Teacher Preparation

Students will...

... investigate the water wastage at their school
... analyse and evaluate primary data
... begin to take responsibility for their personal water use.

Students can...

... participate in an experiment to test the water wastage at school
... draw conclusions and make recommendations based on results.

Teacher content information: Australia is one of the driest continents on Earth, yet we use more water per person than anyone else in the world! Australians use more than 1 million litres of fresh water per person each year. In an average Australian city, this means that the water we use every day in and around our homes would fill the equivalent of 1,000 Olympic swimming pools!

Households use about 44% of their total water inside the home, half of which is used in the shower. Conventional showers use an average of 12 litres of water per minute. Therefore, a person who has a daily 10-minute shower uses around 43, 800 litres of water each year. All of this water just ends up down the drain.

What can students do to save water?

Keep a timer in the shower
Reducing your shower to 3 minutes
Remind your parents to only use the dishwasher and washing machine for full loads
Turn off the tap while you are brushing your teeth.
Check if you have any taps leaking in your home and ask your parents to repair them
Leaking toilets are the most common leak and can waste 25 litres a day.

Suggested resources:

Schools Water Efficiency Program
How water-efficient is your school? (Sydney Water)
Tips for saving water

Teaching Sequence

Part 1. Leaky Tap Experiment

Step 1

Divide the class into small groups. Each group will be responsible for checking the taps in a particular part of the school. Some areas could be:

Taps in gardens and sports field areas
Bubblers
Toilets – girls and boys
Taps in classrooms
Kitchen/staff room

Step 2

In their groups, ask the students to discuss/ predict what might happen during their investigation, including any possible hazards/ risks they may encounter, and how the risks can be reduced.

Step 3

Students should record on their Student Worksheet how many taps are in their area and whether any are dripping.

Step 4

The next step is for the students to measure a dripping tap for one minute by collecting the drips in a container and timing it with a watch. They will also need to count the number of drops that fall in that minute.

Step 5

Students then bring their recorded information and container back to the classroom to measure the amount of water collected. This should be done in an accurate measuring beaker.

Part 2: Leaky Tap Experiment Analysis

Step 1

Create a totals table (something like the table on the worksheet) on a whiteboard, overhead projector or on a computer.

Step 2

Record each group’s results.

Step 3

Ask students to work out the following totals as written at the bottom of the worksheet, either individually or as a class:

Which tap would leak the most in a day (based on their results for one minute)?
How much water would leak?

Did You Know: A leaking tap can waste up to 30 litres a day and that equates to 10,950 litres a year!

Which tap would leak the least in a day (based on their results for one minute)?
How much water would leak?
What was the average amount lost by a leaking tap in one day (24 hours)?
Based on this, how much water would be lost in one week, month and year?
How much water would be wasted in one day if all the taps in the school were leaking?
How much is this in a year?

Step 4

Finally, as a class, collaboratively suggest and discuss improvements to the methods used in this investigation.

Reflection

Invite students to respond to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What did you find interesting or important about this activity?
What is still unclear or confusing for you? What questions do you still have?

Take It Further

Get students to think about the area where they collected their data. Students should research the following questions:

For what purpose is the water used?
What job or task is it completing?
How do people use the water to do the task?
How might some of the water be wasted while doing the task?
Are there any problems with the plumbing so water is being wasted?

Then students should write a tip about how to avoid wasting water while doing the task. Print the sign and put it up in the area.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Clean Up Australia - It's Just A Drop Experiment

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