Goldenfields Water and NTC invite you to use these e-learning resources to teach your students about the importance of water literacy and conservation. The digital materials below are designed to get your students excited about understanding these important subjects.
Want to know the best way to use the related videos, e-books, games and other lessons to educate your class? Watch this short video and learn how to easily add Aqua Avengers to your curriculum.
Our live in-school theatrical programs are a great way to educate students about a wide variety of topics. Theatre has the ability to capture imaginations and educate at the same time! This 30-minute performance features two engaging actors performing a fun story that keeps students laughing and learning.
Aqua Avengers teaches students the following educational points:
During the performance, your students will learn important lessons about water conservation. You can use the lessons and activities on this page to prolong the engagement for months to come.
We know your class time is extremely valuable. That’s why we ensure that all of our digital e-learning materials are aligned with curriculum standards. It’s important that the Aqua Avengers program complements your existing curriculum and helps students stay on track with their ongoing learning.
See below for details about how each digital activity aligns with educational standards and corresponds with your state’s curricula.
The Aqua Avengers student activities page features games, educational lessons, downloadable PDFs, e-books, Power Play games and more! Access in the classroom or at home to learn more about water conservation.
This downloadable PDF features colourful artwork, entertaining games and activities, and expanded information to complete your student’s understanding of water conservation. Read on your own, with your class or with friends and family and get to know the Aqua Avengers.
This colourful, illustrated e-book is a great follow-up to the live program. Students can read to themselves or with others, and younger students can use the read-aloud option. The e-book takes your students on a new adventure and includes fun interactive activities throughout.
Your students can enhance what they learn from the program with these fun, hands-on lessons and experiments. These lessons can be done in the classroom or easily adapted for students to do at home with their families.
They’re a fun and educational way for students to learn with family members. The materials needed for these lessons are basic supplies that most people have at home. Follow up with your students to make sure they enjoyed and learned from these activities.
Lesson 1:
Make a miniature environment to see the water cycle at work.
Apply Skills, Create
Critical Thinking
Strategic and Extended Thinking
45 minutes over three days
Where is water collecting?
Why is it collecting there?
What happens to the water after it evaporates?
Lesson 2:
Make a water filter that can treat raw water.
Apply Skills, Create, Review
Critical Thinking, Collaboration
Strategic and Extended Thinking
45 minutes
What is the difference between the two samples after being treated?
What would you do differently if you had to remake your filter?
Does the water look safe to drink? What dangers could still be present, and how would you treat them?
Lesson 3:
Examine various methods of water use, and analyse their potential water waste to measure how much water gets wasted in various scenarios.
Apply Criteria, Analyse, Review
Critical Thinking
Strategic and Extended Thinking
45 minutes
Part 1: Pairs of students choose one of the following water uses or another of their choosing:
Part 2: Ask each pair of students to research the area of water use that they have chosen from above and develop a set of criteria that can be used to judge the amount of water that is being used and how much of it is being wasted.
The following are some prompts that the students may use to start thinking about their criteria for judging the use of water resources:
Closing activities As a class present your research and discuss the criteria for different water uses.
Did any of the pairs have criteria in common?
Can the different water uses be grouped and assessed under the same criteria?
If students had to put all their chosen water uses on a scale from least to most water efficient, what would that look like?
Lesson 4:
Understand the interconnectedness of Earth's major systems (Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere) and analyse the impacts of disruptions in these systems.
Apply Concepts, Analyse Interactions, Review System Balance
Critical Thinking, Systems Thinking
Strategic and Extended Thinking
45 minutes
Part 1: Introduction to Global Systems (15 minutes)
Teacher Presentation:Begin with a brief overview of Earth's major systems: Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere.
Discuss how these systems interact with each other by exchanging energy and matter.
Explain the importance of maintaining balance within and among these systems, and how disruptions can lead to environmental issues like climate change.
Class Discussion:Engage students by asking them to provide examples of how these systems interact in daily life (e.g., water cycle, plant growth, weather patterns).
Record key points from the discussion on a whiteboard or large paper.
Part 2: Analysing System Interactions (20 minutes)
Group Activity:Divide the class into four groups, assigning each group one of the four systems (Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere).
Each group will research their assigned system, focusing on its key components, how it interacts with the other systems, and what could happen if it is disrupted.
Students should use the internet or textbooks to gather information, and create a visual representation (e.g., diagram, flowchart) of their system and its interactions.
Class Presentation:Each group will present their findings to the class, explaining how their system interacts with the others and what happens when there is an imbalance.
Encourage other students to ask questions and add to the discussion.
Part 3: Reflection and Conclusion (10 minutes)
Class Discussion:Lead a discussion on the importance of maintaining balance within Earth's systems.
Ask students to consider real-world examples where this balance has been disrupted (e.g., deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions) and discuss potential solutions to restore balance.
Have students write a brief reflection on what they learned about global systems, their interactions, and the importance of balance. They should also note one action they can take in their daily lives to help maintain this balance.
This lesson plan emphasises understanding the interconnectedness of Earth's systems, encouraging students to think critically about the balance required to maintain environmental stability. It combines research, collaboration, and reflection to deepen students' comprehension of global systems and their significance.
Question: "How does a change in one of Earth's systems, such as an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, affect the other systems (Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere)? Provide specific examples to illustrate these impacts."
Question: "In what ways do human activities contribute to imbalances in Earth's systems, and what are some strategies we can implement to restore balance? Consider activities such as deforestation, industrial agriculture, and fossil fuel consumption."
Question: "Given the interconnected nature of Earth's systems, what sustainable practices can be implemented in agriculture, urban development, and energy production to ensure that all systems remain balanced? How do these practices benefit both the environment and human society?"
You’ve covered the basics of water conservation. If you really want to dig deep with your class, explore the expanded information and additional resources below.
These materials provide even more insight into the history, science, usage and importance of water conservation. There are also helpful links and tips.
Expanded Information 1:
WATER FUN FACTS
Ninety-seven percent of the Earth’s water is salt water in the ocean. Two percent is stored as freshwater in glaciers, and there's also some deep underground. This leaves approximately 1% of all the water on Earth as water for people to use. If all the world’s water were put into a litre jug, the fresh water available for us to use would equal to a single large drop of water.
HOW MUCH WATER ARE YOU?
Students will calculate how many glasses of water they are made of. (An average glass is around 236ml)
Have students write down their approximate weight.
Divide their weight by three.
Multiply the new number by four.
That’s about how many glasses of water it would take to equal all the water in a person.
The human body consists of up to 60% water. By the time a person feels thirsty, their body has lost over 1% of their total water amount. Make sure you drink water before you get thirsty!
Facts:
Expanded Information 2:
THE WATER TREATMENT PROCESS
Raw water is full of all kinds of contaminants and impurities that make it harmful for humans to drink. This includes obvious things like sticks, plant matter, and rubbish - but also all the invisible nasties like microorganisms, which include parasites and bacteria that can be harmful for human health. Before it can be delivered to our taps it needs to go through a rigorous treatment process to make sure it’s completely safe to drink. Most treatment plants around the world use four main processes to treat raw water.
Stage 1: Coagulation
A chemical (coagulant) is added to the water that traps all of the impurities and makes them clump together forming ‘flocs’.
Stage 2: Sedimentation
The water is left to sit until the flocs sink down forming a ‘sludge’ on the bottom. The clear water on top moves on and the sludge can be re-used for soil conditioning.
Stage 3: Filtration
Any remaining solids are removed by passing through compact layers of gravel, sand and anthracite (a mineral sometimes referred to as ‘hard coal’). Each level of grit gets finer and finer, ending in a very fine synthetic membrane.
Stage 4: Disinfection
A small amount of disinfectant (usually chlorine) is added to inactivate any microorganisms. Another method is to blast the water with ultraviolet (UV) light.
Expanded Information 3:
WHERE DOES MY WATER COME FROM?
If you live in an Australian city, there’s a good chance that your water comes from surface water such as streams, rivers and reservoirs filled by rainfall and runoff. This water is collected, treated and delivered by one of the many water treatment facilities around the country. Just like the Jugiong Treatment Plant, which treats between 12 to 18 megalitres of water every day, providing quality drinking water to approximately 18,000 people from various regions of NSW.
But in a lot of areas in Australia, groundwater is the primary source of water - sustaining whole towns, farms, mines and irrigation networks.
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is Australia's largest underground freshwater system, and one of the deepest and most impressive in the world!
Extending more than 1.7 million square kilometres, the GAB sits underneath 4 different states and territories, they are Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Estimated at 64,900 million megalitres, the GAB contains a HUGE amount of underground water. It’s a vital resource for town water supplies, agriculture, and industry.
Source: https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/water/groundwater/gab
Expanded Information 4:
One of the biggest threats to water security is climate change. There are many ways that climate change is having an impact on water supplies around the world, the main contributor being rising global temperatures. The water cycle supports the global ecosystem, and climate change sets off a chain of events which have serious outcomes.
The domino effect doesn't stop here, with long term follow-on effects being rising sea levels and melting ice caps. It can be sobering to think about the bigger picture of climate change - but there are countless actions we can take to support our water security and combat the negative effects of a warming planet:
The future of our water is in our hands and we have the power to protect our water and our planet.
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/how-climate-change-impacts-water-access/
Expanded Information 5:
You might have heard of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) and its benefits to our community and water security, but what exactly does it mean, and what does it look like?
Words like bioretention, rain gardens and porous surfaces might sound familiar - let's have a closer look at how they play a part in WSUD.
In natural environments (as opposed to the urban architecture of towns and cities) most rainwater has access to exposed earth or vegetation. This means when it rains, water is able to be absorbed into the ground, feed plants, or easily evaporate back into the atmosphere and return to the natural water cycle.
In human-made environments there is a lot more concrete, roads, roofs and paved areas that block the rain's access to the ground. These surfaces are known as ‘impermeable’ meaning they stop the water from being able to reach the earth and be reabsorbed. This water is then forced to flow into sewers and waterways, becoming what is called ‘stormwater runoff’.
But can’t that runoff just be collected and treated? Unfortunately, because of all the cars and industry in urbanised areas, pollutants collect on the impermeable surfaces and are then picked up by the stormwater runoff, contaminating it. On top of that, there is excess stormwater, creating a higher chance of the water making its way into our rivers and creeks, contaminating our natural waterways. This can be a huge problem.
So what can we do? Aren’t all the cities and towns already built and can’t be changed?
WSUD uses small but effective modifications to capture and treat this stormwater closer to the surface before it can compromise our natural waterways. This doesn’t mean pulling up all the roads, but could include some of these methods:
All of these methods (and more!) could work together to reduce the quantity of stormwater runoff, while improving its quality. It also protects and restores natural waterways, improves habitat for native wildlife, improves the appearance of our built areas, and also cools our environment by retaining more water.
See what you can do to help, and learn more about WSUD today: https://waterbydesign.com.au/wsud
Expanded Information 6:
The Carbon Cycle is a fundamental concept in Earth and environmental science, illustrating how carbon is continuously recycled and exchanged among Earth's atmosphere, oceans, soil, and living organisms. Understanding the Carbon Cycle is crucial for students, especially in the context of climate change and environmental sustainability.
To further explore the Carbon Cycle with students, consider discussing the following advanced topics:
Extended Classroom Activities and Discussions:
Model the Carbon Cycle: Have students create a physical or digital model of the Carbon Cycle, showing how carbon moves through the different spheres of the Earth (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere).
Debate on Climate Solutions: Organise a classroom debate on the effectiveness of different strategies for reducing atmospheric CO2 levels, such as renewable energy, carbon taxes, reforestation, and carbon capture technologies.
Case Study Analysis: Use real-world case studies to explore the impact of carbon cycle disruptions on ecosystems, such as the Great Barrier Reef, and discuss possible conservation efforts.
Follow-up formative assessments are especially important for gauging your students' learning in e-learning environments. Below are some suggestions for assessing your students’ performance quickly and effectively.
These assessments are easy for you and your students to complete, helping ensure your class receives the maximum educational value, retention, and engagement from the related digital activities.
| Primary Educational Assessments | Livestream | Hands-on lessons | Digital games | Interactive activities | PDFs & Print materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw a concept map | X | ||||
| Write three things another student may misunderstand about the topic | X | X | |||
| Journal reflection | X | X | X | ||
| Submit screenshot of completed activity | X | X | |||
| Hand in completed activity | X | ||||
| Have students make collages relating to the topic | X | X | |||
| Have students host their own talk show relating to the topic | X | ||||
Each student rolls a die and briefly answers aloud a question based on the number rolled:
|
X | ||||
| Present students with an analogy prompt: “The concept being covered is like ____ because ____.” |
X | X |
We take your feedback and suggestions very seriously. Hearing from educators with firsthand experience with our programs ensures that we continue to improve our digital resources, making them as beneficial as possible for you and your students.
Please complete this brief, two-minute evaluation to let us know what you think about the program. Enter the code you received on the half sheets from our actors, or call us for your access code.
Thank you for your time and valuable input.
