LibGuides: Wave of Action: Team Week Two

Weekly Theme

This week's theme is the New York City Water Journey.

Week Two 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

NYC Water System
Students can explore the “NYC Water System” section of this storymap from the NYC H2O HUB.
From Mountaintop to Tap
Here is a digital downloadable version of the New York Water Story Mountaintop to Tap map to share with your students thanks to the NYC DEP.
How does water flow in New York City?
A worksheet from NYC DEP for students to sequence the series of events leading from the environment to water coming out of the tap, down the drain, and back into the environment again.
New York City Drinks Tap Water!
A brief video overview of the journey of NYC drinking water from watershed to tap.
How New York Gets Its Water
A combination of text and graphics about our drinking water system, the text in this informative piece from the New York Times may challenge some elementary readers however the graphics are very accessible.
The Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System
An article, photos, and an activity about the Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System exhibit at the Queens Museum.

Pre- or Post-Activity

Take a water tasting challenge! When you reach for a drink of water, does your family drink bottled water or tap? Which do you predict tastes better? Ask your family to help you prepare two glasses of water, marked A and B. One of the glasses should have tap water and one of them should have bottled water, but your family should not tell you which is which. Cool both glasses in the refrigerator for an hour, and then compare the properties of each using the worksheet. Which glass of water tasted better to you? Circle that one on your worksheet, then ask your family to reveal which sample was tap water and which was bottled. Were you surprised? Make sure to share your results with your Wave of Action Team!

Water Taste Test at Home
Compare and contrast the physical properties of two different water samples, one bottled and one tap.

Important Vocabulary

aqueduct— A large manmade system for carrying water from one place to another, either aboveground such as a bridge or underground as a tunnel or pipe.

disposable— An item that is intended to be used once.

fossil fuels— Natural fuels such as coal or gas that are formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.

opaque— Describes a material that blocks light (it is not transparent).

predict— To make a statement about a future event that may or may not be correct.

properties— A characteristic or trait that can be used to describe matter by using observations and/or measurements.

transparent— Describes a material that lets light pass through it (it can be seen through).

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.