Cool, Clear, Water

COOL, CLEAR, WATER

Betty Ruhlen
Northeast Kansas Education Service Center
Lecompton, Kansas

Overview:
This lesson will teach students how a farm stead should be managed so groundwater and wells will not be contaminated.

Grade level: 4-6

Time needed: 1-2 class periods

Outcome:
The student will understand how human activities affect quality of water.

Geographic Themes:
Environmental interactions, region

Kansas Social Studies Standards for Benchmarks:
The student will understand the connections among people, places, and environments in the local school and community, Kansas and its surrounding states, the U.S. and different nations in the world.

National Geography Standards:

#1 The geographically informed person knows and understands how maps and geographic representation, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

#14 The geographically informed person knows and understands how human actions modify the physical environment.

#18 The geographically informed person knows and understands how to apply geography and interpret the present and plan for the future.

Performance Objective:

The student will identify possible sources of contamination on a picture of a farm.
The student will present a drawing of a farm stead designed so that groundwater will not be contaminated.

Vocabulary:

contaminant surface water

septic system nitrates

leaching pesticides

groundwater pollutants

Materials Needed (Run off enough for each student in your class):

Picture of possible sources of groundwater contaminants (Figure 1)
Pictures of farm steads (from farm magazines, National Geographics, etc.)
Topographic map of Kansas (use the atlas of your choice)
Map of Kansas River Basins and Federal Lakes (Figure 2)
Map of Areas Served by Rural Water Districts (Figure 3)
Map of the Kansas-Lower Republican Basin (Figure 4)
Picture of terrain (Figure 5)

Procedures:
Before teaching this unit, the teacher should read Managing the Farmstead to Minimize Groundwater and Well Contamination, 1990.

1. Have students discuss the importance of clean drinking water.

2. Discuss where students’ homes get their drinking water.

3. Discuss what kinds of pollutants can get into groundwater.

4. Discuss where those pollutants come from.

5. Discuss how trees, grass, and other plants help to keep water clean, and how the vegetation and land forms in the Kansas-Lower Republican River Basin affect the quality of groundwater.

6. Hand out Figure 1. Have students identify and define possible sources of water contaminants: the septic system, fuel storage tanks, and livestock waste lagoon.

7. Guide them to notice that the tractor stands for possible pollution from fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; the silo stands for water contamination from abandoned household or irrigation wells; the house stands for household pollution such as cleaning agents, paints and preservatives, and lawn care products, among other things. Make sure they note how the water movement is always downhill.

8. Have students mark possible pollutants with red crayon or marker, and water supplies with blue.

9. Hand out magazines and/or pictures of farm steads. Have students each choose one to look at and mark any possible pollutant sites with red crayon or marker, and any possible water sources with blue. (Note: Not all pictures of farm steads will show obvious water supply sources.)

10. Show topographic map of Kansas; then compare that map with map of Kansas river Basins and Federal Lakes (Figure 2), map of Areas Served by Rural Water Districts (Figure 3), and map of Kansas-Lower Republican Basin (Figure 4).

11. Tell students that most people in Kansas get their water from groundwater instead of surface water. Ask them where they would like to locate a farm stead.

12. Hand out the picture of terrain (Figure 5). Have students design a farm stead on that terrain that would keep groundwater uncontaminated.

Assessments:

The student will identify possible sources of groundwater contaminants on a picture of a farm stead from a magazine.
The student will draw a farm stead design that will keep groundwater clean.

Extensions:

Students may show what they have learned by making a poster or a model of a farm stead design that will keep groundwater clean.
Students may write a descriptive paper about a farm stead design that will keep groundwater clean.
Students may do further research to find out methods to keep groundwater and surface water clean.

Resources:

Appendix to the Kansas water plan summary. Kansas Water Office. Topeka, KS: January 1997.
Lamond, R.E., Reghr, D. L., and Hickman, J.S. Managing the farm stead to minimize groundwater and well contamination. Cooperative Extensive Service, Manhattan, KS: Sept. 1990. #MF-948 Revised File Code: Engineering 4-5 (Water Quality).

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e-mail: pphillip@fhsu.edu

irc staff / jh 03/16/98 (updated kn 06/23/99)
Disclaimer

#1	The geographically informed person knows and understands how maps and geographic representation, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
#14	The geographically informed person knows and understands how human actions modify the physical environment.
#18	The geographically informed person knows and understands how to apply geography and interpret the present and plan for the future.

contaminant	surface water
septic system	nitrates
leaching	pesticides
groundwater	pollutants

1.	Have students discuss the importance of clean drinking water.
2.	Discuss where students’ homes get their drinking water.
3.	Discuss what kinds of pollutants can get into groundwater.
4.	Discuss where those pollutants come from.
5.	Discuss how trees, grass, and other plants help to keep water clean, and how the vegetation and land forms in the Kansas-Lower Republican River Basin affect the quality of groundwater.
6.	Hand out Figure 1. Have students identify and define possible sources of water contaminants: the septic system, fuel storage tanks, and livestock waste lagoon.
7.	Guide them to notice that the tractor stands for possible pollution from fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; the silo stands for water contamination from abandoned household or irrigation wells; the house stands for household pollution such as cleaning agents, paints and preservatives, and lawn care products, among other things. Make sure they note how the water movement is always downhill.
8.	Have students mark possible pollutants with red crayon or marker, and water supplies with blue.
9.	Hand out magazines and/or pictures of farm steads. Have students each choose one to look at and mark any possible pollutant sites with red crayon or marker, and any possible water sources with blue. (Note: Not all pictures of farm steads will show obvious water supply sources.)
10.	Show topographic map of Kansas; then compare that map with map of Kansas river Basins and Federal Lakes (Figure 2), map of Areas Served by Rural Water Districts (Figure 3), and map of Kansas-Lower Republican Basin (Figure 4).
11.	Tell students that most people in Kansas get their water from groundwater instead of surface water. Ask them where they would like to locate a farm stead.
12.	Hand out the picture of terrain (Figure 5). Have students design a farm stead on that terrain that would keep groundwater uncontaminated.