The security of people and nations rests on four pillars – food, energy, water and climate. They are all closely related, and all under increasing stress
Water security issues are potential threatening to all people around the world. Throughout the journey towards day zero, lots of events and lessons can be learned from. Governments around the world are being challenged by the water security issues that directly affect the economic growth specially in a country that suffers from high population growth each year. Egypt is one of the countries that already suffers from high population growth, average economy, and water security conflicts with only one main resource of water which is the Nile.
Throughout our study of the curriculum unit “NASA Mission Geography” for 9th grade students, I opened this study module by first exposing the students to some of the facts, media, and infographic posters about the water security around the world and showing them video of “Day Zero” then letting them reflect their understanding inside the STEAM Journal for this part of the study module.
Picture 2: Students’ STEAM Journal reflection sample
After being shifted to the full virtual learning environment and during my online STEM classes, I wanted my students to lead a campaign to raise awareness among parents, teachers, and other students about the global issues with regards to the water security. In this specific grade, I had 40 students and I used the “Breakout Rooms” feature in Microsoft teams in order to divide them into groups of 3 or 4 and then I assigned each group a task of choosing one water security issue and designing a logo, poster, and a presentation video for their campaign. Students started first their research and brainstorming ideas about water security problems in the world. Some of them chose to talk about the water conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia as a result of “Al-Nahda Dam” while others led a campaign called “I am thirsty” to raise awareness about the availability of water per capita and other group discussed the problems of water pollution and chemical pollution.
Picture 2: Poster created by the sanitation campaign group
Picture 3: Poster designed by the Egyptian-Ethiopian conflict group campaign
In this teaching module, I used educational material available on the “National Geographic” main education website and I used the reflection journals available there as they were really helpful in delivering the content to the students in an engaging way. I used the public education campaign journal to describe the domains of study to the students. According to this journal, each group has to cover the following points:
- A proposal for the campaign showing the reason why they chose this topic in specific and the goals behind their campaign
- An evidence-based argument that supports their claims and the situation that they picked to study. This part should include graphs, pictorial figures, and statistics about the area of study or the situation.
- A scientific content for the argument where students show the scientific concepts behind the problem as for example the relation between climate change and the availability of water in a certain country.
Finally, the students met in their groups on Microsoft teams in order to record their campaign video. I received amazing videos and presentations that were showcased on the school’s main social media pages and official websites to educate people about water and water scarcity and security problems. Below, I am showing here two videos that I received from the campaign of the Egyptian-Ethiopian conflict as well as the “I am thirsty” campaign.
For more information about the Egyptian-Ethiopian Conflict Campaign Group, look at the video found here.
To be informed about the ‘I am thirsty’ Campaign, see the video here.
Visit our school’s Facebook group here.
