Give Them Power
Steven Sakaguchi
Howard Wi/son School
Leavenworth, Kansas

Overview:

The purpose of this activity is to help students understand, protect, and manage wisely an important resource the state's ground water. About one-half of all Kansans depend on ground water for their domestic supplies 85% of the total water used in the state is ground water. Students will also learn about the Ogallala Aquifer and alluvial aquifers, in which the ground water is stored. Finally, students will create new ways to recycle some of the used ground water.

 

Grade Levels: Grades 3-8

 

Time Needed: 3-5 one-hour periods

 

Geographic Themes:

Location, Place, Change, Movement, and 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 local school and community, Kansas, the United States, and different nations in the world.

 

National Geographic Standards, Grades 5-8:

#16	The geographically informed person understands changes in the meaning, distribution, and importance of resources.

 

Outcome:

Students will know the meaning and role of resources; the types and characteristics of resources; and the distribution of resources.

 

Performance Objectives:

1. Students, in a cooperative group, will construct a one-dimensional model of a power plant providing service to a community.
2. Students will construct a miniature model of an aquifer.
3. Students will construct a one-dimensional model of a watershed.


Vocabulary (see Glossary):


Watershed	First-in-time, first-in-right	Acre foot of water
Ogallala Aquifer	Riparian rights	Ground water depletion
Alluvial aquifer	Senior rights	Recharge
Kansas Water Appropriations Act	Junior rights




Materials:


Markers	Overhead projector
Transparencies	10-ounce clear plastic cups (one for each student)
Large tagboard (36" x 36")	Stones, sponges, gravel, soil and vegetation
White construction paper

 

Procedures:

Day 1:

Step 1: Discuss with students. What is a watershed? Brainstorm as many ideas as possible and write them on the chalkboard. Then have students draw what they think a watershed is on a large piece on construction paper. Step 2: Show students a picture or transparency of a watershed. Discuss the difference between what students thought and what it is. Step 3: Give each student another piece of construction paper and create another watershed. Have students add a power plant, farm houses, fields and a small town, to include several businesses that use lots of water to produce their products.   Questions to ask students: Why did you place the town in that location? the power plant? the farms? Where would you build your own home? Why?   Information for the Teacher: How do watersheds work? The landscape is made up of many interconnecting basins or watersheds. Within each watershed, all water runs to the lowest point - a stream, river, or lake. On its way, water travels over the surface and across farm fields, forest land, suburban lawns, city streets, or it seeps into the soil and travels as ground water. Large watersheds like the ones for the Mississippi River, Columbia River and Chesapeake Bay are made up of many smaller watersheds across several states.   Are all watersheds the same? Not at all. Watersheds come in many different shapes and sizes and have many different features. Watersheds can have hills or mountains or be nearly flat. They can have farmland, rangeland, small towns and big cities. Parts of your watershed can be rough, rocky, or marshy. That is, suited only for certain trees, plants and wildlife.   Your watershed community - everyone lives in a watershed. You and everyone in your watershed are part of the watershed community. That includes animals, fish and birds. You influence what happens to your watershed good or bad. What happens in your watershed affects the larger watershed downstream.

Day 2:

Step 1: Discuss with students the Ogallala Aquifer and alluvial aquifer. Step 2: Make a mini-aquifer. In a 10-ounce clear plastic cup, arrange the following in order: stones, bits of sponges, gravel, soil, and vegetation. Slowly add water until it collects up to the gravel. How is the water distributed in your aquifer? How would changing the size of the rocks change the volume of water the aquifer holds? Step 3: Demonstrate the water-holding capacity of an aquifer. Fill three identical glasses: one with gravel, one with coarse sand and the last with soil. The sample materials must be dry. Add red food dye to a supply of water, then add an equal volume of the water to each glass. Observe what occurs. Does the water soak into the various materials at the same rate? Does the "water table" come to the same level in all three glasses? If not, determine which water table is the lowest. What does this indicate about the water-holding capacity of the materials? (The lower resulting water table, the greater the water-holding capacity of that material.)   Teacher information: Despite low rainfall, the land of the High Plains is a rich agricultural region thanks to the quadrillion gallons of water pumped to the fields from the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer lies only a foot or two under the surface in some places and as deep as 1,300 feet in others.   In the 1950's, when heavy pumping began, the Ogallala seemed like an endless source of fresh water. But it is now being emptied in places much faster than it is being naturally replenished (ground water depletion recharge).   Farmers are now using innovative ideas to save the groundwater.   Fact: The Ogallala Aquifer holds enough water underground to fill Lake Huron.

 

Days 3-4:

Step 1: Discuss the Kansas Handbook of Water Rights a. Vested rights, senior tights, junior rights, riparian rights, first-in-time, first-in-right, and the Kansas Water Appropriation Act. b. Have students write a letter to the Division of Water Resources (refer to Handbook) for the right to draw underground water because they are going to build an electric power plant. c. When students justify their use of water, the teacher gives each student a teacher-created permit. d. Now that students have a permit, they have to find a watershed area in Southwest Kansas to put up their power plant. Question: Where are they going to get their water? What would they do if the people in the area oppose the building of a power plant? e. In cooperative groups of 3-4 students, provide each group with a large tagboard (36" x 36"). f. Each group will draw the Electric Power Plant in the middle of the paper (Encyclopedia is a good reference to use at this time). Draw a town on the left and right side of the paper. Draw farm houses and fields in all the other areas. Color the drawing. (Students may use the watershed drawing they created earlier.) g. Problem Solving They are drawing a lot of water from the aquifer in order to produce enough electricity for all. On the other hand, during a drought, farmers need a lot of water for their crops. Name 3 ways farmers can obtain water for their crops. Name 3 ways the Electric Company can conserve water Name 3 ways the Electric Company can recycle the water.

Extension to the Activity:

1. Discuss in more detail about supply and demand.
2. Discuss in more detail about wants and needs.
3. As the community grows, do you expand the power generating capacity of your power plant?
4. If your power plant has Junior Rights to the farmers in the surrounding area, could you expand the power plant?
5. Make a working model of an electric power plant.

Power Plant Model

Materials Needed:
20-gauge wire (red and black)
One AAA penlight battery
Ten LED lights
One toggle switch
Twelve skewer bamboo sticks for telephone poles
Eight small blocks of wood
Two large blocks of wood
One one-half-inch dowel
One 2" x 4" quarter-inch plywood
Drill

 

Procedures:

1. Glue one large block of wood and a dowel 6" long on left side of board.
2. Glue large block of wood on top center to indicate a beef-packing plant.
3. Glue six blocks on right side to create a small town.
4. Glue remaining blocks at random on the board to indicate farm houses.
5. Cut skewer sticks to make telephone poles.
6. Drill two one-eighth-inch holes on top of power plant.
7. Drill 7/16" holes on top of buildings to place the LED lights.
8. Place toggle switch on right side of power plant.
9. Connect wires to poles and lights.
10. Refer to diagram.
11. Color your model.

Assessment:

1.	Participation in acquifer construction.	50 points
2. & 3.	Participation in power plant and watershed construction.	50 points
	Poster Project: Creativity Neatness Content	20 points 20 points 20 points
	Teamwork: Contributed to ideas Sharing Showed consideration toward others	20 points 10 points 10 points
	Total	200 points

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References:

• Buchanan, R., & Buddemeier, R. (1993). Kansas ground water (educational Series #10). Lawrence, KS: Kansas Geological Survey.
• Coe, D. K. (1994). Southwest Kansas groundwater management district water quality.
• Division of Water Resources. (n.d.). Kansas handbook of water rights. Topeka, KS: Kansas Department of Agriculture.
• Division of Water Resources. (n.d.). What is a watershed? U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• Kansas Geological Survey. (n.d.). Climate and weather atlas of Kansas: An introduction educational Series #12). Lawrence, KS: Author.
• Kansas State University. (1994). Conserving water in the High Plains. Manhattan, KS: Author.
• Kromm, D. E., & White, 5. (1990). Conserving water in the High Plains. Manhattan, KS: Kansas State University.
• National Geographic Society. (1993). Water matters: Everyday. everywhere. Author.

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