Access to clean water, one of the problems caused by the global climate crisis, is the aim of our STEM plan, based on the Scientix Repository Resource “Shrink your water footprint“.
The gradual decrease of clean water resources and access to clean water has become one of the biggest problems of our world.
We aimed to create nature-based solutions with our students for the efficient use of water resources.
We aimed that our students adopt a more sustainable lifestyle by understanding the effects and causes of climate change at an early age.
We also encouraged them to gain critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, cooperation and sense of responsibility at an early age.
Among 36 students aged 9-10, 19 were girls and 17 were boys. We carried out our activities in our classroom. Our activities took place between 4-20 April 2022.
To our students: 1- What does the blue part in the picture of our world represent?, 2-How much of our world is covered with water?, 3-Do you think we can use all of the water on Earth as drinking water?, 4-How much of our body is water?, 5-Why is water important for our life and what difficulties would we face without water?. We triggered feelings of curiosity by asking questions and brainstorming.
As the first step of conscious water consumption, we had water footprints calculated.
As part of the expert meetings, we talked to Dr. Akgün İlhan about “SU” on Zoom. Our students played the “Future of the World” game to say ‘I am in the Future of the World’, learned about the problems related to water and developed solutions.
Elif is 8 years old. There is a drought in his city. Water resources are dwindling rapidly. Elif and her family are struggling to find water for drinking and cleaning. Since problems began to be experienced in the irrigation of agricultural lands, the city where Elif lives can no longer produce from agricultural lands as much as before. Trying to understand the reason for all this, Elif shares her observations with her family, friends and teacher. They are starting to explore how we can reclaim our water through recycling. I explained the problem situation to my students. The students, who were divided into groups, started to create their prototypes by doing research on “Rainwater harvesting”.
Rainwater harvest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CywGLqPRFRs
Presentations by my students:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p82EP6Rj8v0
Our students strengthened their ties with nature by developing nature-based STEM activities. Aware of the problems of the environment they live in, our students learned to be sensitive to the environment by questioning their role in the chain of life. They took steps towards efficient use of water resources. They have shrunk their water footprints. They started to change their lifestyles for a sustainable world.
