Background

Water is a scarce and finite resource that is vital for the life of every living thing on the planet. Our local waterways are part of a larger catchment that our drinking water comes from. Human activities have an impact on our local waterways and in turn the larger catchment, oceans and all the life that depends on it for survival. Students will learn about our impacts and ways to help. They will also become citizen scientists by learning how to monitor the chemical, physical and biological health of their local waterway.

Key Learning Questions

What is a catchment and how have catchments changed over time? How do we impact our waterways? How can we use water more sustainably and improve the health of the waterways?

Learning intentions

Students will:

• Understand the importance of water in a global context and how water connects places, environments and people.
• Identify their local waterway (as part of a wider catchment)
• Understand the geographical characteristics that make up catchments of Victoria, the local catchment and Deep Creek Reserve.
• Learn about the links between habitat, water quality and macroinvertebrate assessments in the Deep Creek Reserve.
• Understand the biotic and abiotic factors of a wetland.
• Develop an understanding of the importance of a healthy wetland and waterways and how this links into Western Port.
• See how their activities (e.g. littering) impact that local waterway (through photos taken of their school and/or local waterway).
• Identify ways to help and actions that can be taken within their school.

Activities:

Students will:

• Interactive Powerpoint presentation with photos of the schools’ local waterway, photos of litter within the school and local stormwater drains. This emphasises that their own actions can have consequences
• Interactive catchment and rain gardens display of Deep Creek Reserve. Students will see what happens when anything other than rain enters our stormwater drains.
• Identify live macroinvertebrates using the Agreed Taxonomy Level (ALT) method from Deep Creek Reserve and analyse the results in relation to Deep Creek Reserve. Data will be submitted to the River Detectives Citizen Science program.
• Test the water quality of their local waterway e.g. pH, Phosphate, turbidity, Electrical Conductivity. Data will be submitted to the River Detectives Citizen Science program.
• If schools are interested, we can provide a water testing kit for them to regularly monitor a waterway near the school. This data will be uploaded to the River Detectives website showing citizen science in practice.

Victorian Curriculum

Years 7-8

• Explain processes that influence the characteristics of places (VCGGC099)
• Identify, analyse and explain interconnections within places and between places and identify and explain changes resulting from these interconnections (VCGGC101)
• Ways that flows of water connect places as they move through the environment and the ways this affects places (VCGGK106)
• There are differences within and between groups of organisms; classification helps organise this diversity (VCSSU091)
• Interactions between organisms can be described in terms of food chains and food webs and can be affected by human activity (VCSSU093)
• Water is an important resource that cycles through the environment (VCSSU101)
• Identify questions, problems and claims that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on scientific knowledge (VCSSU107)
• Communicate ideas, findings and solutions to problems including identifying impacts and limitations of conclusions and using appropriate scientific language and representations (VCSIS113)

Years 9-10

• Ecosystems consist of communities of interdependent organisms and abiotic components of the environment; matter and energy flow through these systems (VCSSU121)
• Global systems, including the carbon cycle, rely on interactions involving the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (VCSSU128)
• Select and use appropriate equipment and technologies to systematically collect and record accurate and reliable data, and use repeat trials to improve accuracy, precision and reliability (VCSIS136)
• Analyse patterns and trends in data, including describing relationships between variables, identifying inconsistencies in data and sources of uncertainty, and drawing conclusions that are consistent with evidence (VCSIS138)
• Use knowledge of scientific concepts to evaluate investigation conclusions, including assessing the approaches used to solve problems, critically analysing the validity of information obtained from primary and secondary sources, suggesting possible alternative explanations and describing specific ways to improve the quality of data (VCSIS139)
• Communicate scientific ideas and information for a particular purpose, including constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions and representations (VCSIS140)
• Identify, analyse and explain significant interconnections within places and between places over time and at different scales, and evaluate the resulting changes and further consequences (VCGGC129)

The Sustainability cross-curriculum priority

• All life forms, including human life, are connected through ecosystems on which they depend for their wellbeing and survival.
• Actions for a more sustainable future reflect values of care, respect and responsibility, and require us to explore and understand environments.
• Sustainable futures result from actions designed to preserve and/or restore the quality and uniqueness of environments.