Exploring water resources and understanding the importance of water

Understanding of importance of water and their sources through real-time exploration.

Expected learning outcomes

1. To know the changes in sources of water and water availability overtime
2. To identify the methods of saving water
3. To understand the consequences of water wastage and avoid it
4. To know how we get water from our locality/ area

Discussion about water

I asked some question about water to students and discussed about it.

1. Where have you seen water?
2. Where do you get water from?
3. Do you drink all the water we get? Why?
4. Where do you see large amount of water?

Students replied as many answers like ‘I get water from tap’, ‘I saw water in the river, tap, lake, sea, pond, rain, etc.’, ‘I drink only pure water’ and ‘I saw large amount of water in sea’. We further discussed on the above questions deeply like the natural sources of water are river, pond, lakes, etc. while taps and tanks are a medium.

Uses of water

Then discussed on the essential uses of water. The students were asked to enact the uses of water from particular sources. The students showed various actions on uses. They enacted drinking when called for tap; bathing for tap and pond and washing for well, river and pond.

Sources of water

Initially I asked the students to draw the sources of water. Students imagined and drawn different kinds of sources of water like lake, sea, rainfall, waterfall, etc. They also talked about their drawings It helped the students to recall the previous knowledge about the sources of water.

Exposure through video

Screened a video about the step wells, storage and saving water. After watching they clarified their doubts. Then we discussed about step wells, compared the steps to that of temple tanks (Teppakulum), other traditional water conservation methods and how these things are losing importance now.

Step wells of India: historical water management - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEJUBVKUMQo

Rainwater harvesting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-12o5uPY6mE

Field trip

Students visited the nearby pond, Sulthanpet pond and gathered information about it. The students observed the pond and discussed with local people. The students discussed to a local old man and now aware that the pond is hundreds of year old, owned and maintained by the Sulthanpet mosque, largely ignored now, receives water during rain and now dry due to negligence by closing the drains and also excess withdrawal of groundwater in surrounding areas. Also the pond is of not much use today except for cleaning vehicles. Students also understood that the pond is slowly destroyed since there is a change in the landscape and the pond had lost its importance.

Cost of water

Students were shown a water bill and then discussed about it. The students identified certain details in the bill and I explained the remaining details of the water bill. Discussed on some questions like ‘do you have to pay for water, to whom do you have to pay, approximately how much do you have to pay, how frequent is it, how is it different for different colonies’. The students answered to most of the questions and some are aware of the water bills. This way students are able to understand about the water bills and also aware of how water in tap are costed.

Bahour lake story

Two students were made to read the story of Vangari-Singari from story cards who created Bahour canal and then discussed about the service of the sisters for community. The students expressed that they also would like to do community service like the sisters. It looks like the story was encouraging and the students also understood on how someone could do service to the community in improving water situation.

Project- Wastage of water

Students were asked to find the leakage of water in taps in school. They identified a leaking tap and measured the water leakage in it to be 750 milliliters per hour. Then calculated the total wastage of water in one day to be 18 litres (750 * 24). Then the faulty tap had been replaced with students’ involvement saving 18 litres a day. This way the students have realized a simple leakage which leads to heavy wastage on a day and also on how to fix it.

There was also discussion on similar wastages at home. The students pointed on various ways of water wastage at home and how it could be reduced. They pointed out that leaking taps should be fixed and should not be left as they are.

Then they also pointed on closing the tap before overflowing. This way we can infer that the students have understood that ‘every drop counts’.

Preparing posters

Students made posters on the theme of “Save water” and pasted it in the classroom. The posters showed that they have understood the concept of rainwater harvesting.

Profiling the local water body

All the students collected information on nearby water sources like lake, pond, well and tanks. They shared the information in the classroom, discussed on the condition of the water source now and how they are useful to the locality. For example, one student profiled and shared the details about the Perambai pond.

Teacher: M. Ramakrishnan, GPS Sulthanpet