EDUCATION PROGRAM
Water in Our Changing Climate
Grade Range: 8-12
Duration: 3 hours
In this inquiry-based exploration of climate change, students will learn about the Chestnut Hill High Service Pumping station’s history with coal use in the industrial age and the effects of emissions since that time on both saltwater and freshwater supplies. Students will observe how the ocean functions as a carbon sink, engage in hands-on water testing, and analyze some of the climate-related water crises currently unfolding around the world, as well as potential solutions.
$7 per student
Enduring Understanding
Since the industrial revolution, human activity has had an immense impact on the environment around us – including our water supplies. One of the impacts that can be observed and measured is climate change. While the nature of anthropogenic climate change seems daunting at times, there are a number of potential tools available to combat the effects, and ways in which every person can advocate for change on a large scale.
Essential Question
How is climate change affecting the world around us and our access to safe, clean water? What can we do to counter this?
Objectives
Students will be able to…
- Explore a range of factors that are contributing to our changing climate.
- Understand a few of the effects of climate change on the world’s saltwater and freshwater supplies.
- Perform hands-on water testing analyzing pH, turbidity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen.
- Identify sources of anthropogenic pollution in water and potential prevention and mitigation strategies.
- Analyze various prevention and mitigation strategies for dealing with the effects of climate change on water
Curriculum Connections
Next Generation Science Standards:
HS-ESS2 Earth’s Systems
HS-ESS2-4: Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
HS-ESS2-6: Develop a quantitative model to describe the cycling of carbon among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
HS-ESS3 Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-4: Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
Science and Engineering Practices:
Scientific Knowledge is Based on Empirical Evidence:
- Science knowledge is based on empirical evidence. (HS-ESS2-3)
- Science disciplines share common rules of evidence used to evaluate explanations about natural systems. (HS-ESS2-3)
- Science includes the process of coordinating patterns of evidence with current theory. (HS-ESS2-3)
- Science arguments are strengthened by multiple lines of evidence supporting a single explanation. (HS-ESS2-4)
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
ESS3.A: Natural Resources
- All forms of energy production and other resource extraction have associated economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical costs and risks as well as benefits. New technologies and social regulations can change the balance of these factors. (HS-ESS3-2)
ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
- The sustainability of human societies and the biodiversity that supports them requires responsible management of natural resources. (HS-ESS3-3)
- Scientists and engineers can make major contributions by developing technologies that produce less pollution and waste and that preclude ecosystem degradation. (HS-ESS3-4)
ESS2.D: Weather and Climate
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- The foundation for Earth’s global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energy’s re-radiation into space. (HS-ESS2-2) (HS-ESS2-4)
Upcoming Events
Current Exhibit
Moving Water: From Ancient Innovations to Modern Challenges
Ancient civilizations engineered water systems that sustained communities for thousands of years. This exhibition spotlights six places that innovated ways to deliver, and control water for human use. It also looks at how climate change is impacting all of those places, forcing public officials to consider new ways to keep the water flowing.