LibGuides: Wave of Action: Team Week Four

Weekly Theme

This week's theme is the history of the New York City Watershed.

Week Four Team Meeting Presentation
This slide presentation is available for you to use during your weekly synchronous team meeting. Clicking this link will prompt you to make a copy of the Google Slides for your own Google Drive. Once you make a copy, share the slides with your students directly from your Google Drive.

Learning Resources

Building New York City's Water System
Students can explore this digital story map from the NYC H2O HUB.
A Billion Gallons a Day
This seven-minute New York Times Living City video is an excellent overview of the development and daily functioning of our water supply system.
Deep Water: Building the Catskill Water System
This is a 21-minute revised edition of the 45-minute documentary about the history of the development of New York City's Catskill water supply.
A History of NYC's Water System
A brief article with photos from The Upstater magazine about the history of NYC's water supply system.
NYC Water History
The City of New York website's article about how NYC obtained its drinking water.

Pre- or Post-Activity

In the past, using a policy called eminent domain, many families in the watershed were displaced so that our drinking water system could be constructed. That means that families had to move away from where they lived, losing their homes and their land, and it was not a choice. Today we depend upon people who live in the watershed now to take good care of the land so that our drinking water quality can be safe. Soon, you will be meeting with students who live in the watershed. Last week you answered a question that they had for you; what questions would you like to ask them? Send your teacher at least two questions you have for the students about where they live or their relationship to water in their community.

Important Vocabulary

contamination — The act of making something harmful or unusable by the addition of something to it. For example pollutants can contaminate a water supply.

eminent domain — The right of government to take private land for public use without compensation.

land management — The planning and development of land resources.

reservoir — A large natural or manmade lake where water is collected, stored, and then used as a water source.

sanitation — The act of keeping things clean to protect public health.

Empire State Information Fluency Continuum

We would suggest students use this graphic organizer to organize the main ideas and supporting details of the learning resources they explore this week.

The Empire State Information Fluency Continuum (ESIFC) provides a K-12 framework for teaching information literacy skills in any content area. This framework is based on three Common Core standards that form the basis for the skills and strategies that are essential for students to become independent readers and learners.

The assessments within the framework are all editable to ensure teachers can modify to fit their students' needs. Access the ESIFC and the entire library of assessments here.