Water Resources

Visit the Curricula Library for lesson plans on water and the Water Quality Testing page for resources on conducting water quality tests with your students.

Bay Backpack
Bay Backpack is an online resource for teachers and environmental educators to engage students in hands-on learning about the Chesapeake Bay and its local waterways. The site also houses resources on forests, farming, development and many other environmental topics that affect the Bay. Bay Backpack resources include books, multimedia tools, curriculum guides and individual lesson plans. In addition, visitors can search for professional development and funding opportunities on the Web site. The goal of Bay Backpack is to provide educators with the necessary resources to give their students a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) -- extensive projects that allow students to gain a deep understanding of environmental challenges in the Chesapeake Bay and its local streams and rivers.

California Center for the Book
The California Center for the Book, in partnership with the Water Education Foundation, supplies resources to help public libraries host programming about water. Resources are available online and include a Water Issues Guide, a Water Book List, web resources, and more.

Climate Change and Water: Perspectives from the Forest Service
Climate Change and Water: Perspectives from the Forest Service is a summary of a forthcoming report by the Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture which will detail the likely impacts of climate change on the Nation's forested watersheds and highlight the importance of managing forests to provide clean, abundant water.  

conserveh2o.org
The Regional Water Providers Consortium of the Portland metro area presents conserveh2o.org, a site where you and your students may learn about water conservation and water topics. Take a room-by-room tour of the Water House, and find a variety of water conservation tips to help save water and money. Explore the Kid's Corner for interactive activities that help kids learn about saving water, finding and fixing leaks, and where water comes from.

Darby Duck and the Aquatic Crusaders
Darby Duck and the Aquatic Crusaders is a program developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that includes seven experiments desigend to help students understand the characteristics of water, including how water interacts with other elements in the environment, such as pollutants. Once a student has completed all seven experiements, they become and Aquatic Crusader.

DC Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) For Kids!
Washington, DC's Water and Sewer Authority presents DC WASA For Kids!, offering cartoons, activities, lessons, and workbooks for students to learn about water and ways to conserve our most important natural resource. This bright and cheerful site explores the water treatment process, the water cycle, how people use water, and water saving tips and information.

Down the Drain
Down the Drain is a collaborative project from the Center for Innovation in Engingeering and Science Education (CIESE) that allows students to share information about water usage with other students from around the country and the world. Students will collect data on per person per day water usage in their homes and compare the average with averages from around the world. The project was develoepd for students in grades 4-8 but can be adapted to fit other grade levels. Materials for the project are available online.

DrinkTap.org from the American Water Works Association (AWWA)
AWWA presents Drinktap.org, an interactive site with resources about drinking water. Explore the information about water conservation and drinking water quality. Visit the Kids section for "Whaddya Know about H2O?" video clips, printable worksheets, and "The Story of Drinking Water."

EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water
EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water's site provides information on local drinking water quality and the protection of our sources of drinking water. The Drinking Water For Kids section also provides activities for students and teachers, including a Water Filtration activity to demonstrate a procedure for purifying drinking water and and interactive instructions for the activity.

EPA's Watershed Academy Webcasts
EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds presents the Watershed Academy. Local watershed organizations, municipal leaders, and others are invited to sign up for these free, on-line Webcast training sessions. Past webcast topics include: Rain Gardens; Water, Energy, and Climate Change; Smart Growth and Green Infrastructure; Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring; and many others. Archived Webcasts are available and free to download.

Estuaries.gov
Estuaries.gov helps educators bring the beauty and importance of estuaries into classrooms and educational programs. The site provides an avenue for students and teachers to learn about estuaries, research, and explore NOAA's "living laboratories" - the National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Fairfax Water
Fairfax Water, Virginia's largest water utility, has an educational resources page for both students and educators. Included among the many activities for students are features such as "The Story of Water" which includes games for students, and "The Full Treatment" which takes students through the water treatment process. While student project and grants programs are only available to Virginia residents, the online resources are engaging learning tools for all.

FLOW
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigates what experts label the most important political and environmental challenge of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround. Visit the website for more information about water topics and the film itself. Watch the trailer, look for showings in a theater near you, or purchase the non-theatrical version for educational use.

Give Water a Hand
The Give Water a Hand Action Guide for students and Leader Guidebook for educators offer step-by-step instructions to take action to help improve the health of local waterways and the local ecosystem in turn.  The guides were designed for students aged 9-12, but adaptations for use with all age groups are provided.  This great resource for schools, homeschools, scout groups, and after-school programs was produced by the University of Wisconin's Environmental Resources Center.  The action guide has also been produced in Spanish.  

Global Water Network
A project of the Earth Day Network, the Global Water Network is a comprehensive resource to raise awareness about water challenges. Here your students can access key water articles and reports, link to country-specific water data, read news feeds, discuss water topics in the forum, and access global water happenings in the events calendar.

Greatest of the Great Lakes
This CD-ROM is a collection of 41 classroom activities, assembled by educators in the COSDD Great Lakes Project that provides teachers, non-formal educators and students in grades 4-10 with insights into the uniqueness of the Great Lakes and their influence on aquatic life and human populations. 

The Groundwater Foundation
The Groundwater Foundation seeks to motivate people to care for and about groundwater by focusing on groundwater education and outreach. Many resources for educators (such as coloring sheets, activity pages, lesson plans, and puzzles) can be found at their Kids Corner. The newly released activity guide, "Be Water Wise in School: Science that Impacts Your Campus," combines water education and service-learning.

Holding on to the Green Zone
The Bureau of Land Management, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, presents Holding on to the Green Zone: A Youth Program for the Study and Stewardship of Community Riparian Areas. The program engages students in activities to explore and understand the role and importance of riparian areas. A Student Action Guide and a Leader Guide are available for download, and the program is correlated to national education standards.

H2O Conserve
At H2O Conserve, visitors can calculate their water footprints, explore water and money saving tips to reduce their water footprints, download educational resources, and find links to other sites with information about conserving water.

H2O for Life 
H2O for Life has a global partner for your school! H2O for Life partnerships transform lives abroad and in your classroom. Find out how your school can "Make a Difference" by providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene education for a school in need. H2O for Life will help you teach about global water challenges, partner with a school overseas, get fundraising tools and tips, find classroom activities, and engage your students in a meaningful service learning project.

Liquid Assets
Liquid Assets is a public media and outreach initiative that seeks to inform the nation about the critical role that our water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic prosperity. Combining a ninety-minute documentary with a community toolkit for facilitating local involvement, Liquid Assets explores the history, engineering, and political and economic challenges of our water infrastructure, and engages communities in local discussion about public water and wastewater topics. Visit the site to find out when the documentary will be broadcast near you, or contact your local PBS station to request a broadcast to watch with your students.

Nab the Aquatic Invader
Nab the Aquatic Invader is a website that uses problem-based activities to teach students in grades 4-10 about aquatic invasive species. An engaging detective theme is used to raise awareness of the critical nature of challenges caused by aquatic invaders. The site also includes fact sheets, photos, web links, curriculum, education kits, maps and more.

Planet H2O
Planet H2O is a public television series on the world of water. On the Web site, students can watch episodes, learn about water careers, investigate water challenges and more. Resources for educators include lesson plans for teaching about water and the environment, as well as a teaching guide for using Planet H2O in the classroom. 

P.O.V.'s Borders: Water from PBS
Part of the Environment series, P.O.V's Water page allows visitors to explore others' views on water challenges and share their own. The idea behind P.O.V.'s Borders series is that each episode will ask visitors to consider an aspect of their everyday lives in ways that challenge their preconceptions, and expand their "borders" of understanding.

River of Words
Each year, in affiliation with The Library of Congress Center for the Book, River of Words conducts a free international poetry and art contest for youth on the theme of watersheds. The contest is designed to help youth explore the natural and cultural history of the place they live and to express, through poetry and art, what they discover. Curriculum materials and other resources are available online.

RiverWorks Discovery
RiverWorks Discovery is an education program teaching children and their families about the commerce, culture and conservation of America's Rivers. The website offers free resources for educators including booklets and river-based activity sheets.

Texas Wate Development Board K-12 Educational Resources
Provides a series of interactive presentations of different water related topcis, including the wate cycle, ground and surface water and using water wisely. Printable resources include coloring books and lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school levels titled "Raising Your Water IQ." The lesson plans address water challenges in Texas but also include the study of groundwater, surface water, watersheds, water conservation and water availability.

USGS Water Science for Schools
Water Science for Schools, created by the U.S. Geological Survey, offers information on a variety of water-related subjects including pictures, data, and maps. The site provides an interactive center where students can voice opinions and test their water knowledge. Portions of the website are availbale in Spanish and Chinese, and The Water Cycle diagram is available in over 60 languages. While at the USGS website, check out their page of water-related resources for educators, and their Water Education Posters, available in English and Spanish. 

Water and Wildlife from the National Wildlife Federation
People and wildlife depend on water to live, but if we don't make efforts to conserve and protect this valuable resource, we may be putting all living beings at risk. This feature from the National Wildlife Federation provides tips and information to help visitors learn why and how to conserve water and includes a personal water calculator.

Water Conservation at DoSomething.org
DoSomething.org encourages teens to find the cause they care about and get the facts so they can take action. Resources for learning about water challenges, a video on world water usage, articles on ways to make a difference, and water conservation tips are all found on their Water Conservation page.

Water Footprint
People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This site explores statistics on water use from around the globe and provides a water calculator to help determine your personal water footprint.

Water: H2O = Life
The Water: H2O = Life site is a companion to the American Museum of Natural History's exhibit of the same name. The site and exhibit explore the relationship between water and life, water's physical and chemical properties, how water is used by humans, and the importance of preventing water pollution. You will find excellent information and graphics on water topics, educator resources, lesson plans, and articles for all grade levels, and games and web activities for students. The exhibit will be on an international tour through September 2011. Visit the website to find out when Water: H2O = Life will stop at a museum near you!

Water on the Web
Water on the Web (WOW) helps college and high school students understand and solve real-world environmental challenges using advanced technology. WOW is a complete package containing two sets of curricula, data from many lakes and rivers nationwide, extensive online primers, data interpretation and Geographic Information System Tools, and additional supporting materials.

WaterSense Educational Materials
WaterSense is a partnership program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that provides a trusted label to water efficient products for use in homes and businesses. The WaterSense educational materials provide learning resources for Fix A Leak Week for grades 3-5 as well as A Day in the Life of a Drop, a set of activities designed to help students in grades 3-5 understand the way their water use impacts the environment and human health. Resources and activities can be downloaded from the website.

The Water Sourcebooks
The Water Sourcebooks, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agecny, contain 324 activities for grades K-12 divided into four sections for grades K-2, 3-5, 5-8 and 9-12. Each section is divided into five chapters: Introduction to Water, Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment, Surface Water Resources, Ground Water Resources and Wetlands and Coastal Waters. All parts of the program can be downloaded online, printed and copied.

Water - Use It Wisely
This website all about water conservation offers 100 water-saving tips, as well as a kids page with games and interactive online activities, and links to a variety of national and state-based organizations that focus on water conservation. Visitors may also download a home water audit in English or Spanish.

Wetlands Education
Wetlands Education is a website from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that contains numerous activities, curricula, programs, teaching tools, videos and links all about wetlands and their importance.

Wetlands: A World in Our Backyard
Wetlands: A World in Our Backyard is a guide developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Comission that provides information and activities about wetlands for middle school educators and students. Each of the guide's chapters can be downloaded online.

What's Up With Our Nation's Waters?
What's Up With Our Nation's Waters? is a webpage designed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to give educators and students a snapshot of America's waters, threats to water quality and what kids can do to help keep our waters clean. A glossary of terms, ideas for science projects, a water quiz and a survey of home water use are among the resources available.