This interactive water footprint calculator asks a series of questions in order to calculate an estimated water footprint.
Students will learn about how their personal and household choices impact their water footprint and how they can reduce their water usage.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This resource gives students a thorough understanding of how their water consumption impacts their footprint and includes plenty of strategies for minimizing their impact.
Students will have plenty of opportunities for conversation and introspection before, during, and after answering the questions included in the survey.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have prior knowledge of their household water use in order to answer the questions.
Younger middle school students may need to consult with their families in order to use the resource successfully.
Students will need access to the Internet to use this resource.
Differentiation
Cross-curricular connections can be made in social studies classes discussing how water resources can and will impact communities and governments, or in science classes considering access to clean water, water reuse, or water usage by different industries and sectors that reduce the amount of water available to people and wildlife.
For middle school students, completing this resource would make an excellent homework assignment. After completing the questions, students can come back together in class to discuss their footprints and how they can reduce them.
High schoolers can likely complete the footprint calculator independently. Their at-home assignment could be educating and advocating for or implementing practices that will reduce their water usage at home.
Scientist Notes
This is a water footprint calculator that computes individual and household water use and compares the value with the U.S. daily average of 1,802 gallons per day. The resource also contains tips and credible information on water conservation and management. On that account, this resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
