LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Your Name: Jacqueline Nguyen

Title of Lesson: Why is water important and ways to conserve water
Grade: 5th grade
STANDARDS

5-ESS2- Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various
reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
2.
5-ESS3- Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas
to protect the Earths resources and environment.
1.
LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW
Provide an overview/synopsis of the lesson and the topics that it will cover. Make sure to provide a reason
why you selected this to be relevant for a unit on sustainability?
The class will start with the teacher explaining how water is distributed throughout the Earth. The teacher
will teach the class about the different areas water is stored and the percentage each area has in water. The
students will make a graph depicting the water distribution on Earth. After that the teacher will talk about
our water usage and show statistics of the United States water usage and start a class discussion of how we
are using our water. This discussion will then go towards talking about sustainability and if we are using our
water supply sustainably or not. After the discussion of water sustainability the teacher will talk about how
there are currently new ways people are conserving water through different technology and innovations. The
teacher will split the class into different groups and give each group a type of water conserving technology or
innovation to research. After the students have researched the topic they will put together a PowerPoint
explaining the technology or innovation they researched and how that could affect the future.
The reason I selected this topic to be relevant for a unit of sustainability is that we are currently not using
water sustainably. Students need to know that we have a finite amount of fresh water on our earth and at the
current rate we are using it we will run out of our valuable fresh water resource in the near future. With this
knowledge students will be able to understand why it is important that we use water sustainably and can
think new ideas to conserve water.
OBJECTIVES
Describe what you want students to know/be able to do as a result of the lesson.
For example, Students will be able to
Students will be able to create a graph depicting the fresh water distribution on Earth and explain a water
conservation technology or innovation.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
What measures will you use to know if you students met the objectives?
The assessment will be the graph that the students made on the fresh water distribution on Earth and the
PowerPoint they created that explains the water conservation technology or innovation and how this could
affect the future.
PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE
What will students need to know prior to completing this lesson and how will you access their prior
knowledge?
Prior to completing this lesson students will need to know how to make a graph, make a PowerPoint, and be
able to know how to research on the Internet. To access their prior knowledge I will ask their math teacher if
they have done graphing yet, for the PowerPoint I will ask them in class if they have ever made a PowerPoint

presentation, and for the research on the Internet I will make sure this lesson takes place after the class has
meet with the librarian and they have discussed how to research on the Internet.
MATERIALS

Pencil
Graph paper
Computer

Conservation
Sustainability
Innovation
Distribution

VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS

TEACHING PROCEDURES
Procedural Steps (Step by step instructions for teaching the lesson):
1. The teacher will start the class off by asking if the students knew how much fresh water is on the
Earth.
2. The teacher will call on students to have them answer.
3. The teacher will tell the students that only 2% of the Earths water is fresh water and that is the only
water that we can currently use.
4. The teacher will teach the class about the different locations and reservoirs fresh water is located and
the amount in each location in percentages. Teacher will make sure students are taking notes during
this time.
5. The teacher will then have the students make a graph depicting the fresh water distribution on the
Earth. Students can choose whatever graph they want to make as long as it is approved by the
teacher.
6. After students are done making the graph they will hand it in for a grade.
7. The teacher will shift topics to talk about the water usage in America. The teacher will pull up a
website that can be found on the Day 5 webpage which shows the water usage in America.
8. After learning about Americas water usage the teacher will discuss with the class whether we are
using our water resources wisely or not.
9. The discussion should head towards us not using our water wisely and the teacher will then talk
about what sustainability is. With knowledge of the new word the teacher will then ask the students if
we are using water sustainably.
10. After discussing how we are not using water sustainably the teacher will ask the students how our
current water usage may affect the future.
11. After that the teacher will ask for ways we can conserve water. Teacher will call of students to
answer the question.
12. After students have thought of a good list of ways to conserve water the teacher will talk about how
in the community and world people are inventing new technology and using new innovations to
conserve water.
13. The teacher will split the class into groups of 3 and assign each group a water conserving technology
or innovation. The groups will have to make a PowerPoint explaining the water conserving
technology/innovation and state how this could affect the future.
14. After the students put together the PowerPoint they will present them to the class.
RESOURCES
List any references you used to create this lesson. If you borrowed ideas from any lesson plans please note
them here. Use APA format.
EPA WaterSense | Water Education & Our Water Cycle | Water Use Today. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014,
from http://www.epa.gov/watersense/our_water/water_use_today.html

The Water Cycle. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html

Water-Saving Products - Water Use It Wisely. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from
http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/water-saving-products/
Water-Saving Technologies. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from
http://www.epa.gov/watersense/outdoor/tech.html
WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION
Provide a complete explanation of how your lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values
thinking. Define the way of thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be
included meaningfully in the lesson plan.
Futures thinking is when we think about how our actions today affect the future. This lesson plan focuses on how
finite and valuable our fresh water supply is. There is much discussion in this lesson plan that makes the students
think about how their actions can affect the future. For example, in the lesson plan we talk about how our current
water usage may affect the future is an example of futures thinking. With this discussion it will get the students to
think about how their actions with water will affect the water usage of the future. Another example of how I
incorporated futures thinking is when I assign the students to research a water conserving technology/innovation and
have them research how it works and how that could affect the future.