Activity Title:

The Long Haul – Albuquerque Style

Description

Students will carry in buckets or in one gallon jugs the amount of water needed for one person to perform various household tasks in one day.  This activity works best outdoors because it is a relay race.

Objectives

Students will recognize that they use a lot of water in one day and will brainstorm ways they can reduce their water use.

Grade Level

2nd to 5th grades

Materials Needed

• 3 buckets holding at least 2 gallons of water – or --
• 6 gallon jugs filled with water.  Don’t have students carry more than 2 gallons at a time – it’s too heavy.
• Extra jugs or buckets in case some break – or --
• A nearby water source in case water spills from the buckets.
• 1 gallon jug (empty or full) to show what a gallon of water looks like.
• Chalk (if playing on concrete or asphalt)
• Stick (if playing in dirt)
• 25 pieces of any blank paper (optional)
• Tape or string (optional)
• Water user cards.

Background Info
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Water conservation is critical in our desert environment.  Getting our children to realize how much water they use and appreciate the convenience they are so fortunate to have is an important part of this activity.  In the Albuquerque area, each person uses about 90 gallons of drinking water each day for home usage.  This includes such activities as:

• toilet flushing
• showering and taking baths
• clothes washing
• dish washing
• face washing
• teeth brushing
• hand washing
• drinking
• cooking
• cleaning
• filling the swimming pool
• landscape watering
• car washing, etc.

In the U.S., most of us take clean, inexpensive and readily available drinking water for granted.  In areas of the world where people have to haul their water, they are much more careful about how they use it.  Students will carry the amount of water they need each day to help them think more carefully about how they use it.

Procedure

Explain how there are still many people around the world who do not have access to clean drinking water that comes directly to their homes through a faucet.  Explain that students are going to carry the full amount of water they need during the day so that they’ll realize how much water they use and that this amount is a lot of water!  Most of them will be able to make the connection that we live in a desert and need to use water carefully, but emphasize this point.

First: How Do We Use Water at Home?  Brainstorm with students all the ways they use water at home.  No need to write this down – just keep discussing ideas until they have thought of 12-20 ways.

Second: Estimate.  Show students what a gallon of water looks like by holding up a gallon jug.  Ask students to estimate how many gallons of water they use at home over the course of one day to do all the activities they brainstormed a few minutes ago.  Write these numbers in the dirt on the ground (or on pieces of paper that are laid on the ground, or in chalk on concrete or asphalt).  It may help to write the estimates in order from lowest to highest.  Make sure to include the number “90” even if students didn’t mention that number.  Ask students to stand on their estimates.  Next, tell each student whether he or she is too high or low, and that he or she should move to a new number that is either higher or lower.  The goal is to get all students to step on the 90.  Once they are on the 90, tell them how important it to remember this number.   In order to help them remember, have students shout out the number as loud as they can several times during the activity.  Do it once as soon as they learn it and then about three more times before the activity ends.  They should shout “90 gallons!!!” when you ask, “How much water do you use at home each day?”

Third: The Water Carrying.  Divide students into three roughly equal groups for the relay race.  Give each group two jugs of water or a bucket of water.  Draw or designate a starting line, half way line and full trip line.  Get out the water user cards.  There will be up to four relay rounds.  For each round, one group will be the “water conservers,” one group will be the “average users” and one group will be the “water wasters.”  Rotate the roles so that each group gets to experience each role.  If one group is particularly rowdy, they usually enjoy being “water wasters” several times).  Explain the rules:

1. No running.  This is a relay but it is not a race.
2. If you are using buckets, any water that is spilled will count against you and you’ll have to go refill it.
3. Everyone starts at the same time.
4. Students are to be quiet and listen to the assignment given to every group.  Sometimes students may make a full trip and sometimes only a half trip.  Notice the full trip and half trip lines. 
5. A trip means that the water is taken to the line and back.
6. This works as a relay race.  Each team as a whole has the carry the amount of water on the card – not each individual person on the team.
7. Students who does not get to go in the first round will get to go in the second round.
8. At the end of each round, make sure to point out who has done a good job (the water conservers) and who has used too much water (the wasters).

Notes:  feel free to make up silly stories about why the students are using so much water (some are included on the water user cards), make jokes while reading the cards and tease the kids who are the water wasters.  This adds more excitement and fun.

The group that has only a few trips to make each relay will be waiting and doing nothing while the other groups are active.  For the waiting group, ask students to yell out “90 gallons!!” or ask them to help count for a team that is waiting.  Another idea is to have them brainstorm water conservation ideas with you.

If there is a parent or teacher assistant, have this person help each group count the number of trips they have made.  If not, appoint one student on each team for this duty.

Older students can use their multiplication skills to figure out how many trips they will need to make to haul each amount of water.

Four rounds is usually enough, as it takes about 30 minutes total including the before and after discussions.

Evaluation/Extension

After all the water has been hauled, students can sit down and think of 10 things everyone can do at home to save water.   Emphasize that even though we don’t have to haul our water, there are people working hard every day to supply that water to them and keep it clean.  There is work involved in producing our water supply even if it is invisible to students.  Another good connection is that pumping water uses energy.  The more we must pump and/or clean, the more energy it takes.  , saving energy as well as water is good for the environment.

This activity could be connected to keeping track of water use or water conservation activities at home for a day or weekend or week.  Another great activity is to play Leak Detective, found at http://www.abcwua.org/content/view/239/441/.