Activity 1 - Sources of Water in the World and in Your Community

Use the resources listed below to help you complete this activity.

To learn more about this topic, visit the following web sites:

The Water Cycle

"The Hydrologic Cycle" - USGS
This site is an on-line tutorial that includes a full color image of the water cycle and a review of the impact that humans can have on the water cycle. .

"Natural Processes of Groundwater and Surface water Interaction: The Hydrologic Cycle and Interactions of Ground Water and Surface Water" - USGS Circular 1139
Site reviews the basics of the water cycle, with a focus on the movement of water between and within ground and surface water reservoirs. Includes several full color illustrations. Additional information can be obtained by clicking on "Box" links.

Part B: Local Water Use

To complete the investigation, each student group will need:

• Water use data in your county:

American Water Works North American Water Utilities
Select your state from the scroll down list. You will be taken to a new page. Click on your county or municipality to open the local water quality report. You may have to do some searching to find the actual report.

EPA Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water
Click on your state to be taken to a new page that gives an overview of your state's drinking water and links to additional information. To view your water quality report, click on the "water quality report" link to view a list of reports that are available online.

USGS Water Use Data, 1995 Print out the data directory first, as it explains the cods used for each data category. Next, locate your state and click on the County Data File link. This will load water use data in tab delimited "spreadsheet" format. These files can be directly imported into spreadsheet computer programs, such as Excel. To do this, follow the directions below:

1. With the data for your state in the browser window, select file, scroll down to save as, and save the document as text (i.e., "mystate.txt")
2. Launch Excel and open up a blank workbook.
3. In the file menu, select open. Find your file and open it. This will pull up a window call a "text import wizard". Follow the options for delimited text (the delimiters are tabs). When you are finished with the wizard, your local water use data will be in an Excel spreadsheet.
4. Save the file as an Excel file. You can then print copies for students, transfer it to disk for use on computers in your classroom, or load it onto a school computer system.

   Note: if your county's water use/quality data is not available online, you will need to contact your county or municipality to obtain the needed data.

• Local topographic map

Part D: Collecting Rain Water in Your Community

To complete the investigation, each student group will need:

• Local annual precipitation data

  World Climate.com
  Go to site and type in the name of your city (do not enter the name of your state). This will open a page with a list of places with the same name. Select your community from the list to view data. Available data will vary with county.

  National Regional Climate Centers
  Click on your region. This will open a new page. Pages for each of the climate centers differ, so a little searching and looking around may be required. Try to find a link to climate data.

   

Inquiring Further:

To learn more about volcanic eruptions and the water cycle, visit the following web site:

Volcanic Eruptions - Volcano World
Reviews the ways in which water interacts with volcanic eruptions. Includes colorful photographs.

To learn more about drinking water from the ocean, visit the following web sites:

"Seawater Desalination in California" - Pantell et al., California Coastal Commission
Online report reviews the basics of the desalination process and how desalination has affected humans and the environment in California.

"MCWD Sea Water Desalination" - Marine Coast Water District, Marina, California
Short article covers the steps of the desalination process used to assure that water is safe to drink. Click on link to view a color graphic of the desalination process.

To learn more about dating water, visit the following web site:

"Tracing and Dating Young Ground Water" - USGS Fact Sheet 134-99
Site reviews the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), tritium (3H), and other chemical and isotopic substances in ground water to date water.

Send all comments about this website to education@agiweb.org

Last updated: May 11, 2010

This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the AGI Foundation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation.