At the end of this unit, you will have uncovered the answers to:

Where does our water come from?

Where does the water we use go?

What things impact the quality of the water we drink?

How do I impact the quality of the water we drink?

How can my family and I improve the quality of the water we drink? Changes at home or at school.

How can we test water quality?

What organisms denote water quality?

How can we teach others and share what we know?

Learning INtention: To understand water systems.

Complete the 'Clouds of wonder' activity, answering:

clouds_of_wonder.pptx

1: Where does our drinking water come from?

2: Where does our water go after it goes down the drain?

3: What makes healthy or unhealthy water?

Attitudinal survey - Complete the online giving survey regarding your level of happiness. Also, finish these sentence starters:

1: Taking care of our water is...

2: Litter around Lake Tuggeranong is... because...

3: Clean drinking water is...

4: Using chemicals on my garden is...

5: A time I saved water was...

Writing sample - Individually write an information report about something you know about (e.g about an animal, country etc.). Include any information you think an information report would have.

Fig. 1: A Local Pond

Today we are going on an excursion where we will follow the water for a day. While we are on our excursion we will see where our drinking water comes from and what happens to it after it goes down the drain. You will have the opportunity to compare different sources of water and see how they turn drain water into drinking water.

Think-Pair-Share – What do you predict you will see on our excursion today? Think about what type of place would treat our water for drinking? What would they use to clean it? What kind of building or structure would it be in? How do you think they test water? Let’s record our ideas in a brainstorm.

Fig. 2: Aerial View of Corin Dam, Canberra, Australia

Today you are going to represent your learning from the excursion as a mind map. A mind map is a useful tool for representing ideas. You start with a central concept and branch off into different ideas about the topic. Each different section can be colour coded to help someone viewing your mind map see which ideas are related to each other. Mind maps can contain text or images.

If you choose to use images please try and have a small caption to fully explain what your diagram. Each time you take an idea branch and expand it as far as you can.

Let's create a word wall of subject specific words. Look at the meaning of the words, their origin and find synonyms for them. What other words do you expect will be important as we study water and living things?

Complete Mix-Pair-Share activity and discuss:"What is the urban water cycle?"

Water moves in cycles. This is constant. When water comes to us in the form of rain, or when you put water down the sink, it is all collected by the water catchment. From there it needs to be cleaned so it can become drinking water again.

As we learn more about this cycle and the processes involved, we will also aim to answer the questions: "What does the water cycle process involve?" "Where does the water from our drains go?" 'Where does our drinking water come from?" "What is involved in cleaning water so it's ready to drink again?"

Today you will work with a partner to use the Determining Importance reading strategy to research the urban water cycle. This reading strategy means you use subheadings and key words to locate the most important part of a text and record the main ideas. You do not rewrite the text word for word. Using the ACTEWAGL webpage and Determining Importance, you need to locate each of the terms associated with the water cycle and record their meaning and role in the process. You can work with a partner to discuss which parts of the text are most important and record these on your own water cycle sheet.

Now that you have all your information, square your partnership with another and share your findings, take any notes that you feel may be important that your pair may have missed. As a class let’s make a class display to show what we have learnt about the urban water cycle and each of the parts. Each pair will be responsible for designing, drawing and explaining one of the terms and processes within the cycle, then we’ll put it together to make a full display.

Now that we understand where our water comes from, we are going to investigate what happens when something goes wrong with our water supply. I is important that we understand this as healthy water is essential for maintaining life. So, how do we know when the water is healthy? What things are we looking for?

The people responsible for collecting data on water quality and taking care of our local waterways are the ACT Catchment Authority. They measure the pH, turbidity, salinity, electrical conductivity and a whole range of things related to the health of our waterways. We have been lucky enough to get some water testing equipment and access to a storm water drain to do our own testing. What we contribute as a group will work to give the Catchment Group and better understanding of water in the ACT and will be an important part of their data. Each week we will go out, test and report on our findings for our local water source.

When the water you have in your house comes out the tap, did you know it hasn't really come from far away at all? Our local water source is much closer than you think.

Where are the local water sources around our area? In groups brainstorm and record where your suburb gets its drinking water from and where it goes once its gone down the drain. Draw in all the local ponds, dams and lakes that you are aware of.

Watch this video clip. Have you seen it before? What do you think the impacts of these chemicals and products in our water system is? Have you seen this kind of rubbish in your local pond?

Today we are going to investigate the health of our local water source by completing a habitat survey. There are a number of things we will have to record including visible litter, animal life, plant life etc.

As you go through pay close attention to what you see, as the final score when we get back will let us know whether the site where our local water is stored looks happy and healthy.

When we test water there are specific things we are testing for:

• PH: this determines whether a liquid is an acid or a base. A neutral pH is 7, but a reading of 6 or 9 is ok. You dip the testing strip in the water and then compare the colour to the markings on the bottle to get your reading.
• Turbidity: this is the clarity of the water. Pour the water into the tube until you can no longer see the lines at the bottom. The desired reading for this is less than 10.
• EC levels: this is the electrical conductivity of the water. Dip the EC reader in the water and wait until the screen shows a reading.
• Nitrates and nitrites: use the strips in the water and compare to the markings on the bottle.
• Temperature: make sure you measure the temperature of the water in the middle of the water source, not from the shallow edges.

Today we are going to see what's in our local water, to ensure it's healthy water. We will be testing for a whole range of elements such as pH, salinity, clarity etc.

As we are going near water the expectations are that you collect a water sample and complete your testing away from the water's edge. We are also going to be using borrowed equipment, so it is important you use all equipment sensibly, with safety in mind.

Using your information and findings from your habitat survey, construct a group information report detailing your local waterway. Include information about the health of the waterway and information collected from the habitat survey. The subheadings on the survey sheet can act as ideas for subheadings for your observations. Remember to use objective language to describe the waterways' health.

Today we are going to use circle time to reflect on the things we saw when we visited the pond. You will need to use data collected from your water testing and habitat surveys to inform the decisions you make.

As a class and group you need to decide whether you were happy with the state of our local water course, remembering that Isabella pond is part of our drinking water catchment. you may have been happy with some elements, but you may identify some areas for improvement. Once you have identified areas that need to be rectified, do a round robin to contribute ideas about possible solutions. They may involve a clean up day, an ad campaign, a visit to Isabella Primary to spread the word about how to keep our water healthy, ways to help and change at your home and in your garden.

Share your responses with the class. Let's decide as a whole group what action/s we are going to take to give back to our drinking water to help keep ours and the community's drinking water safe and healthy.

Think back to the story The Giving Tree from the circle time. In the text who was the real winner in the end? The Boy who took everything, gave nothing in return and still remained unhappy? Or the Tree who gave and gave and all she wanted in return was some company and time?

Now, think back to our trip to the pond and the things that you saw there. Who are we in that situation and what is the pond? Are we like the selfish Boy? Do we mistreat our local water course that gives to us by forming part of our catchment? If that water forms part of the water we drink, the water we brush our teeth with, the water we use in our home and gardens, who wins and who loses if that water ends up dirty, contaminated and full or rubbish? Who wins if we can improve this water quality? What can we do as a group to give back?

Watch this videoclip. How do you look after your water at home? Do you make sure you don't put harmful chemicals and oils down the sink? Do you use environmentally friendly methods to care for your garden?

The things we do at home impact upon the water we drink. Your task is to go home and interview your family members about their water habits. Where you notice areas for improvement, you need to help your family by teaching them about their impacts on the water system and how they can improve the way they care for our local water.

Report back your findings to your teacher/class. Have your families' attitudes changed? Were you able to make improvements in your home?

Other than the composition of elements in the water, there are other signs which can indicate whether water is healthy. The amount of plant and insect/animal life also give us an indication of whether the water is good for sustaining and maintaining life. Some plant life indicates all is well with the water, whereas other forms of plant life e.g. The presence of Blue Green Algae in the water means not only that you should not swim, but that the water is potentially harmful.

Today you need to research the effects of plant life in the water system. Once you have completed your research, transfer your information into a report with PEC paragraphs about

• What is blue-green algae?
• When/where is blue-green algae found and what does it mean if it is found?
• How do you eradicate it from a water source?

There are many things that can indicate the heath of a water way. Living things rely on water to survive and can often provide us with a picture on how healthy our water is.

Let's go back to our water source and see what living things are in our water source. We can use the data from this testing to see if our water is as healthy as our initial tests revealed.

While on the excursion, record all insects seen using your bug classification chart and use the data on bugs to determine the health of the water. Identify which bugs indicate that a water source is healthy and which are linked to poor water quality.

What did your results show?

Do we live near a healthy water system?

Have you ever seen these before? Do you know what they mean? These are drain stencils which help spread the message of water conservation to members of the community.

Some members of the class who have participated enthusiastically in the water program so far will have the opportunity to go out into the community and paint these stencils onto drains to help remind people that only water should enter our water systems, not chemicals or litter.

Now we have learnt about water and how we can impact upon our water system, your next task is going to be to design a stencil to be placed on drains to remind people to be careful about the kinds of things they put down their drains. You may like to focus on a particular area such as chemicals on the garden, or in the home. Alternatively you may like to focus on the need to conserve water or not to littler. Whatever you choose, your message needs to be plain and simple so people get a clear message when they look at it.

LI - identify how poeple have changed from prehistoric cavemen to today

What do you know about the evolution of people? Can you draw how you think people have changed over time. Think back to the times of cavemen and draw a series of four pictures which show how we have come to look as we look today.

Share your pictures with a partner. Are there any similarities or differences. Share your most interesting observation with the class/your table group.

Over time all living things have grown and changed.

Charles Darwin was a man who first saw how some mutations in the growth of animals (e.g. hooked beak, longer neck/legs) enabled them to better survive in their environment so they were carried on in further generations. Whereas other mutations were detrimental to their health and so animals with those adaptations did not survive.

Write a paragraph describing how you think plants and animals have changed over time.

Word Study - Evolution: is any process of growth, change or development. The word stems from the Latin evolutio meaning "unfolding"

Over time plants, animals and humans have all evolved to better suit their environments and living conditions. Evolution has taken place over millions of years and is responsible for all the living things on Earth today. There are different views and theories about the origin of life and the evolutionary process.

Look at the pictures of the following animals. As a group write down the different features of each animals that enables it to survive in its environment.

Compare your list to the features of another group. Which features were the same/different?

Let's make a list of animal traits that ensure their survival in different conditions.

Before and after Darwin, many people have thought and tried to explain why certain animals are the way they are. In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture they used Dream Time stories to explain the features of animals around them. One author who thought deeply about the adaptions of animals was Rudyard Kipling. His Just So stories integrated fact and fiction to describe the features and adaptations of animals.

When you read the stories use the Text Investigator role to distinguish facts about animal adaptions from fiction. Think about why the author may have chosen to include some elements of fantasy.

Today animals have many interesting characteristics and habits which enable them to survive in a range of locations around the world. Even in the deepest darkest depths of the ocean there are animals living with amazing adaptions that help them to survive.

When animals adapt to their environments they can do so in three different ways:

1. Anatomical - Structures of the body.
2. Behavioural - The manner in which animals move and act.
3. Physiological - The functioning of the animal at levels from biochemical, to cellular, tissue, organ and whole organism levels.

Look at the different types of adaptions animals can have for their environment. Can you categorise them as anatomical, behavioural or physiological?

While all animals have evolved over time. There are certain adaptations that are only useful in certain environments. How would the adaptations of animals living in a desert need to be different to animals living in Antarctic conditions. Mix pair share with a partner and see how many differences or similarities you can come up with.

All around the world and even within Australia, there are places with different environments and climate conditions. Each location has particular conditions such as aridity, temperature, soil types and elevation. Depending on the climate and location different plants and animals can survive. Understanding how these environments are composed is essential to understanding how different life forms can survive there.

Can you match the different climate conditions to their descriptions? With a partner discuss elements of the descriptions that helped you figure out what climate they were describing.

Just the same as animals in different conditions need different adaptations for their survival, so too do plants. Can you think of plants that live in desert conditions? How are they different to plants from a rainforest? Can plants even survive in extreme cold?

LI - to research the types of adaptations enable plants to live in different environments

From the website provided pick four different environments where plants can survive. Record all the main adaptations plants in each environment have and how these allow the plants to survive. You may work independently or with a partner to conduct your research.

Imagine that in the Earth's history no plants or animals had adapted to their environments and so huge areas of the planet such as deserts and cold climate areas were uninhabited by life. What would this mean for life forms as we know them? Or, what if animals had adapted but not plants or vice versa? Does one life form depend on the other?

What would this mean to people living in those areas if not plants or animals could live? How would this affect our food source?

Let's think about this a little closer to home. If our local catchment water flows on down the river to the next area for treatment and its all full of litter, rubbish and chemicals and that river flows through areas of nature, what does that mean for the plant and animal life down the river?

Why may it be important to consider our impact in our local environment, as well as the impact on bad water sources on life forms in faraway places? Does anyone really benefit from dirty water and litter? Who benefits from clean water?

Using your research and understanding of the particular adaptations of different plants and animals, create a mind map to show how these relate to different environments.

Pick four environments and in each quarter of your page, represent your learning through written information, diagrams and captioned illustrations. If you required more information discuss your research with a partner or consult an authority (e.g. book, internet, teacher)

LI - to design to optimal animal for a particular environment

Today you need to think about all the things you have learnt about adaptations that enable plants or animals to survive in different environments. Using your knowledge design an animal or plant that would have the optimal traits to survive in either the depths of the ocean, freezing conditions, or arid deserts. You must give your animal a name, draw your animal's features and label each feature and why it is required to help your plant/animal survive. Include as much detail as possible.

In your group I want you to look at the piece of text I am about to give you. Your task is to answer the following questions:

1. What is its purpose?
2. Who is it written for?
3. How is the text arranged?
4. What language features can you see?
   

Each text type has specific features that set them apart from one another. Today we are going to define the parts that make up an explanation text. I’m going to start at the top. It says... what might this part be named? What might its role be in the text? Can you find the labels to match? Let’s continue through until we have labelled all the parts and we know their roles.

Just as an author chooses their words carefully for their audience, they also carefully select the layout of their writing so that it will not only appeal to the eye, but so their text with be accessible to the reader. In an information text this is done through a title, headings/subheadings, dot points, pictures and careful colour selection. Have a look at these text and rank them according to how likely you be to want to read them if you were researching for information.

Once you have ranked them from most to least likely to read pick out the features that drew you to a text and ones that turned you off. Record them with your group. Let’s use a Venn diagram to record the features that make you want to read a text, that make you not want to read a text and ones that don’t really influence your decision.

When we read an information text, we use the reading strategy of determining importance to determine the key information in a text. When we are reading for a particular purpose, headings and subheadings can help us locate key information, by identifying the topic of each section of text. This means we can find the information we need, without reading the whole text.

Have a look at these paragraphs of an information text. I want you to read each paragraph carefully, and then decide on a heading which tells the reader what each paragraph is about. Compare your answers with your shoulder partner, discuss any similarities or differences, then share with another partnership. Were all answers the same? Why/why not?

What happens if the parts of an explanation text aren’t well sequenced or arranged in similar topics? If we were to confuse the information within the sequence of how and why, would the information still make sense and would it be as informative?

Let’s read these paragraphs through together. Do they make sense and follow a logical PEC structure? If I use different colour highlighters to group similar information, I can see that two or three different topics are located in each paragraph and they don’t quite make sense. However, if I rewrite these paragraphs and regroup the information, they are much more cohesive.

Now you’re going to have a go at locating sentences with common information about a water way and regrouping it into a paragraph. Make your paragraph as informative as possible. Remember it must follow the PEC format. Once you're done, give each paragraph a heading to tell the reader what it is about.

Mix pair share – read your paragraphs to a partner. Did you group the information under the same headings? Did you prioritise the information in the same order? Discuss how and why this might be.

Pair square – share similarities and differences with another partnership. Did they find the same thing? How different were the paragraphs. As a group decide which paragraph grouped the information most cohesively and share this with the class.

I’m going to read you a piece of text and I want you to think about whether or not it is an information report. How informative is it? Would you find it in an information text? Why/why not? This writing does not specifically meet the criteria of an information text as it gives the author's perspective.

When presenting information as part of an informaiton text, it is important that you are objective. This means you are not putting across your point of view like you would in a persuasive text or recount, instead you are just presenting the facts.

Can you sort these sentences as objective (fact, not opinion)and subjective (a person’s point of view)? Highlight the objective/factual words blue and subjective feeling/emotion words in yellow.

I’m going to read this piece of text to you. I want you to listen carefully and think about the kind of language used in an information text and what makes language objective, as after reading I will have some statements for you to sort.

Look at each of these statements. Thinking about what was just read to you, can you sort each one into a category of either false (contradicts information within the report), fact (supports information within the text objectively) or opinion (gives a biased opinion based on the author/reader’s beliefs)?

Now you’re going to have your own go at devising a set of statements that fit into each of these categories. Read this text and then think of at least three statements for each (false, opinion & fact). Swap your statements with a partner’s and see if you can sort them correctly. Discuss how you knew where each fit and if you got any wrong, highlight any information that misled you. Share this with the class. Let’s devise a set of rules and a definition for subjective and objective language features.

Remember that this writing was not persuasive as it contained emotive language and contained the author’s point of view instead of focusing on facts. Despite this, this writing does contain a lot of factual information, so let’s edit it to report what we found out in an objective manner e.g. we can change “I like Golden Retrievers because they have long fur and big, cute, floppy ears” to “Golden Retrievers are have long coats and large soft ears”. What other information could we take and present objectively?

Now work with a partner to have a go at taking this piece of emotive writing and presenting it in a PEC paragraph which provides the reader with objective information. Compare your work with another group. Did you present the same facts?

Ask students: How can I make my writing more interesting and give more detail in my factual explanations without giving my opinion? Discuss as a class.

When writing information, an author usually has to explain not just about the topic, but to give reasons why a particular thing is the way it is. For example instead of writing ‘Tigers are striped’, an author may show the effect their colouring has by writing ‘Tigers are striped and this helps them blend into the jungle around them’. When you are an author, you can make your writing more interesting by linking the facts with interesting information that supports the facts.

Have a look at these sets of sentences. Can you sort them as cause and effect and link them together to make the writing more detailed and interesting?

Can you think of your own effect clauses the add to these sentences to make them more detailed and informative?

When composing an information text you need to include relevant and specific words to describe the things you are writing about. This will increase the detail of your writing, as well as make it more informative and interesting. While an information text doesn’t contain unnecessary adjectives, there are occasions where the noun and adjectives are closely linked and therefore relevant to the subject e.g.

• the plants around the edge of the water
• the water from the bottom of the pond

Can you edit this information text to add specific and relevant adjectival groups to further describe the noun?

When writing information texts, a variety of language choices can still be used objectively to add greater interest to your writing e.g. instead of writing the water goes down the river, you could write:

• The water flows down the river.
• The water winds down the river.

Aside from choosing your verb carefully, you can also add adverbial clauses or adverbial groups to your verb to give more information. These groups will give more information eight about the manner (how), time (when), location (where), accompaniment (who), or reason (why) e.g.

• Manner – easily, quickly, with caution
• Location – inside, outside, away from
• Time – yesterday, at night, just before dawn
• Reason – for safety, to protect themselves
• Accompaniment – alone, together

So now can we make the first sentence even more interesting by adding an adverbial clause? e.g. Each day the water flows quickly down the river away from the water treatment plant.

Now add an adverbial clause to the sentence, focusing on one group (e.g. manner etc.) at a time. Share your sentences with a partner.

In this activity, you will be assigned your writing project in Scholar.

First, plan to write an information text by using text mapping. In the centre of your map is the title of the information text and each line from the central box indicates a paragraph topic. Identify headings for each paragraph. Record these headings using the Structure tool in Scholar.

Then reread the text and use determining importance and summarising to take notes of the information using your own words under each section in the Structure tool. Remember note taking can be key words instead of whole sentences.

Now you need to use all you have learnt about information texts to write your own report. You will inform a reader about a component of water conservation and sustainability. Consider the pictures and multimedia you include. Remember that your choices as an author will affect the way the reader views you text, so you will need to be able to justify the choices you make for your report. Think about how you can get a clear message across, which informs people about your topic and is appealing/eye-catching.

Now that you have your key information for each paragragh, you need to plan how you will write your PEC paragraphs in your text.

Save a new version of the text. In Version 2, for each of your headings you need to now determine the Point sentence, what information will form the Elaborate sentences and how you will Conclude each paragraph with a summarising sentence. Check that your plans make sense with a partner and make changes as you need.

Today we are going to use Author's Chair to proofread, check and improve each other's information texts from last lesson.

First, let's have a go at editing a piece of work together on the board. First let's read it through and find some things we like about the writing. Who can tell me what they've found?

Now we give to give some constructive feedback, which means we make some suggestions about how they could improve the layout or wording of their writing to better meet the success criteria. We'll look and see whether the author has used the correct structural features, language features, technical words etc.

Now you're going to have a go at using Author's Chair to proofread and suggest improvements for a friends work. remember all the things we just looked at, you need to include things they've done well and ideas they can use to make their writing even better.

Now go into Scholar, check your Notifications for Review Requests. Give feedback to your peers.