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The Water Footprint of Food Quiz

Provided by: Water Footprint Calculator |Published on: October 27, 2025

Activity - Classroom

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Synopsis

This resource from Water Footprint Calculator includes a quiz for students to test their knowledge about how much water is used to produce various foods.
Students will understand how different types of foods use different amounts of water, learn how they can waste less water, and see how crops are watered.

Related Teaching Resources

Subjects: Science

Authors: Water Footprint Calculator

Region: Global

Languages: English

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Teaching Materials

Positives

The quiz is brief, and students can quickly and easily take it again and again to improve their score.
The resource provides multiple avenues for extension after students finish the quiz.

Prerequisites

Teachers may want to walk students through the drag-and-drop on Question 5. Students need to drag the numbers up or down to fall in line with the food they want to match it to, rather than dragging and dropping it on top of that food. Students who don't have this explained may become frustrated.
For the scoring, teachers should note that, while most of the questions are each worth a point, Question 3 and Question 5 are worth points for each correct answer in the multi-select or drag-and-drop.

Differentiation & Implementation

Since students are not given a run-down of the questions they got right and wrong, teachers may want to have students record their answers on a piece of paper.
After completing the quiz, teachers can have students write down one of the questions and answers that surprised them or made them think. Then, using this information, teachers can sort students into jigsaw groups to explore the Learn More pages that correspond with their questions of interest.
After completing the quiz, students can evaluate the water usage in their personal diets with this calculator or the one linked below the quiz answers. Teachers and students can then discuss individual and systemic actions that can be taken to address this problem, for example, eating a plant-based diet (individual) or government subsidies for less water-intensive growing practices (systemic).
Teachers can use this quiz as an activity in a lesson about Sustainable Development Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

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Resource Type and Format

About the Partner Provider

Water Footprint Calculator

The Water Footprint Calculator is a website that gives educators and students innovative tools and content about water use and the water footprint concept. The website contains the Water Footprint Calculator tool, high school and middle school lesson plans, in-depth information pages, water-saving tips, reports and more. This educational content helps students recognize that consumption of food, energy and consumer goods has a greater impact on their water consumption than they might realize.

Related Teaching Resources

All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.