ISTE Activity

During this lesson, students will examine the amount of water their family uses on a typical Saturday, record the information in a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 template, analyze and compare their water usage to that of others in the class, and suggest three ways to conserve water. The following lesson may fit well in an environmental education unit on conservation.

Lesson plan

School level	• Middle school (11–13 years old) • High school (14–18 years old)
Subjects	• Mathematics • Science
Class time	• 2–3 class periods (45-minute periods)
Software required	• Microsoft Office Excel 2007 • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 • Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Materials needed	• Student handout (Microsoft Office Word 2007 document, 15 KB) • Office Excel 2007 water usage worksheet template (Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet, 20 KB) • U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) • One gallon of water

Teacher guide

Goals

•	Students recognize the components, structure, and organization of systems, and the interconnections in and among them.
•	Students understand and apply concepts and procedures from probability and statistics.
•	Students use technology resources to solve problems and make informed decisions.
•	Students use technology tools to process data and report results.

Objectives

•	Students will use an Office Excel 2007 spreadsheet to determine the amount of water their family uses.
•	Students will use Internet resources to compare the amount of water used in their families to that used in other families.
•	Students will identify ways to decrease family water usage.

Lesson procedure

Introduction

We take water, a basic necessity of human life, for granted. We use it without thinking about it. What do you and your family do that uses water?

How much water does each of these activities typically use? For example, how much water does a five-minute shower use? How much water does it take to hand-wash dishes? To run an automatic dishwasher load? According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an average five-minute shower takes 15–25 gallons of water. Hand-washing dishes uses 12–20 gallons of water. An automatic dishwasher load uses 9–12 gallons. [Show your students a gallon of water to help them visualize the volume in one gallon.] What activity would this one gallon of water be sufficient for?

The average residence uses more than 100,000 gallons of water (inside and outside) per year (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). The average person uses 100 gallons of water a day. Estimate and write down how much water you think your family uses on a cold, rainy Saturday when everyone is at home.

In this activity, you will follow a series of steps to determine how much water your family uses, record your findings in an Office Excel 2007 spreadsheet, and then write a report analyzing your findings.

Main activity

The Student handout (Microsoft Office Word 2007 document, 15 KB) details the main activities for this lesson plan, including Step 1, "Determine your family's water usage" and Step 2, "Present your recommendations."

Conclusion

•

Have students present their findings and recommendations to the class. During the class discussion, have students: • Reflect on the reasons for variation in water usage per family (for example, number of members in family, specific occupation, job or religious requirements, or recreational activities). • Determine as a class how to prioritize the recommendations for conserving water based on all the gathered data. • Brainstorm other ways to save water.

•	Assess students on: • The accuracy and thoroughness of the Office Excel 2007 spreadsheet and Office Word 2007 document they submit. • Their Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation that shows three ways they can use less water at home.

Materials needed

•	Student handout (Office Word 2007 document, 15 KB)
•	Excel water usage worksheet template (Office Excel 2007 worksheet, 36 KB).
•	U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Web site
•	One gallon of water

Lesson extension activities

•	Have students use Office Excel 2007 to create a bar chart that reflects their data.
•	If you have a highly technical group of students, have them start with a blank Office Excel 2007 worksheet where they can create their own formulas and charts.
•	Have students make a water conservation brochure using Office Publisher 2007.

    This lesson covers multiple ISTE NETS categories. Research and Information Fluency is important because students will use the Internet to find data showing water use by various families then comparing the data to the water use of their own family which was estimated with the help of a calculator provided by another website. Because of this, the students will cover the standard of planning strategies to guide inquiry and locating as they will have to come up with a plan for finding information on the Internet about the water use of families. Also, to find the data they will use the standard of having to locate, organize, and analyze information from whatever sources they utilize. Finally, they will be exposed to the standard of processing data and reporting results because students will be assessed on the quality of the work done on Word, Excel, and Power Point

    My wife is in business, and she often complains about the lack of critical thinking ability in many young colleagues. The category, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making is prominent, and more than one standard will be covered. Students will have to plan and manage activities to develop a solution and complete a project in that they will have to decide when and how to record family water use, where to enter the information, and what is the best data regarding the water use of other families. Critical thinking skills will be very important when the standard of collecting and analyzing data to identify solutions and/or making informed decisions because the students will collect and analyze data entered onto an Excel about their own family's water use, then compare and contrast the data of their family's water use with data about other family's water use. Also, the standard of using multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions is covered as the students will have to take their data and determine ways to decrease family water use.

    Students will need to show Creativity and Innovation because they are required to make a Power Point presentation that shows three ways they can use less water at home, and some students may be assigned the task of making a water conservation brochure using Office Publisher. Certainly this meets the standard of creating original works as a means of personal expression.        

    I like this lesson that I found on http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx#Mathematics, which has lesson plans for many subjects. It gives students many opportunities to use technologies that will be useful in a variety of careers and covers a variety of ISTE standards. Equally important is that students have to critically think which is not always the case with many technologies such as calculators and some educational software.