Summary:
Building off of what we were discussing and thinking about last week, this week we focus on water. We need it for personal consumption, to grow our food, and in many industrial applications. It is a renewable resource, but it needs to be managed responsibly. In order to do that, we need to study the water cycle scientifically. How does water move around our global environment? At which points in the water cycle are humans having an impact? We’ll be primarily focused on Number and Data Sense skills this week. You’ll be doing another back of the envelope estimate (yay!) and we’ll be discussing summarizing our data using statistics.
Learning Objectives:
- understand the water cycle and human impacts on it
- apply descriptive statistics to water quality data and produce a data visualization to summarize findings
- practice our sense of scale and our back of the envelope calculations
Unit 8, Class 14 [day/date] Required Readings/Videos:
- SF video: Water
- Reading: Chapter 13: Water Availability and Use from Doršner. 2015. Essentials of Environmental Science. OER available here: https://www.ck12.org/user%3Azg9yc25lckbnbwfpbc5jb20./book/Essentials-of-Environmental-Science/section/13.0/
- Reading: Pimentel et al. 1997. Water Resources: agriculture, the environment, and society. BioScience. 47(2):97-106. This is an old reference, but useful for thinking about the amount of water it takes to grow our food.
Unit 8, Class 14 [day/date] Self-Assessment
[insert form]
Unit 8, Class 15 [day/date] Required Readings/Videos:
- Reading: Chapter 2: Descriptive Statistics from OpenStax. Introductory Statistics. OpenStax. 19 July 2013. OER available here: https://cnx.org/contents/MBiUQmmY@18.114:Z_8PEIhn@5/Introduction Note: This just links to the introduction, but I want you to read the whole chapter. Much of it will be review, but this will be important for thinking about how you present your poster results as well as doing the activity this week.
- Video: Science 360’s series “Sustainability: Water” The Ogallala Aquifer and Los Angeles and Water Imports.
Unit 8, Class 15 [day/date] OPTIONAL Readings/Videos
For more background on the data we’re using for the activity, read the New York City Harbor Water Quality Report: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dep/downloads/pdf/water/nyc-waterways/harbor-water-quality-report/2018-new-york-harbor-water-quality-report.pdf
Unit 8, Class 15 [day/date] Self-Assessment
[insert form]
Unit 8 Major Assignments
- Video Outline – see guidelines for help due [time/date]
