Grade Twelve Thematic Unit: Lessons 1-4

Lesson One

Directions/Procedure:

  1. Ask the students to look at the current media (news reports, newspapers) for any stories or events regarding water. This could be as varied as floods, draughts, Tsunami, hydro electricity and water sports. Ask them to bring any information they have to school for a bulletin board and for sharing.
  2. Read the background information to the students and then have students read the first two case studies as a class which are provided in the handout. (15 Minutes).
  3. Go through case studies 1 & 2 and encourage students to highlight some of the main points of each case study. Ask students to write jot notes regarding each assigned case study. (10 minutes).
  4. Invite the students to reflect and offer opinions on the information they have read. Depending on your class this could be an oral or written assignment. Perhaps the students could prepare a brief sentence or two regarding their impressions or make notes on the handout (10 minutes).
  5. Facilitate a classroom discussion on the water issues as portrayed within these first two case studies. (15-25 minutes).

Lesson Two

Directions/Procedure:

  1. Read the background information to the students and then have students read the first two case studies as a class. Case studies are provided in the handout. (15 Minutes)
  2. Go through case studies 3 & 4 and encourage students to highlight some of the main points of each case study. Ask students to write jot notes regarding each assigned case study. (10 minutes).
  3. Invite the students to reflect and offer opinions on the information they have read. Depending on your class this could be an oral or written assignment. Perhaps the students could prepare a brief sentence or two regarding their impressions or make notes on the handout (10 minutes).
  4. Facilitate a classroom discussion on the water issues as portrayed within these last two case studies. (15-25 minutes).

Lesson Three

Directions/Procedure:

  1. Review with the students the last two lessons about the four case studies they read. Ask them to reflect on the commonalities and the differences between the case studies. (10 Minutes).
  2. Write the following five questions on the board or photocopy to hand out. Ask the students to pair up with a partner and to write answers for each of the questions then orally present. Indicate answers found within the case studies or based on their perception, they are there to facilitate discussions. (25 minutes) presentation (10-20 minutes).

Operation WATER SPIRIT Questions to consider:

  1. Why or why not should aboriginal people have special consideration regarding their interest/perspectives on water in Canada?
  2. First Nations water concerns are unique because of the relationship between federal and provincial jurisdiction, how would this hinder or improve aboriginal efforts?
  3. Water issues have been in the forefront for aboriginal people for decades, yet it is just now that we are starting to hear about these issues. How can we ALL make a difference regarding water?
  4. Corporations/governments are in the water business to make money, why are aboriginal people concerned about water?
  5. Are aboriginal people the only people concerned about the water? Which other organizations have a mandate to protect our water resources?

Lesson Four

Directions/Procedure:

  1. At the beginning of this mini unit students were asked to look for and gather information regarding water issues in the media. This information should be gathered and photocopied prior to this lesson. The gathered information will then be given to the students to look through and to see whether that information could be helpful answering the following five questions which could be written on chart paper.
  2. Students will be divided into five groups and assigned one of the following five questions.
    • I. How can the classroom make a difference regarding water issues in Canada?
    • II. What is water privatization and is it a threat to renewable water resources?
    • III. How can you as a student inform others about water environmental concerns?
    • IV. What do you think some future water dilemmas might be and why?
    • V. If only 1% of water is drinkable on earth, how long do you think that this resource will be sustainable?
  3.  Students will be asked to come up with answers to the questions and then present their ideas to the class. They could use a variety of different methodologies within their presentation. For example: Question V: The answer may be: Education of the masses must occur in order for people to be made ware that water is not going to be around if we continue to abuse it. Fresh water should not be used in our toilettes; we should find different water to flush away our refuse. There are environmental friendly toilets that do not require water to flush. We have found ten websites that talk about this…

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