Using Our Natural Resources Wisely

Using Our Natural Resources Wisely
Lois Lutz
Felten Middle School
Hays, Kansas

Overview:: Because the Ogallala Aquifer water is so important to the economic development of Western Kansas, a review of their efforts to conserve this resource should be shared with the students as the study of the subject of water is continued throughout the school year. The study of the Reeve's Cattle Company has high interest for young people and can spark their imaginations to create new ideas for conservation of our most precious resource - water - in Kansas.

Grade Level: Grades 6 to 8

Time Needed: One class period

Five Themes of Geography:: Location, Place, Movement, Interaction, Regions

Kansas Social Studies Standards for Benchmarks, Grade Levels 8-K:: The student will understand the connections among people, places, and environments in the local school and community, Kansas, the United States, and different nations in the world.; The student will understand the effects of economics, science, and technology in the classroom, school, community, Kansas, the United States, and different regions in the world.

National Geography Standards:: People, Places and Environments

Outcomes:: The student will know and understand how ground water can be recycled to maximize its usage and begin to think about ways conservation can help Kansas preserve its natural resources in other areas - soil, minerals, and clean air.

Performance Objective:: The student will be able to draw a model and explain the recycling steps used by the Reeve's Cattle Company, and be able to define the vocabulary words in their explanation.
Vocabulary (see Glossary):
Tilapia Fish culture Hydroponic Ethanol Recycle Conservation Distill Cooling tower Irrigation Ogallala Aquifer Aquifer

Materials:

Map of Kansas showing Ogallala Formation
Colored pencils
Sheets of drawing paper (8 1/2 x 11 inch)
Pre-made "recycling arrows" for chalkboard
VCR tape of Sunflower Journeys, featuring the Reeves Cattle Company (available through your Kansas Public Library or the Geosciences Office, Paul Phillips, Fort Hays State University)


Procedures:
A. We are always looking for opportunities to use water wisely. The Reeves Cattle Company of Garden City, Kansas, is an example of a unique use of the Ogallala Aquifer water by reusing the resource several times before it is placed back on the land as irrigation water. B. Hand out written instructions to each group of students, however you have divided them, in groups of five would work. Let students read instructions. C. Assign groups to draw a different picture at their tables before explaining what activities or steps are involved as the Reeves Cattle Company recycles their water. D. Have a bulletin board ready with recycle symbols (curved arrows). E. Written instructions for Group 1: Each student in your group should draw a picture on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper showing a large sign reading: Reeves Cattle Co., Garden City, KS. Make your picture look like a ranch-style gate with the lettering overhead. Add a semi-truck driving through the gate carrying corn and another loaded with large round bales of alfalfa. Have the men waving to each other. Draw another semi-truck hauling milo up the road to the gate. F. Written instructions for Group 2: Each student should draw an overhead view of a large metal barn (leave roof open) with 5 large pools of water inside connected with pipes. Have the last pool draining into a large outdoor pond by a pipe. Draw and color white and brown fish in each pool, minnows to increasingly larger fish as the pools are connected in the barn to the pond. Write the word "talapia" on a sign on the front of the barn. Draw a man selling sacks of fresh fish outside the barn door to a line of customers. G. Written instructions for Group 3: Each student should draw a greenhouse-like structure with a water pipe connected, going in at one end of the building and exiting out the opposite end, emptying into an outdoor pond. Draw heaping bushel baskets of red tomatoes being loaded into a semi-truck in front of the building using a forklift. H. Written instructions for Group 4: Each student should draw a picture of a refinery-type complex that has 2 storage tanks, 2 cooling towers, pipes to connect all the tanks and towers, plus an office building and central computer-control room. Draw what looks like 4 railroad tanker cars half-buried in the ground next to the refinery. Have workers emptying a large grain-hauling truck into an underground storage bin in front of the refinery. Use colored pencils to add depth and perspective. I. Written instructions for Group 5: Each student should draw a layout for a feedlot. Show the fencing for the cattle pens, feeding troughs, grain-storage silos, and watering tanks. Show a truck filling the feeding troughs with warm, steaming ground corn and alfalfa. Draw cattle eating at the troughs. J. Have each group, as they finish their artwork, number off 1 to 5. All 1s go to a table, and all 2s to another, etc. Have the new groups, which should have one each of the drawings, brainstorm to see if they can put the recycling steps in a logical sequence. When a table thinks it has figured out the sequence, have them raise their hands. That table may tape their sequence up on the board using the "recycling" arrows to complete their poster of what happens first to last as the water is reused by the cattle company. Differences of opinion? Have the groups discuss their theories and defend their ideas. K. Show the film from Sunflower Journeys to the class L. Discussion and revision of their theories can follow the film, as well as possible suggestions as to the next reuse of the water by the Reeves Cattle Company. This activity should bring high participation by the students using inductive reasoning from the students. Learning takes place using visual, aural, oral, and kinesthetic tactual channels.
Conclusion:
a. The students should be able to explain in a short essay or paragraph the importance of recycling the water of the Ogallala Aquifer and the steps the Reeves Cattle Company uses to achieve their goal of conservation of a natural resource. b. The student should be able to define the key vocabulary terms used in this lesson and pass an objective test over the information. c. The student should be able to add another logical step to the recycled water and explain his theory with a drawing or in a paragraph.

Assessment:: Check "conclusion" items a, b, and c for accuracy and completion.

Extensions:: Map reading, six-trait writing, spelling, vocabulary, brainstorming, webbing, cooperative learning. Any topic stressing clean or pure water, conservation of natural resources, Kansas studies, fish culture, the food chain, or irrigation could include this lesson as an enrichment and as a bridge to other subjects such as science, economics, marketing, and other agricultural topics. Discussion of the depletion of the aquifer in Western Kansas and its implications for the future economy of the area could be teamed with this lesson.

Resources:

Sunflower Joumeys. Reeves Cattle Company [videocassette tape]. (Available from Geo-sciences Office, Paul Phillips, 600 Park Street, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS 67601)
Kansas Water Office. (1995). Kansas man of Ogallala water aquifer. Topeka, KS: Author.
U.S. Geological Survey. Water level changes in the High Plains Aquifer, 1980-1994. Lincoln, NE: Author. (Available from U.S. Dept. of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 406 Federal Building, 100 Centennial Mall North, Lincoln, NE 68508; phone 402-437-5082)

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e-mail: pphillip@fhsu.edu

irc staff 11/13/97 (updated kn 06/18/99)
Disclaimer

A.	We are always looking for opportunities to use water wisely. The Reeves Cattle Company of Garden City, Kansas, is an example of a unique use of the Ogallala Aquifer water by reusing the resource several times before it is placed back on the land as irrigation water.
B.	Hand out written instructions to each group of students, however you have divided them, in groups of five would work. Let students read instructions.
C.	Assign groups to draw a different picture at their tables before explaining what activities or steps are involved as the Reeves Cattle Company recycles their water.
D.	Have a bulletin board ready with recycle symbols (curved arrows).
E.	Written instructions for Group 1: Each student in your group should draw a picture on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper showing a large sign reading: Reeves Cattle Co., Garden City, KS. Make your picture look like a ranch-style gate with the lettering overhead. Add a semi-truck driving through the gate carrying corn and another loaded with large round bales of alfalfa. Have the men waving to each other. Draw another semi-truck hauling milo up the road to the gate.
F.	Written instructions for Group 2: Each student should draw an overhead view of a large metal barn (leave roof open) with 5 large pools of water inside connected with pipes. Have the last pool draining into a large outdoor pond by a pipe. Draw and color white and brown fish in each pool, minnows to increasingly larger fish as the pools are connected in the barn to the pond. Write the word "talapia" on a sign on the front of the barn. Draw a man selling sacks of fresh fish outside the barn door to a line of customers.
G.	Written instructions for Group 3: Each student should draw a greenhouse-like structure with a water pipe connected, going in at one end of the building and exiting out the opposite end, emptying into an outdoor pond. Draw heaping bushel baskets of red tomatoes being loaded into a semi-truck in front of the building using a forklift.
H.	Written instructions for Group 4: Each student should draw a picture of a refinery-type complex that has 2 storage tanks, 2 cooling towers, pipes to connect all the tanks and towers, plus an office building and central computer-control room. Draw what looks like 4 railroad tanker cars half-buried in the ground next to the refinery. Have workers emptying a large grain-hauling truck into an underground storage bin in front of the refinery. Use colored pencils to add depth and perspective.
I.	Written instructions for Group 5: Each student should draw a layout for a feedlot. Show the fencing for the cattle pens, feeding troughs, grain-storage silos, and watering tanks. Show a truck filling the feeding troughs with warm, steaming ground corn and alfalfa. Draw cattle eating at the troughs.
J.	Have each group, as they finish their artwork, number off 1 to 5. All 1s go to a table, and all 2s to another, etc. Have the new groups, which should have one each of the drawings, brainstorm to see if they can put the recycling steps in a logical sequence. When a table thinks it has figured out the sequence, have them raise their hands. That table may tape their sequence up on the board using the "recycling" arrows to complete their poster of what happens first to last as the water is reused by the cattle company. Differences of opinion? Have the groups discuss their theories and defend their ideas.
K.	Show the film from Sunflower Journeys to the class
L.	Discussion and revision of their theories can follow the film, as well as possible suggestions as to the next reuse of the water by the Reeves Cattle Company. This activity should bring high participation by the students using inductive reasoning from the students. Learning takes place using visual, aural, oral, and kinesthetic tactual channels.

a.	The students should be able to explain in a short essay or paragraph the importance of recycling the water of the Ogallala Aquifer and the steps the Reeves Cattle Company uses to achieve their goal of conservation of a natural resource.
b.	The student should be able to define the key vocabulary terms used in this lesson and pass an objective test over the information.
c.	The student should be able to add another logical step to the recycled water and explain his theory with a drawing or in a paragraph.