The Importance of Water
Students learn about the scarcity of fresh drinking water throughout the world and are inspired to take action to help alleviate the problem through a series of lessons designed by Drink Local Drink Tap.
Ben Jurek brings a plastic bottle of cloudy water to show the class when he visits elementary schools in northeast Ohio. After giving the container a good shake, students guess what is floating in the murky liquid. One quickly scrunches her face and answers, “Eck - it’s a cigarette butt.”
“Just one cigarette butt can pollute up to one square mile of clean drinking water,” says Mr. Jurek, who passes the bottle around the room so students can get a closer look. He goes on to explain why it is so important to talk about clean water.
“We believe clean water is a human right,” says Mr. Jurek, the education program manager at Drink Local Drink Tap (DLDT), a non-profit organization based in Cleveland that advocates for clean, safe, affordable drinking water. Locally, the organization works to protect the Great Lakes, while internationally, it builds clean water and sanitation facilities in Uganda. “One out of four people on earth does not have access to clean drinking water,” Mr. Jurek explains. “If we can educate people about problems associated with water, we can make an impact.”
DLDT has designed a series of standards-based lessons, called the Wavemaker program, that focus on water-related issues: plastic pollution in the Great Lakes; microplastics found in the oceans; climate change through the lens of water; and the scarcity of clean drinking water throughout the world. From local to global concerns, the organization teaches students how they can help alleviate problems by creating awareness in their schools, eliminating plastic in their personal lives, and keeping their environment litter free.
Mr. Jurek shows how one cigarette butt pollutes a bottle of clean water.
Through the lessons, students are challenged to think critically about local and global water issues. The curriculum is comprised of three units that cover various topics: Unit 1 deals with individual action; Unit 2 focuses on the idea of clean water as a human right; and Unit 3 addresses climate change and how it is expressed explicitly through water. All are aligned to state and national standards and can be taught individually or as complete units. Teachers can download the curriculum from DLDT’s website and utilize the various lessons to meet their unique classroom needs.
The organization also offers a menu of six lesson options that DLDT educators will present in the classroom. With a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the organization has provided multiple interactive sessions for students in grades 4-8 in the recent school year. Students have learned about DLDT’s local and global water mission; how choices they make every day impact the environment; the growing problem of microplastics; water sanitation and hygiene; and the difficulties school children like themselves in Uganda face each day obtaining fresh water. Again, teachers can select from the content offerings to fit the needs of their students.
Students at CMSD’s Tremont Montessori School get a feel for the heaviness of a jerrycan filled with water (45 pounds), which their peers in Uganda carry several miles each day from a community water source to their homes or schools.
“We are presenting a topic that is relevant, we are giving young people foundational knowledge, and then we are encouraging them to find solutions to the problem.”
“We aim to give educators the tools they need to address these topics successfully and to provide young people with authentic learning experiences so they can go out and make an impact in their community,” says Mr. Jurek. “There are small things students can do in their day-to-day lives that can help, whether it’s using a reusable water bottle or reusable bags or simply educating others about these issues,” he continues. “We want to empower young people with knowledge, and then we want them to take the next step and take action for a better planet.”
Ben Jurek hopes to build a sense of global citizenship within the students he works with. He says they are most interested in what it would be like to be a child their age in Uganda who has to walk miles each day to retrieve drinking water for themselves and their families.
One way students take action is by participating in DLDT’s beach clean-up in the spring. In April, almost 675 students from seven schools in the Cleveland area gathered at Edgewater Beach in Cleveland for the annual event. The students picked up 180 pounds of trash and learned from experts the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, The Cleveland Metroparks, and The Greater Cleveland Aquarium about their work protecting clean water. Students have also participated in projects to clean up areas around their school buildings, created PSA campaigns to create an awareness of water-related issues amongst their peers, and organized fund-raisers to contribute to DLDT’s clean water initiatives in Uganda.