Essential Questions

• How can we use empirical evidence to demonstrate that changes in the ecosystem affect populations?

• What technical and other solutions can we use to reduce impacts of human activities on natural systems?  

• How can we use art to communicate important issues?

Learning Objectives – In this Module, students will:

1. Generate questions to learn more about water use; 

2. Interpret data to demonstrate the effects of resource availability on populations of organisms in an ecosystem; 

3. Make predictions and gather details based on data and text;

4. Address an environmental issue through articulating the problem, causes and solutions; 

5. Interact with digital storytelling as a learning tool;

6. Collaborate and engage in project based learning;

7. Employ and express how art and design can be a solution to an issue;

8. Incorporate multiple perspectives to provide meaningful feedback on peers’ creative work.

Learning Outline

This module is organized around the Utah’s Rivers At A Crossroads video presentation by Zach Frankel. It can be used as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows:

• 15 minutes: Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Exploring  How We Use Water

• 15 minutes: While Viewing: Learning About Water Use and Consumption Across the Nation

• 30 minutes: Post-Viewing–Synthesizing and Visualizing: Tapping into the Issue and Solutions

• 60 minutes: Demonstration: Becoming Water Wise and Learning About Smartscaping

• 60 minutes: Making Connections: Arts Integration Project–Designing your Smartscaped Garden Plot

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Exploring  How We Use Water

[15 min]

[Learning Objective 1]

Procedures:

1. Topic:  Exploring water use, waste, and how we can design solutions. This module presents a local water conservationist who details specifically how we use water in Utah, resulting in our label as the #1 highest public consumer of water, per capita, in our nation. 

2. Group students in breakout rooms for a brainstorming session on how they use water: How do you recreate on water?  What are some of your favorite places to enjoy water? What do you think uses up the most water in your household? How do you think your household wastes water? Do you try to conserve water? If so, how?

4.  Invite a few group representatives to share. 

5. Prior to viewing the video, ask students,  “Why might thinking about our water use be important?”

While Viewing: Learning About Water Use and Consumption Across the Nation

[15 min]

[Learning Objectives 2,3,5 ]

Procedures:

1. Tell students: As you watch the video, Utah’s Rivers At A Crossroads (6:22 min) reflect on the following questions and jot down some answers for our post-viewing discussion: 

1. What is Zach’s central message?

2. How does this apply to you?

3. What did you find most surprising or interesting?

2. Play Utah’s Rivers At A Crossroads Video (6:41 min), pausing as appropriate for students to jot down answers to the questions.

3. Have students share their responses either by typing in the chat room or as a class discussion.

Post-Viewing–Synthesizing and Visualizing: Tapping into the Issue and Solutions

[30 min]

[Learning Objectives 3,4,6,8]

Procedures

1.  Have students sketch a tree that fills an 8.5 x 11 sized paper. Have them include roots, a trunk, and branches. Higher Tech Option: Use Jamboard. [Jamboard is an application in the Google platform. It acts as a virtual whiteboard where you can draw, write and collaborate.)

2. Tell them that they will use their tree diagram to represent what they learned in Zach’s presentation. On the trunk they will state the problem; the roots are issues contributing to the problem; and the branches are solutions.

3. In Jamboard, Zoom breakout rooms, or by pinning their design to a board you create in Padlet, have students share, and compare their trees.  Next have them merge their trees by having one student draw a group tree that incorporates aspects of each student’s tree and represents a group consensus on the problem, issues contributing to the problem and possible solutions.

Demonstration: Becoming Water Wise and Learning About Smartscaping

[60 min]

[Learning Objectives 3,4,8 ]

Procedures:

1. As a class, and based on their tree diagrams, discuss 

   1. The main issue (tree trunk): we are using and wasting too much water.

   2. Issues contributing to the problem (roots): watering individual grass lawns uses too much water; farmers are wasting water with old irrigation equipment and growing crops that need a lot of water like alfalfa

   3. Solutions (branches): replace grass lawns with something more sustainable (have them come up with ideas of what that could be); new irrigation practices; growing water-wise crops; starting an eating less meat campaign, etc.

2. Tell students that we are going to focus on how to conserve water in our cities by finding solutions to reduce water use on our lawns. Ask them if they have ever heard of xeriscaping? Other terms commonly used for this are “water-conserving landscapes” or “smartscaping.” 

Explain that this type of landscaping or gardening reduces the need for water from irrigation. The principles of smartscaping are to: 

1. Create a plan or design (according to site conditions, exposures and use)

2. Make appropriate soil improvements

3. Incorporate low-water-use plants

4. Use mulch (a layer of hay, shredded bark, wood chips, etc. to conserve soil moisture)

5. Exercise proper maintenance

3. Tell students, in order to make “smart” landscape and gardening design choices, it is first important to understand the difference between the terms “Water-Wise”, “Drought-Tolerant”, “Native” and “Xeric” – words often used interchangeably but they are very different. Tell students they will read the following article and use it to fill out the first two sections in this  graphic organizer.

4.  “Section 3” in the graphic organizer asks students to create a list of 8 plants that they would choose for their water-wise garden. Have students read up on Utah plants using the following links. Select and list plants you would incorporate in a plot along the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake and outlying areas). Be able to defend your choices.

   1. Wasatch Front Drought-Tolerant Native Plants- this plant list was put together by the lead horticulturist at Red Butte Gardens, Lynsey Nielson. It includes trees; shrubs and succulents (plants (like a cactus) with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions); grasses and forbs (an herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass).

   2. Utah Native Plant Society- This site contains a list of Utah native shrubs, grasses, and flowers with descriptions, cultural information and pictures, meant to guide people in water-wise landscaping. 

*Note- you can have them research other sites as well and cite the sources.

5. Pair-Share-Compare:

1. Pair: Put students in pairs in breakout rooms 

2. Share: Have each of them present Section 3 of their graphic organizer to each other, explaining their plant choice. For example, “not only is this plant very low-water use but it also produces berries to eat; or “this plant would add great color to the garden plot and doesn’t take up much room; or “Bees and other pollinators love this plant and so though it is pretty big, it would be a good use of space.”

3. Compare: Did they select similar plants? What were the similarities and differences in their reason for choosing the plants? What can they add to their list based on what they learned from their partner?

Designing your Smartscaped Garden Plot 

[60 min]

[Learning Objectives 3,4,6,7,8]

1. Put students into groups of 3-4. Provide each group with two “blank_plot_ sketch” handouts. Tell them that they have been hired to “smartscape” or “xeriscape” a 10 x 10 square foot plot along the Wasatch Front that was once grass, but the owner wants to reduce her water use. As horticulturists and landscape designers you will decide which plants you will incorporate in your plot and you will design the layout to both lower her water use and create something beautiful.

2. Show students the Smartscape Garden Plot Project samples:

1. Plot Blueprint– This simpler 2D sketch is your road map. Each plant, cluster of plants, and hardscape feature is drawn roughly to proportion,  color coded and labeled to help you remember all the names of the trees, shrubs, succulents and forbs you planted so you can share this with your client and keep track yourself. 

2. Plot Impressions– this grown plant plot sketch estimates how much room your plants will take up when full grown. Laying out this 3D sketch also helps you figure out what looks and works best together. Have students label each plant and feature as seen in the example. 

3. Tell students it’s their turn to design their 10 x 10 sq. ft. drought-tolerant garden plot. They can use plants from their list in their graphic organizer but in order to follow the guidelines below they may need to add or subtract a few. 

1. Each group’s smartscape project should include the two sketches: 

1. Plot blueprint- this sketch is an aerial view of the layout.

2. Plot impression- this sketch is of what they foresee the plot looking like once mature. 

2. Pass them the following resource links to do more research and make their plot selections:

1. Wasatch Front Drought-Tolerant Native Plants

2. Utah Native Plant Society

3. Landscaping on the New Frontier: Waterwise design for the Intermountain West

3. Review the garden plot guidelines: 

1. Choose at least one tree;

2. Choose at least one shrub;

3. The rest should be forbs;

4. Leave some space for pollinators;

5. Consider incorporating vegetable or fruit-bearing plants;

6. Hardscape elements and features (optional)

Consider how each group of students can divide up roles:

1. Horticulturists: They do all the “softscape,” so they do all the plant things,  thinking about color, texture, heights, bloom times. and how best to create a good aesthetic.

*Tip: Leave space for pollinator habitat. It’s important to leave unmulched, unworked spaces in a garden for native ground dwelling bees. Leaving a bit of leaf litter in fall also provides butterfly overwintering habitat. 

2. Landscape Designers: They do the hardscape, so they design the walkways, stones, borders and edges, water features, etc. They often also put together the blueprints, so in this case they might draw the “plot blueprint.” 

*Note: These division of duties lines can sometimes blur in real life.

Determine how they will share their work and give & receive peer feedback (see Assessment Strategies section).

Articles

4 Ways to Measure a 5-Minute Shower- Harvard University’s challenge and strategies to shorten your shower to save water and energy.

Glad You Asked: Does Utah Really Use More Water Than Any Other State? The Utah Geological Survey explains and compares water usage in the western states.

Videos

Every Drop Counts– Save Water!  A stop-motion animation with a message to save water by students from Rani Dutta Arya Vidyalaya as part of the Adobe Youth Voices Program, Delhi.

Websites

Local extension services Where you live affects how and when you grow plants. Most counties within the United States have an extension office of some type that works closely with gardening experts to provide information about choosing appropriate plants, vegetables, information about lawn care (including soil tests) or pest control tips in your local area. Because, it's important to know how to locate your local extension service so that you know where to go when you have questions about growing plants and your garden. 

 Botanical gardens and many municipal water providers are great places to get more information. Many provide classes and other resources to help you create a sustainable garden.

Red Butte Garden for Teachers and Students- Red Butte Gardens education programs involve field classes, grow labs and professional horticulturists who are available to answer any questions or help with planting and water conservation projects. 

How To Conserve Water | National Geographic (2:48 min) The U.S could face a water shortage in a little over 50 years. See how Colorado College conserves water and how you can use these tips in your own life.