What Will Life Look Like as Major Rivers Run Dry?

Positives

• This video has an articulate, easy-to-follow narrator and includes engaging photographs, maps, and other graphics.
• This video provides students with a chance to think about their own water use and how to make changes in their daily lives.

Additional Prerequisites

• There are two advertisements at the beginning of this video.
• Be prepared for an advertisement at the end of the video for a PBS series about Suicide Prevention Month, beginning at 11:08.  

Differentiation

• Consider providing students with a note-taking guide that breaks the video up into chunks, including the three significant drought areas, the Colorado River Basin, success stories, or agriculture and irrigation impacts.
• This video would be a great addition to another resource on climate change impacts and the water cycle, such as this comprehensive lesson.
• Have students write a paragraph explaining the relationship between climate change and droughts with reasons and evidence to support their explanation, citing information from the video or other resources on droughts.
• Language arts classes could be asked to further research a major river system, such as the Yangtze, the Danube, or a river system in the United States, and discuss the impacts of climate change on this river system.
• Put students into groups to brainstorm ways that they can conserve water in their daily lives or how they might take action in their own communities to conserve water.
• Science classes can use this video to connect to lessons about phases of matter, the water cycle, hydrogen bonds, and exponential vs. linear relationships.