, a rural village in Haiti. Every afternoon she
spends an hour walking with her sister to the closest spring. There, the girls fill up buckets of
water to carry back home. The water is enough to last the rest of the day, but it must be boiled
or treated before anyone can drink it. A few times a week, the family goes to the spring together
to bathe and wash clothes or other items. Citoya’s day is very busy- going to school, getting
water, and helping in the family garden. But she is one of the lucky ones; many of the children
in her village can not afford the $10 a year that the local school costs.
Student Handout #2
HOW CAN WE INCREASE THE WORLD’S ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER?
Each group has been assigned a different solution to the growing water crisis. It is your group’s responsibility to prove to the rest of the class that your solution is the most effective, practical, and sustainable. You will present your case in the form of a creative project that must include a written description and also a visual element, such as a poster, comic strip, drawing, or graph. Your group will present your solution to the class- be as creative as you can! Have fun! DRIP IRRIGATION Drip Irrigation can be extremely helpful in areas where water is scarce or expensive. It uses water more efficiently than conventional irrigation methods by releasing the water slowly to a specific area at the plants’ roots. Instead of wasting water because it cannot all be absorbed into the ground, the water placed by drip irrigation systems has time to be absorbed where plants most need it. However, it would be very costly to convert all the current irrigation systems to this new method. WATER CONSERVATION In many areas water is being pumped out of the ground faster than it can be replenished. Enhanced water conservation will allow water supplies to be used more effectively. By educating people to retrofit their faucets and shower heads, displace water in their toilet tank, and fix water leaks, millions of gallons of water could be saved every day. WATER TREATIES Conflict over water resources is an ever-growing problem. Our dwindling water resources and growing demand for water create the potential for large-scale competition and conflict between nations over shared water supplies. Past water treaties have been created in order to avert conflict and divide limited resources in reasonable ways. These treaties provide a structure for nations to address their differences in managing and monitoring shared resources. PRIVATE OWNERSHIP Private companies now control the water supplies in some areas. Often, this creates a more efficient system and allows more people access to available water. Yet, while water companies are able to update water systems, making them more efficient and more accountable to consumers, they can also make water very costly to the poor. In addition, many people believe that water is a public resource, and should not be owned by individuals or corporations.
DESALINATION Desalination is the process of re moving sodium chloride (salt) from water. Since most of the earth’s water is saltwater in the oceans, desalination could create a much greater amount of available fresh water to the world’s population. However, because it is so costly and energy-intensive, large amounts of money would need to be invested in this process. WATER RECYCLING Water re cycling is the process of reusing treated waste water for valuable, non-drinking purposes such as watering lawns or golf courses, industrial processes, and toilet flushing. By recycling our water, we could save a great deal of energy that is normally used on water treatment, and lower the cost of water bills. RAINWATER HARVESTING Rain water harvesting means catching and using rain water where it fall s. People can build cisterns or wells in order to help capture the rain water. Often, this system saves much time and energy but can only be used in areas with abundant rainfall. It is very important, however, that the water does not become contaminated in the holding areas and that is it sanitized before drinking.