Grade 5 Students Learn About California Water Challenges in Science Projects—See Their Work!

Lower School grade 5 students engaged in a unit exploring the challenges of water consumption in California—touching on all elements of STEAM learning and culminating with fun design challenges.

The water consumption unit, led by Lower School science teacher David Beshk, studied the unique challenges of providing water to millions of Southern California residents, and explored on a personal level what students can do to reduce their own water usage. With little precipitation and few adequate natural resources in the region, much of the water is brought in from the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Sacramento River delta and Lake Havasu by way of aqueducts.

Learning of California’s water infrastructure led to a design challenge: Construct an above-ground aqueduct that can transport water three feet, using only foil, paper, tape, foam pipe insulation and cups.

“Through this challenge, the students gained a better understanding of the extreme engineering challenge of transporting water across vast distances,” Mr. Beshk said.

In a separate project, the students also gained a greater understanding of their own water usage at home. They measured and calculated the output of their showers, bathroom faucets, kitchen faucets and toilets at their home over a set timeframe. Then they calculated those findings to determine their own water usage.

“Students tracked their home water consumption for three days and used that data to create personal water bills that included various graphs presenting their data,” Mr. Beshk said. “They then used that data to reflect on their water usage and identify areas where they could reduce their personal consumption and educate their families on ways they too could reduce the volume of water used within the home.”

Overall, the unit incorporated elements of science, math, engineering and computer science in relevant ways, exploring and learning about an ongoing challenge in the state they call home.