LibGuides: Educator Guide: Water Quality: Water Quality Educator Guide

Water Quality

Tips to Come Prepared

Before you visit the Genovesi Environmental Study Center (GESC) with your class, review the Educator's Guide to prepare for your students.

Read the Essential Questions (p. 1) and Connections to Standards (p. 2) to decide how you want to link your curriculum with your field trip
Complete the Pre-Visit Lesson with your class activating student interest and engagement
Come to GESC ready to engage and learn with our experiential, hands-on field trip program, Water Quality.

Library Finds

Drinking Water by James Salzman When we turn on the tap or twist open a tall plastic bottle, we probably don't give a second thought about where our drinking water comes from. But how it gets from the ground to the glass is far more convoluted than we might think.In this revised edition of Drinking Water, Duke University professor and environmental policy expert James Salzman shows how drinking water highlights the most pressing issues of our time. He adds eye-opening, contemporary examples about our relationship to and consumption of water, and a new chapter about the atrocities that occurred in Flint, Michigan. Provocative, insightful, and engaging, Drinking Water shows just how complex a simple glass of water can be.
A Field Guide to Clean Drinking Water by Joe Vogel How to find and prepare safe drinking water--anywhere, any time! Clean drinking water may be the last thing we think about day to day--but it's the first thing we need in an emergency. Now, survival expert and biologist Joe Vogel explains how to find, treat, and store safe drinking water--even in the most extreme conditions. A Field Guide to Clean Drinking Water includes information about: The role of water in the body and how to calculate your water requirement Plants, geographical features, and more indicators that signal the presence of water How to collect dew and precipitation, and extract water from plants How to screen "raw water" for bacteria, pesticides, and other contaminants Every purifying method from boiling techniques to chemical disinfection And storage options that meet every need. Small enough to take anywhere--and broad enough to cover everything--this is a vital manual for backpackers, survivalists, and anyone who may need to know how to create their own drinking water.
Superman's Not Coming by Erin Brockovich Clean water is as basic to life on planet Earth as hydrogen or oxygen. In her long-awaited book-her first to reckon with the condition of water on our planet-Erin Brockovich shows us what's at stake. She writes powerfully of the fraudulent science disguising our national water crisis- Cancer clusters are not being reported. People in Detroit and the state of New Jersey don't have clean water. The drinking water for more than six million Americans contains unsafe levels of industrial chemicals linked to cancer and other health issues. The saga of PG&E continues to this day. Yet communities and people around the country are fighting to make an impact, and Brockovich tells us their stories. In Poughkeepsie, New York, a water operator responded to his customers' concerns and changed his system to create some of the safest water in the country. Local moms in Hannibal, Missouri, became the first citizens in the nation to file an ordinance prohibiting the use of ammonia in their public drinking water. Like them, we can each protect our right to clean water by fighting for better enforcement of laws, new legislation, and stronger regulations. Superman's Not Coming is a stirring call to action and a guidebook that gives us the tools we need to take action ourselves, to make our voices heard, to ensure our water is safe, and to finally bring about change.

Essential Questions

Is clean water the same as drinking water?
How do you know if a natural water source is safe to drink?
How is water quality measured?
What is a Water Quality Index (WQI)?

Our Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

Access these free ebooks by signing in to the Sora app with your NYC DOE credentials

Poisoned Water by Candy J. Cooper; Marc Aronson Based on original reporting by a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an industry veteran, the first book for young adults about the Flint water crisis In 2014, Flint, Michigan, was a cash-strapped city that had been built up, then abandoned by General Motors. As part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Then it got worse: children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Citizens of Flint protested that the water was dangerous. Despite what seemed so apparent from the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city's faucets, officials refused to listen. They treated the people of Flint as the problem, not the water, which was actually poisoning thousands. Through interviews with residents and intensive research into legal records and news accounts, journalist Candy J. Cooper, assisted by writer-editor Marc Aronson, reveals the true story of Flint. Poisoned Water shows not just how the crisis unfolded in 2014, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, the beliefs and attitudes that fueled it, and how the people of Flint fought--and are still fighting--for clean water and healthy lives.
Gardening with Less Water by David A. Bainbridge Are you facing drought or water shortages? Gardening with Less Water offers simple, inexpensive, low-tech techniques for watering your garden much more efficiently -- using up to 90 percent less water for the same results. With illustrated step-by-step instructions, David Bainbridge shows you how to install buried clay pots and pipes, wicking systems, and other porous containers that deliver water directly to a plant's roots with little to no evaporation. These systems are available at hardware stores and garden centers; are easy to set up and use; and work for garden beds, container gardens, and trees.  
Creating Rain Gardens by Apryl Uncapher; Cleo Woelfle-Erskine; Apryl Uncapher; Cleo Woelfle-Erskine "A beautifully-written, practical guide to planning and creating your own rain garden." --Green Upgrader You probably spend hundreds of dollars watering your yard, but there is an easy way to save money and resources--by collecting rain to reuse in front and backyards. In Creating Rain Gardens, water conservation experts Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher walk you through the entire process, with step-by-step instructions for designing and building swales, French drains, rain gardens, and ephemeral ponds. From soil preparation, planting, troubleshooting, and maintenance, to selecting palettes of water-loving plants that provide four-season interest and a habitat for wildlife, Creating Rain Gardens covers everything you need to create a beautiful rain garden at home.
Solutions for a Cleaner, Greener Planet by Marc Zimmer Many of the most toxic materials on Earth--from arsenic to plutonium--occur naturally, but manufacturers have also used them in products such as paints, plumbing, pesticides, nuclear fuel, and weaponry. Without careful management, toxins can leach into groundwater or pollute our environment. Exposure to toxins leads to various cancers, impairment of the immune and reproductive systems, as well as cognitive problems. What can be done? Solutions include a wide range of infrastructure approaches, such as better water filtration, governmental and manufacturing regulations, outright bans on certain chemicals, careful monitoring, and the use of alternative fuels. Learn more about key contaminants and their impact on health, as well as solutions on a global and individual level.

Educator Guide: Water Quality: Water Quality Educator Guide

Water Quality

Tips to Come Prepared

Library Finds

Essential Questions

Our Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

Water Quality

Pre-Visit Materials

Post-Visit Materials

Connections to Standards