We take a steady shower stream and clean drinking water for granted, but in many countries around the world, the lack of water or a clean water supply is responsible for higher sickness and death rates. Taking a closer look at the water supplies in Honduras, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Bangladesh, middle schoolers discuss the ways that water deprivation is affecting men, women, and children around the world, and research the most efficient ways to help.

Concepts

drinking water, water supplies, water, bangladesh, ethiopia, kenya, droughts, india, honduras

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Create a cross-curricular project between science, social studies, and language arts for the portfolio assignment
• If you don't have time for an entire portfolio, have your class choose one or two of the prompts to complete for the end of the unit
• Assign one country to different groups in your class for further research and presentation about the living conditions and opportunities for aid in their assigned countries

Classroom Considerations

• Many of the worksheets provide information for the lesson's theme, and may be best used as handouts in a group reading circle or projected onto a whiteboard

Pros

• Aligns with National Standards for language arts, science, civics, technology, and economics
• A great way to connect academic knowledge with service projects or ethical presentations

Cons

• None