Module 1 - Utah's Rivers at a Crossroads - Save Our Water!

  • Introduction
  • Curriculum Map
  • Lesson Plan
  • Arts Integration Project
  • Dig Deeper
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Zach Frankel narrows it down to the one important culprit of water overuse in Utah, and it isn't laundry. In his quest to ensure a future of healthy lakes and rivers, he calls us to action, putting the solution in our hands and laying out the consequences if we continue unsustainable and wasteful practices with this precious resource, our water!
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
  1. How can we use empirical evidence to demonstrate that changes in the ecosystem affect populations?
  2. What technical and other solutions can we use to reduce impacts of human activities on natural systems?
  3. How can we use art to communicate important issues?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
  1. Generate questions to learn more about water use
  2. Interpret data to demonstrate the effects of resource availability on populations of organisms in an ecosystem
  3. Make predictions and gather details based on data and text
  4. Address an environmental issue through articulating the problem, causes and solutions
  5. Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool
  6. Collaborate and engage in project based learning
  7. Employ and express how art and design can be a solution to an issue
  8. Incorporate multiple perspectives to provide meaningful feedback on peers' creative work

MATERIALS


Graphic Organizer:
Word Wise About Water Wise

Suggested Reading:
1. Red Butte: Water Wise Gardening
2. Wasatch Front Drought-Tolerant Native Plants
3. Utah Native Plant Society

For Arts Integration Project:
Smartscape Garden Plot Project Handouts and Samples
1. Plot Blueprint
2. Plot Impressions

Contact a Consultant for Project:
Lynsey Nielson - Lead Horticulturist lynsey.nielson@redbutte.utah.edu
Red Butte Garden & Arboretum
LEARNING OUTLINE:
This module is organized around the Utah's Rivers at a Crossroads video presentation by Zach Frankel. It can be use as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows.
  • 15 minutes:  Launch Activity - Pre-viewing - Exploring How We Use Water
  • 15 minutes:  While viewing - Learning About Water Use and Consumption Across the Nation
  • 30 minutes:  Post-viewing - Synthesizing and Visualizing - Tapping into the Issue and Solutions
  • 60 minutes:  Demonstration - Becoming Water Wise and Learning About Smartscaping
  • 60 minutes:  Making Connections - Arts Integration Project - Designing your Smartscaped Garden Plot
STANDARDS TARGETED THROUGHOUT CURRICULUM
LAUNCH ACTIVITY - PRE-VIEWING:  Exploring How We Use Water
[15 minutes]
[Learning Objective 1]
Procedures:
  1. Topic:  Exploring water use, waste, and how we can design solutions. This module presents a local water conservationist who details specifically how we use water in Utah, resulting in our label as the #1 highest public consumer of water, per capita, in our nation.
  2. Group students in breakout rooms for a brainstorming session on how they use water.
    1. How do you recreate on water?
    2. What are some of your favorite places to enjoy water?
    3. What do you think uses up the most water in your household?
    4. How do you think your household wastes water?
    5. Do you try to conserve water? If so, how?
  3. Invite a few group representatives to share.
  4. Prior to viewing the video, ask students, "Why might thinking about our water use be important?"
WHILE VIEWING:  Learning About Water Use and Consumption Across the Nation
[15 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 2, 3, 5]
Procedures:
  1. Tell students: As you watch the video, Utah's Rivers at a Crossroads (6:41 minutes) reflect on the following questions and jot down some answers for our post-viewing discussion:
    1. What is Zach's central message?
    2. How does this apply to you?
    3. What did you find most surprising or interesting?
  2. Play Utah's Rivers at a Crossroads video (It is the first video included at the top of this page), pausing as appropriate for students to jot down answers to the questions.
  3. Have students share their responses either by typing in the chat room or as a class discussion.
POST-VIEWING:  Synthesizing and Visualizing - Tapping into the Issue and Solutions
[30 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 3, 4, 6, 8]
Procedures:
  1. Have students sketch a tree that fills an 8.5" x 11" sized paper. Have them include roots, a trunk, and branches. Higher Tech Option: Use Jamboard. (Jamboard is an application in the Google platform. It acts as a virtual whiteboard where you can draw, write and collaborate.)
  2. Tell them that they will use their tree diagram to represent what they learned in Zach's presentation. On the trunk they will state the problem; the roots are issues contributing to the problem; and the branches are the solutions.
  3. In Jamboard, Zoom breakout rooms, or by pinning their design to a board you create in Padlet, have students share, and compare their trees. Next have them merge their trees by having one student draw a group tree that incorporates aspects of each student's tree and represents a group consensus on the problem, issues contributing to the problem and possible solutions.
DEMONSTRATION:  Becoming Water Wise and Learning About Smartscaping
[60 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 3, 4, 8]
Procedures:
  1. As a class, and based on their tree diagrams, discuss:
    1. The main issue (tree trunk) - we are using and wasting too much water.
    2. Issues contributing to the problem (roots) - watering individual grass lawns uses too much water; farmers are wasting water with old irrigation equipment and growing crops that need a lot of water like alfalfa.
    3. Solutions (branches) - replace grass lawns with something more sustainable (have them come up with ideas of what that could be); new irrigation practices; growing water-wise crops; starting an eating less meat campaign, etc.
  2. Tell students that we are going to focus on how to conserve water in our cities by finding solutions to reduce water use on our lawns. Ask them if they have ever heard of xeriscaping? Other terms commonly used for this are "water-conserving landscapes" or "smartscaping."
    Explain that this type of landscaping or gardening reduces the need for water from irrigation. The principles of smartscaping are to:
    1. Create a plan or design (according to site conditions, exposures and use)
    2. Make appropriate soil improvements
    3. Incorporate low-water-use plants
    4. Use mulch (a layer of hay, shredded bark, wood chips, etc. to conserve soil moisture)
    5. Exercise proper maintenance
  3. Tell students, in order to make "smart" landscape and gardening design choices, it is first important to understand the difference between the terms "water-wise", "drought-tolerant", "native" and "xeric" - words often used interchangeably but they are very different. Tell students they will read the following article and use it to fill out the first two sections in the graphic organizer.
  4. "Section 3" in the graphic organizer asks students to create a list of eight plants that they should choose for their water-wise garden. Have students read up on Utah plants using the following links. Select and list plants you would incorporate in a plot along the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake and outlying areas). Be able to defend your choices.*
    1. Wasatch Front Drought-Tolerant Native Plants - This plant this was put together by the lead horticulturist at Red Butte Gardens, Lynsey Nielson. It includes trees, shrubs and succulents (plants (like a cactus) with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions); grasses and forbs (an herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass).
    2. Utah Native Plant Society - This site contains a list of Utah native shrubs, grasses, and flowers with descriptions, cultural information and pictures, meant to guide people in water-wise landscaping.
      *Note - you can have them research other sites as well and cite the sources.
  5. Pair-Share-Compare:
    1. Pair - Put students in pairs in breakout rooms
    2. Share - Have each of them present Section 3 of their graphic organizer to each other, explaining their plant choice. For example, "not only is this plant very low-water use but it also produces berries to eat" or "this plant would add great color to the garden plot and doesn't take up much room" or "bees and other pollinators love this plant and so though it is pretty big, it would be a good use of space."
    3. Compare - Did they select similar plants? What were the similarities and differences in their reason for choosing the plants? What can they add to their list based on what they learned from their partner?
MAKING CONNECTIONS:  Designing your Smartscaped Garden Plot
[60 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 3, 4, 6, 7, 8]
Procedures:
  1. Put students into groups of 3-4 people. Provide each group with two "blank_plot_sketch" handouts. Tell them that they have been hired to "smartscape" or "xeriscape" a 10 x 10 square foot plot along the Wasatch Front that was once grass, but the owner wants to reduce water use. As horticulturists and landscape designers you will decide which plants you will incorporate in your plot and you will design the layout to both lower water use and create something beautiful.
  2. Show students the "smartscape garden plot project samples":
    1. Plot Blueprint - This simpler 2-D sketch is your road map. Each plant, cluster of plants, and hardscape feature is drawn roughly to proportion, color coded and labeled to help you remember all the names of the trees, shrubs, succulents and forbs you planted so you can share this with your clients and keep track yourself.
    2. Plot Impressions - This grown plant plot sketch estimates how much room your plants will take up when full grown. Laying out this 3-D sketch also helps you figure out what looks and works best together. Have students label each plant and feature as seen in the example.
    3. Tell students it's their turn to design their 10 x 10 sq. ft. drought-tolerant garden plot. They can use plants from their list in their graphic organizer, but in order to follow the guidelines below they may need to add or subtract a few.
      1. Each group's smartscape project should include the two sketches:
        1. Plot blueprint - this sketch is an aerial view of the layout.
        2. Plot impression - this sketch is of what they foresee the plot looking like once mature.
      2. Pass them the following resource links to do more research and make their plot selections:
        1. Wasatch Front Drought-Tolerant Native Plants
        2. Utah Native Plant Society
        3. Landscaping on the New Frontier: Waterwise Design for the Intermountain West
      3. Review the garden plot guidelines:
        1. Choose at least one tree
        2. Choose at least one shrub
        3. The rest should be forbs
        4. Leave some space for pollinators
        5. Consider incorporating vegetable or fruit-bearing plants
        6. Hardscape elements and features (optional)
  3. Consider how each group of students can divide up roles:
    1. Horticulturalists: They do all the "softscape," so they do all the plant things, thinking about color, texture, heights, bloom times, and how best to create a good aesthetic.
      *Tip: Leave space for pollinator habitat. It's important to leave unmulched, unworked spaces in a garden for native ground dwelling bees. Leaving a bit of leaf litter in fall also provides butterfly overwintering habitat.
    2. Landscape Designers:  They do the hardscape, so they design the walkways, stones, borders and edges, water features, etc. They often also put together the blueprints, so in this case they might draw the "plot blueprint."
      *Note: These division of duties lines can sometimes blur in real life.
  4. ​Determine how they will share their work and give and receive peer feedback (see Assessment Strategies below)
ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES:  Art Exhibition, Interpretation, Feedback and Evaluation
  1. Have students share their garden smartscaped plot designs with each other. Discuss and encourage peer feedback on what each other has presented.
  2. Showcase student work. Options include:
    1. Zoom (breakout rooms)
    2. Canvas (discussion forums)
    3. Flipgrid (create and share student videos)
    4. Padlet (create a board where students can pin their work and leave comments for peers)
    5. Digital Video (create and share videos using digital storytelling software, e.g. Adobe Spark)
    6. Google Drive (use Google slides or a Google folder)
Invite students to "dig deeper" on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about water usage.

ARTICLES
VIDEOS
  • Every Drop Counts - Save Water! - A stop-motion animation with a message to save water by students from Rani Dutta Arya Vidyalaya as part of the Adobe Youth Voices Program, Delhi, India.

WEBSITES
  • Local extension services - Where you live affects how and when you grown plants. Most counties within the United States have an extension office of some type that works closely with gardening experts to provide information about choosing appropriate plants, vegetables, information about lawn care (including soil tests) or pest control tips in your local area. Because, it's important to know how to locate your local extension service so that you know where to go when you have questions about growing plants and your garden. Salt Lake County Extension Office
    Botanical gardens and many municipal water providers are great places to get more information. Many provide classes and other resources to help you create a sustainable garden.
  • Red Butte Garden for Teachers and Students - Red Butte Gardens education programs involve field classes, grow labs and professional horticulturalists who are available to answer any questions or help with planting and water conservation projects.
  • How to Conserve Water | National Geographic (2:48 minutes) - The U.S. could face a water shortage in a little over 50 years. See how Colorado College conserves water and how you can use these tips in your own life.

Module 2 - The Impact of Water Diversions, Dams and Pipelines on Communities and Wildlife

  • Introduction
  • Curriculum Map
  • Lesson Plan
  • Arts Integration Project
  • Dig Deeper
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In Utah, the Great Salt Lake has reached record low waterline levels and Lake Powell is drying up. The global rise in temperature certainly plays a role. But there is more to the story. Water diversions such as dams and pipeline projects, that aim to provide water to areas in need, also deplete our rivers and lakes. Understanding the pros and cons is essential to making decisions on whether we should dam our rivers and pipe water to communities far from the source. Zach Frankel presents a few water projects and potential consequences underway to meet community water demands, tempting us to consider what our true water needs are in face of these consequences.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
  1. What motivates people to make a positive change in the world?
  2. How does researching and studying a topic help us make better decisions?
  3. How can storytelling share knowledge and help us and others understand multiple points of view?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
  1. Access previous knowledge and ask questions about an important social issue that leads to making more informed decisions
  2. Research and contribute knowledge to better understand multiple sides of an issue
  3. Listen for and present details about how a water conservationist connects with people to raise awareness about water
  4. Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool
  5. Demonstrate the ability to present a perspective other than their own through writing and multimedia
  6. Use writing and multimedia storytelling to share knowledge and raise awareness
  7. Incorporate multiple perspectives to provide meaningful feedback on peers' creative work

MATERIALS


Graphic Organizer:
1. KWL Chart

Suggested Websites:
1. KQED Perspectives Media Challenge

Suggested Media Tools:
1. Soundtrap
2. Adobe Spark Video
3. Jamboard
4. SoundCloud

Suggested Resources:
1. Release Forms
LEARNING OUTLINE:
This unit is organized around the Impact of Water Diversions, Dams and Pipelines video presentation by Zach Frankel. It can be used as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows.
  1. 25 minutes:  Launch Activity - Pre-viewing - What Do We Know and Want to Know About Water Diversion?
  2. 15 minutes:   While viewing - Learning About the Impact of Water Diversions in the Western United States
  3. 35 minutes:  Post-viewing - Researching Multiple Perspectives on Water Diversions in the West
  4. 50 minutes:  Demonstration - Researching and Teaching Peers About Water Diversions and the Impact on People and Wildlife Across the World
  5. 30+ minutes:  Making Connections - Arts Integration Project - Presenting Perspectives Through Storytelling: Writing and Voicing a Story on the Impact of Water Diversion
STANDARDS TARGETED THROUGHOUT CURRICULUM
LAUNCH ACTIVITY - PRE-VIEWING:  What Do We Know and Want to Know About Water Diversion?
[25 minutes]
[Learning Objective 1]
Procedures:
  1. Topic:  Taking a close look at our rivers and dams across the nation to create a better understanding of how we are using our river water and whether we are making good decisions for the future.
  2. In this module we present a water love and conservationist, who for the past 20 years has worked as the Executive Director of the Utah Rivers Council. Zach Frankel steers our attention to a few water diversion projects that bear consequences and beg the question, how can we make solid decisions about whether to divert and dam our rivers to meet current water usage needs in communities?
  3. Pass students the link to the KWL chart. Invite students in small group breakout rooms to discuss and each fill in the '"K" - What I know about the topic' and '"W" - What I want to know about the topic' columns. Ensure students keep these charts so they can fill out the "L" column during the while-viewing section.
  4. While still in breakout rooms, have students do a collaborative drawing* of any dam in the U.S. If they have never seen one, have them imagine what this dam looks like and draw their vision. Tell them to label the river, and any mechanical aspects of the dam they know or can imagine, and also what it looks like downstream from the dam.
    *Have one student draw for the group and decide how you want to have them share their drawings.
WHILE VIEWING:  Learning About the Impact of Water Diversions in the Western United States
[15 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 2, 4]
Procedures:
  1. Play the Zach Frankel video - The Impact of Water Diversions:  Dams and Pipelines (It is the middle video at the top of this page.) Have students fill in the '"L"  - What I learned' column of their KWL chart as they watch the video.
  2. Pause as appropriate for students to take notes.
  3. Did the video answer some of the what they had in their 'What I want to know' column? Tell them to keep those questions in mind as they do their own research later in the lesson.
POST-VIEWING:  Researching Multiple Perspectives on Water Diversions in the West
[35 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 2, 3, 5]
Procedures:
  1. Review the water diversion projects Zach mentioned in his presentation - 
    1. The Bear River Diversion - One of the largest new river diversions in North America. The proposal is to divert the Bear River upstream of the Great Salt Lake for municipal water use. The issue is the Great Salt Lake would lose its main water source and tens of thousands of acres of wetlands and impact millions of birds and other wildlife.
    2. Lake Powell Pipeline - A proposed 140-mile and 70-inch diameter pipeline to run from Lake Powell (a reservoir made by the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River) to a reservoir near St. George in Washington County. It is slated to carry around 77 million gallons a day to several communities in Washington County.
  2. Put students in pairs and ask each pair to choose one of the two water diversion projects listed above that they will look further into. Have students make a T-chart either collaborating on Jamboard or on a piece of paper. Write the water diversion project at the top and title the left column "pros" and the right column "cons." Have students research the water diversion project online and fill in the T-chart, noting arguments and who is "for" and "against" the project. Encourage them to get as many perspectives as possible (farmers, recreationists, environmentalists, fish, birds, property developers, legislators, etc.)
  3. Discuss as a class. Have volunteers share their research. Ask them what gathering these different perspectives did for their grasp of the issue.
    1. How is the issue complicated?
    2. Can you think of a compromise or alternative that would appease all involved and affected?
DEMONSTRATION:  Researching and Teaching Peers About Water Diversions and the Impact on People and Wildlife Across the World
[50 minutes]
[Learning Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4]
Procedures:
  1. Tell students they will embark on a personal research project on a water diversion project in the U.S. or internationally to broaden their knowledge of what is happening with our national and global bodies of water. They will present their research to the class either with Google or PowerPoint slides or in a short film using Adobe Spark Studio (this is very easy web-based software and has a built in tutorial to help students navigate the movie making process.)
  2. Present some U.S. options: The Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia River Basin Project, Glen Canyon Dam
  3. Research should include:
    1. The geographic region where the water diversion exists
    2. Some water statistics and facts (when it was built, how much water was diverted, from where, etc.)
    3. What are the impacts of this water diversion? (Address communities, nature and wildlife affected)
    4. Photos of the water diversion
  4. Have students present their projects to the class.
MAKING CONNECTIONS:  Presenting Perspectives Through Storytelling:  Writing and Voicing a Story on the Impact of Water Diversion
[30+ minutes (time to lay out the project, work will happen outside of class or in another session)]
[Learning Objectives 3, 5, 6, 7]
Procedures:
  1. Tell students they will write a story about how a water diversion project (dam or pipeline) either positively or negatively affected someone. The story can be from your perspective, or someone or something else (farmer, regular community member, recreator, legislator. real estate developer, fish, bird, other wildlife, plant, etc.) The story should include factual information about the water diversion and students should use vivid and precise language and word choice that brings the story to life. let them know that they will then record themselves voicing their story.
  2. Provide students with the following project parameters:
    1. The script needs to be 350-375 words (about 3/4 of a page) and should include something personal - how you connect to this story, or be told from the perspective of someone that is affected by the project.
    2. The final audio is 1-2 minutes long.
    3. The audio is recorded in a quiet space. (You can use a voice recording app on a phone.)
    4. The audio should be edited for clarity and smoothness. A great web-based audio recording/editing tool for this is Soundtrap. This is a great option if you're using Chromebook.
  3. Students can submit the story to the KQED Perspectives Media Challenge so their story can be heard across the nation. Other options are to share their stories by creating a SoundCloud site or any other podcast hosting sites.*
    *Note:  If you are posting their voiced stories to a public website, remember to get signed release forms from their parents. KQED has them on their website, or use this general release form if posting to any other public website.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES:  Art Exhibition, Interpretation, Feedback and Evaluation
  1. Have students share their work with each other. Discuss what they learn about water diversions and the value of exploring these from different perspectives.
  2. Showcase student work. Options include:
    1. Zoom (breakout rooms)
    2. Canvas (discussion forums)
    3. Flipgrid (create and share student audio stories)
    4. Padlet (create a board where students can pin their work and leave comments for peers)
    5. Soundcloud (create a class soundcloud page and post audio stories)
    6. Digital Video (create and share videos using digital storytelling software, e.g. Adobe Spark)
    7. Google Drive (use Google slides or a Google folder)
WEBSITE:
  • The Bear River Diversion - The Utah River Council's webpage on the Bear River Diversion project and how to get involved.

TEACHER LESSON:
  • Down by the River - In this lesson, the teacher administers an assessment probe to activate students' prior knowledge about how moving water (rivers) change the surface of the Earth. The results of this probe can be used to guide instruction to address misconceptions and gaps in understanding. The real life application of which side of the river should you build your house, stimulates students' interest in the erosion and deposition of sediment that may modify the landscape.

TED TALK:
  • Why Lakes and Rivers Should Have the Same Rights as Humans - Water is essential to life. Yet in the eyes of the law, it remains largely unprotected - leaving many communities without access to safe drinking water, says legal scholar Kelsey Leonard. In this powerful talk, she shows why granting lakes and rivers legal "personhood" - giving them the same legal rights as humans - is the first step to protecting our bodies of water and fundamentally transforming how we value this vital resource.

VIDEOS:
  • The Colorado River: Running Near Empty - This video follows the course of the Colorado River and shows the impact of water diversion on the river. McBride, a Colorado native, documents how increasing water demands have transformed the river that is the lifeblood for an arid Southwest.
  • Preserving Europe's Last Undammed Rivers - A film by the outdoor company Patagonia - the Blue Heart campaign succeeded in stopping hydropower development on Europe's greatest undammed river, the Vjosa.
  • When the Water Ends: Africa's Climate Conflicts - This short article and video discuss the effects of drought and dwindling water resources on nomadic people in Africa. Source:  Environment 360
  • Measuring the Migration of River Networks - This video discusses a mapping technique that measures how much a river network is changing, and in what direction it may be moving. MIT News.