Lesson 21.3: Water Pollution
Say Thanks to the Authors Click http://www.ck12.org/saythanks (No sign in required)
To access a customizable version of this book, as well as other interactive content, visit www.ck12.org
CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and worldwide. Using an open-source, collaborative, and web-based compilation model, CK-12 pioneers and promotes the creation and distribution of high-quality, adaptive online textbooks that can be mixed, modified and printed (i.e., the FlexBook® textbooks). Copyright © 2016 CK-12 Foundation, www.ck12.org The names “CK-12” and “CK12” and associated logos and the terms “FlexBook®” and “FlexBook Platform®” (collectively “CK-12 Marks”) are trademarks and service marks of CK-12 Foundation and are protected by federal, state, and international laws. Any form of reproduction of this book in any format or medium, in whole or in sections must include the referral attribution link http://www.ck12.org/saythanks (placed in a visible location) in addition to the following terms. Except as otherwise noted, all CK-12 Content (including CK-12 Curriculum Material) is made available to Users in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/), as amended and updated by Creative Commons from time to time (the “CC License”), which is incorporated herein by this reference. Complete terms can be found at http://www.ck12.org/about/ terms-of-use. Printed: January 6, 2016
www.ck12.org
C HAPTER
Chapter 1. Lesson 21.3: Water Pollution
1
Lesson 21.3: Water Pollution
Key Concepts • • • •
Sources of water pollution Municipal water pollution Ocean pollution Thermal water pollution
Lesson Objectives • • • • • •
Discuss the risks that water pollution poses to human and environmental health. Explain where freshwater and saltwater pollution come from. Discuss how pathogen-borne diseases are caused by water pollution. Describe why conserving water and protecting water quality is important to human health and the environment. Describe how water pollution reduces the amount of safe drinking water available. Discuss who is responsible for preventing and cleaning up water pollution.
Lesson Vocabulary • thermal pollution: pollution that raises the temperature of water
Teaching Strategies Introducing the Lesson
Introduce the class to water pollution with the following facts and figures about the health effects of drinking contaminated water. • Diseases spread through contaminated water are one of the leading causes of disease and death in the world. • At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-related diseases. • Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. Tell students they will read more in this lesson about contamination of the water supply and ways to prevent it. 1
www.ck12.org Activity
Students are likely to think that water pollution is caused only by direct discharge of substances into bodies of water. However, bodies of water can also be polluted by acid rain, which is a byproduct of sulfur pollution of the air, mainly by coal-burning power plants. In this activity, students will investigate how even a small input of acid rain can change the acidity of a body of water and negatively affect aquatic life. http://earthecho.org/images/uploads/wpc_uploads/Acid_Rain_HS.pdf Differentiated Instruction
Pair English language learners with native English speakers, and ask partners to work together to create a cluster diagram of water pollution. They should draw a circle in the center of a sheet of paper, labeled “Water Pollution,” and draw circles around it for each type or source of water pollution, including municipal, industrial, agricultural, ocean-water, and thermal pollution. To each of these surrounding circles, they should add a few key terms or facts about that type or source of pollution. Enrichment
Have students read and write a book report on the award-winning nonfiction book “A Civil Action” by John Harr (1996). The book is a compelling true account of people in Woburn, Massachusetts, who sought justice when their children developed deadly cancers as a result of contamination of community groundwater resources by two local industries. Students will learn who was responsible for the contamination and how it was resolved in what has been called the “legal thriller of the decade.” You can find a summary of the book at this URL: http://serc.carleton.edu /woburn/ACA_summary.html . Science Inquiry
The activity at the following URL presents student with a real-world problem to solve: the contamination of a fictitious town’s drinking water. In the activity, students will make a topographic map, use it to predict groundwater flow, and investigate the most likely source of groundwater contamination. http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/upload/2009_04_29_kids_activity_grades_9-12_trackingpollution_teac hersguide.pdf Common Misconceptions
A common misconception is that most of the pollution that enters water comes from industries dumping toxic wastes into water at a single point. Explain that this type of point-source pollution has been nearly eliminated by the Clean Water Act and other legislation. Instead, the majority of pollution that enters water now comes from non-point source pollution. This type of pollution is caused mainly by runoff rainwater.
Reinforce and Review Lesson Worksheets
Copy and distribute the lesson worksheets in the CK-12 Earth Science for High School Workbook. Ask students to complete the worksheets alone or in pairs to reinforce lesson content. 2
www.ck12.org
Chapter 1. Lesson 21.3: Water Pollution
Lesson Review Questions
Have students answer the Review Questions listed at the end of the lesson in the FlexBook® student edition. Lesson Quiz
Check students’ mastery of the lesson with Lesson 21.3 Quiz in CK-12 Earth Science for High School Quizzes and Tests.
Points to Consider How does water pollution reduce the amount of drinking water available for people to use? About 50 % of all infectious diseases are caused by water pollution. What can be done to reduce the number of pathogens that reach our freshwater supplies? Ocean pollution harms some of the most productive sources of marine life. How can we change our behaviors to protect marine life?
3
