NAME: …………………………………………. CLASS …………….
Water Management________________________________________________ General info In this project, it is your task to design a device that catches water for your ECO-house (sustainable, environment-friendly), on a real location. You will be working together with Danish, English, Spanish and Dutch students and you need to communicate to each other via a Wiki. Week 11 – week 23, with exception of week 16 and 19. During these weeks you are supposed to work on the project. In some weeks however, some countries have a break and might not reply. Please note that nonetheless the other countries ought to work on the project! So if you don’t have a break, you are supposed to continue working on the project. Who has a break in which week can be found on the Wiki. If you had a break while other countries hadn’t, make sure you are up to date quickly.
The web address is comeniuswm.pbworks.com
The aims of this project are: 1) Students are actively communicating to each other via the Wiki 2) Students realise that water is a scarce resource 3) Students know several ways how they can conserve water and use it in a responsible manner in everyday life 4) Within an international group, students will create a presentation with their findings Assignment in a quick overview You are going to decide what kind of water appliances you would like to have in your ECOhouse. In doing so you need take into account the benefits and disadvantages of your choice. You will be looking at the amount of water that each appliance uses. Because you have a limited amount of water and money, you’ll be discussing ways of conserving and recycling water to make your house friendly to the environment. In the end you will present your house and findings on the Wiki-website of your own group.
Time schedule____________________________________________________ Week 11
Student Fill in passport; profile (ADD PIC.) Find your group, get familiar with the Wiki. Task 1. Start activity
Deadlines / other info Kick-off of the project!
Deadline 1 – Friday 25th of March
12
Hand in starter activity + reflection
13-15
16 17-18
19 20-21
Task 2. Location
No project Task 3. Use of water
No project Task 4. Design
Danes are off in week 13. Britain is off in week 15. Deadline 2 – Friday 15th of April hand in reflection on your work No project The Dutch are off in week 18 Deadline 3 - 29th of April Show what you’ve achieved so far and reflect on work No project Deadline 4 – 27th of May Design a device that arranges the water supply
22
Hand in your final project!
Deadline 5 – 1ST of June Present all your findings on the Wiki
23
Evaluate on your own work and group work on your personal European Passport
Deadline 6 – 10th of June Round off project - evaluate
Task 1. Start activity Deadline 1 – Friday 25th of March Hand in starter activity + reflection The following questions are a part of a start activity. Each of you is to investigate these questions and share your results with the rest of your group on your Wiki. Besides that, you must hand in your answers to your teacher at the latest the 25th of March. Introducing Which water do you use for drinking and why? Tap water or bottled water? Using water when you are using the bathroom How many minutes do you take in a normal shower? How much water is spent on this shower? How many times a week do you take a shower? How many litres of water do you use a week just for showering? How many times a week do you take a bath? How big is your bath? (How many litres can it hold?) How often do you leave the tap running when you brush your teeth? What does it cost? In the rest of your home How often a week is the washing machine used? Do you know where the sewerage water (waste water) goes, after usage? Which appliances in your house use water? Which appliances use a lot of water and which appliances use a small amount of water? Drinking water What is your primary water source – from where do you get your drinking water? How much does m3 of tap water cost? In a supermarket, what does a litre of bottled water cost? How much does m3 of bottled water cost then? Water in Public Where in public places do you see water being used e.g. swimming pool? Where else would you see water being used for both leisure activities and in Industry?
Sum up How much water does a typical citizen in your country use each day e.g. drinking, washing, cleaning, cooking etc.? (See if you can find any statistics on this) Reflection When you have shared your answers on the Wiki, you must look into what your group members have answered, and you must answer the following question: What surprised me the most by these answers? Why? You should share your answer with your group on the Wiki – see if you can create a debate.
Task 2. Location Deadline 2 – Friday 15th of April Hand in reflection on your work Please note that the Danes are off in week 13 and the British in week 15. On the Wiki website, you can find 4 different locations. Each location has different characteristics. Group 1-3 have to build their house in Jutland Group 4-6 have to build their house in Catalonia Group 7-9 have to build their house in Zeewolde Group 10-13 have to build their house in Hertfordshire
Tasks to do (upload it on the Wiki): 1. Decide, as a group, where on your map you would like to build your ECO-house. Also explain why you have selected this particular geographical site. 2. Describe the geographical location of your house. Consider land relief, water resources e.g. aquifers, lakes, rivers, sea, reservoirs, etc. Investigate how many available water is there in the location. Collect climate data, geography, etc. 3. Decide how to manage the available water (cistern, pumping system, river, canal, sea, ‌) 4. Answer some questions on the world global context of water resources. Hand in reflection on your work. In your reflection, please elaborate on the following questions (upload it on the Wiki AND hand it in) : 1. What surprised you the most? 2. Why? 3. How is the group work going so far? Is everybody participating?
Task 3. Use of water Deadline 3 - 29th of April Show what you’ve achieved so far and reflect on work Please note that the Dutch are off in week 18. Now that you have chosen the site of your ECO-house, it is your task to arrange a proper water supply. The house itself is empty and you are allowed to modify it in any way that you want. Because you want to live in the house, you obviously need water. Before actually coming up with a device that catches water, you need to know what you want to use the water for. You have two weeks time to discuss which water appliances you need in your house and which you can do without. Therefore answer the following questions: • Which water appliances do you want in your house? Why? • Which can you do without? Does everybody agree? Why?/Why not? e.g. -
Shower Toilet Washing machine Bath Dishwasher Washing your car Garden Swimming pool
-
Sink Drinking water Cooking Cleaning the house Spa Central heating Coffee/Tea etc.
But, in this assignment, we want you to become aware of the fact that water is a scarce resource; we shouldn’t waste a lot of water. Hence we have set the amount of water that you are allowed to use. In your four-person ECO-house you may spend 3.000 LITRES a week (107 l/d/p). Note that a M³ is equal to 1.000 l. Try to be creative with the amount/sort of appliances that you can use. (You could take a 1minute-shower to save water, etc.)
Tasks to do (upload it on the Wiki): 1. Fill in a table like the one below. Appliances
Why do we need it in our house?
When can we do without it?
e.g. shower
Otherwise we will smell very bad.
If we had a bathtub or a swimming pool‌
Amount of water that it uses in litres per week. ‌ litre
Other info.
if you have a 1-minute shower
2. Investigate-calculate the amount of water you use in your daily life. You should use the water calculator you will find in the wiki . You can download it and use it to calculate, in an Excel file. To do this, you have to fill in the green coloured cells. File name : WM calculator.xls 3. Investigate-calculate the amount of water needed in the ECO house. You can use the same calculator to do this. Remember: the total amount of water IS LIMITED TO 3.000 l / week. So you will have to decide how you can manage it. 4. Answer some questions on the world global context of water management.
Task 4. Design a water supply Deadline 4 – 27th of May Design a device that arranges the water supply Have a look at your location and discuss ways of arranging a proper water supply for four people living in your ECO-house. Note: to make your house ‘ECO’ you could recycle water’
Discuss all possible ways of arranging a water supply in your house. Your task is to create your own independent water supply. You are not allowed to use water pipes that may already exist. Design the device that supplies your house with water using Google Sketch-Up. You can design a 3D model of the designed device using this programme. Some of you may already be familiar with it. However, if you haven’t used it before, it’s no problem at all! It’s not difficult to learn, you are able to design simple models after some 30 minutes training. Sketch Up is fully compatible with Google earth, so it’s easy (and fun) to use the locations provided as a real context in the models. You can explore this software and easily install the free version in this link: http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en_uk/index.html
Tasks to do (upload it on the Wiki): 1. Before you start designing the device, discuss the pros and cons of several water catching devices in your groups and list them in a table like the one below. Device e.g. big rain gauge
Pros It rains a lot in The Netherlands so there is a good water supply
Cons In dry periods there is no water.
Reasons why It’s cheap.
2. Design and calculate the system appliances 3. You can draw a 3D model of the appliance, using SketchUp. 4. Compose a water user’s manual of the ECO house. You can present it in any form you like: PowerPoint, Word-document, video, cartoon, etc)
FINAL TASK Deadline 5 – 1ST of June Present your findings on the Wiki Present your findings and results on the Wiki. You are allowed to present it in any form you like: PowerPoint, Word-document, a movie, etc.
Evaluation ______________________________________________________ Deadline 6 – 10th of June Round off project - evaluate Fill in the evaluation form and upload it onto your personal European Passport.