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WHAT
IF: We had less water?
Summary: In this activity students consider the
typical requirements on a water supply, and use the What-If Builder
to develop options.
Introduction:
Huge numbers of people
on Earth have no access to reliably clean drinking water. Many
emergencies (e.g. earthquakes, droughts, floods, wars) endanger
water supplies. During severe droughts in western India, for
example, the government was forced to bring drinking water to
rural areas by railway. During droughts in Africa, relief agencies
have had to send in tankers of water to starving refugees.
As population rises, more and more
people will face acute shortages in fresh water. Rivers, often
making a boundary between countries, are frequently shared between
two or more countries, and are more likely to become places of
dispute. When populations rise, and people become more desperate
for water, they are likely to become less inclined to share with
their neighbors downstream. Each one of us should have a beginning
understanding of this situation.
Materials:
Download the latest version
of the What-If
Builder. This software has its own HELP pages. Be aware:
the What If Builder is prototype software; it is in development,
and your feedback is helpful.
Classroom Management:
In this activity, you can
have teams build independent stories and merge them together.
Classes can address one, two or more of the themes below.
The II themes are more complex, involving two countries. Working
with small teams may facilitate the work.
If the What-If Builder was not used with the class in Unit I,
the teacher might work through the process of writing a sample
story (several are included in the software) up on a projector
with the whole class watching and making suggestions.
Activity Steps:
Step 1: Assign a thread to each
team:
I. What if your water use has
to be reduced? What uses
will you have to reduce?
What
if, because of climate change, your water supply dried up
to a quarter of your present level?
What if the number doubled
of people wanting water in your own neighborhood?
What if a team of water
scientists found out that part of your water supply was polluted?
II. How can your water be shared?
What uses will you have
to reduce? How do you feel about this? Discuss the understanding
that although the water LOOKS as though it is in your land, in
reality it moves all the time and is shared and even is needed
by your neighbor.
What
if the upstream country next door had a population doubling,
and your population stayed the same, and your neighbor needed
more of your shared water. [Remember; water flows downhill!]
What
if you had a population doubling and the downstream country kept its population the same.
What would happen to the water distribution?
Make
up another story
Step 2. Consider your choices,
and the outcomes of your choices. Write them on the tree
diagram.
Step 3. Export your stories
AS FILES and join them together by importing them into the What-If
Builder. Print out the
completed version for students to read. Students can color pictures
that can be entered into the What If Builder. You might also
vote on the five best pictures in class and attach those in the
room for Water
Scarcity Drawings in the
COMMON's.
Step 4. Attach your combined
stories to the document room "What-If
Water Stories" in the Commons of the LUV neighborhood. There they can be downloaded and imported
into thhe stories made by other classrooms.
Step 5. Check for and download
any stories by other classes several weeks later. Discuss any
significant differences in the stories.
Extensions:
You could also use the What-If Builder
to address the question: What if we had TOO MUCH water?
Consider challenges faced by countries such as Bangladesh and
the Netherlands. Consider, in addition, the fate of small islands
facing global warming, with the prospect of sea rise .
Further References:
Donella Meadows column: Whom
do we blame when world dries up?
shttp://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/drought.html
Sustaining
Water: Population and the
Future of Sustainable Water Supplies
Projections for China
and India http://www.cnie.org/pop/pai/image7.html
See the
case of Libya.; the story
of the Colorado
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