Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A. Introduce topic

Briefly introduce your students to the concept of Australia being the driest inhabited continent.

Discuss with them how, in such a dry place, water is extremely precious and that many ecosystems that already are stressed from lack of water are also under threat of pollution. All of us living within water catchments contribute directly or indirectly, significantly or not so significantly to the degradation of our waterways, often without realising the relationships and impacts that humans make.

Part B. Key words

Following this, briefly discuss the meanings of some of the key words that will be raised in this activity. These words may include some or all of the following: pollution, pollutants, catchment, pesticides, fertiliser, tannery, storm water, run-off. Once students have an understanding of the meaning of the key words that will be a part of this activity, you can begin the story of our river.

Students can work in pairs or small groups throughout the activity to analyse and rank the significance of different causes of water pollution based on their own experiences and knowledge of the various causes of water pollution.

Which types of water pollution do they think are the worst and will have the most impact? Why?
Which ones will have the least impact? Why?

Ask them to record their thoughts for a class discussion at the end of the activity, during which you can identify the issues that may exist in your own catchment.

Part C. Begin the story of our river

Place your clear container of water centrally in the room, explaining that it represents our river.

Designate students to a labeled container, keeping all the containers at the front of the room. Students will get up and empty their designated container into the bowl during the story. When their ‘character’ appears then they can pour the contents of the canister into the ‘river’.

Read out the story of our river to the class (on the Student Worksheet). Read it in a dramatic way, stopping when a ‘character’ is mentioned. Remind students to come forward and empty the contents of their canister into the water when a ‘character’ is read out. Each ‘character’ or land use is highlighted in the story so that you will be reminded when a character should be added to the water.

Encourage students to comment about the pollution and condition of the water as you read the story.

Part D. Debrief

Explain there are laws that make sure that activities like coal mining, power stations, industry and piggeries have to control their pollution. It is much harder to control pollution from many farming activities, subdivisions and gardens.

There is still a lot of water pollution. A lot of it comes from the land and is washed into rivers after rain. Often the sources of water pollution are:

Leaks from home sewerage tanks
Dog droppings washed from the roads, footpaths and gardens
Accidents by industry
Illegal dumping of chemicals
Farming activities, such as fertiliser used on the land and washed away
Oil dripping from cars
People causing litter
People washing chemicals like paint and fertiliser down drains.

Tanneries were once a major source of water pollution but they have had to clean up their act.

Part E. Clean up your act

Starting with the list above of common ways rivers are polluted, work out how people living in homes can pollute rivers and other waterways.

What can students do to help prevent polluting substances reaching rivers and other waterways?

Provide students a card about the size of a post card. Students write on the card ‘Clean up your act.’ They write and draw an illustration on the card to explain one thing we can all do to prevent waterways becoming polluted.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to complete the following statements:

What I used to think...
What I now think...

Students can team up with a classmate to share their ideas.

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?

Story Of A River - Preparation Instructions

For this activity, you will need:

16 small equal size containers e.g., test tubes, new pill jars (purchased from chemist), film canisters (available from most photo labs)
Labels for labelling canisters (use the ones we have provided or create your own)
One clear container such as a punch bowl or small fish tank filled with water (about 4 or 5 litre capacity)

There are 16 land uses (characters) identified in this activity story. You can adapt this number to suit the size of your group (e.g., each land use could be assigned to two people, some uses could be omitted or more than one allocated per participant). Some land uses could be omitted if they are not relevant to your catchment.

Labels for canisters (or use the labels we have provided - see sheet at the end of teacher worksheet)

Power station
Grazing land
Water skiing
Gardens
Herd of cattle
Coalmine
Roads
Farming country
Hobby farms
Tourism
Industry
Piggery
Fishing
Subdivision
Tannery

Prepare one labeled film canister for each participant. Fill with substances and quantities listed in the table on next page. Photocopy the ‘labels’ and cut and tape a label to each canister.

Ingredients for canisters

Land use	Substance	Quantity/condition
Power station	Vinegar (acid rain)	1/2 canister
Herd of cattle	Thick muddy water	1/2 canister
Fertiliser	Baking powder (pesticide)	1/2 teaspoon
Piggery	Thick muddy water	1/2 canister
Grazing cattle	Salty water	1/2 teaspoon in full canister of water
Coal mine	Vinegar (acid run-off)	1/2 canister
Hobby farms	Yellow water/toilet paper	Full canister water with yellow food dye and small pieces of paper
Fishing	Tangle of line
Water skiing	Vegetable oil	1/2 teaspoon
Park	Styrofoam, plastic, etc
Tourism	Paper, plastic, etc
Subdivision	Soil	1/2 teaspoon
Gardens	Baking soda (pesticide)	1/2 teaspoon
Industry	Soap water (detergent)	1 drop detergent in full canister of water
Tannery	Food colouring (red) or beetroot juice	5 drops solution in full canister of water

Labels for canisters

Power Station	Grazing land	Water Skiing
Gardens	Piggery	Fishing
Grazing cattle	Subdivision	Hobby Farm
Coal mine	Tannery	Tourism
Park	Industry	Fertiliser

Story of a River

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