During the Water Project, the students were able to learn and deepen their understanding on Math concepts such as volume, liter, milliliter, and double bar graph. In Science, they did research on the amount of drinkable water available in the world, the water cycle, the droughts in the South East region of Brazil, the process and reasons for decantation of substances and the system of city water supplies by natural reservoirs. There was also the purpose of helping each student understand their personal responsibility by observing that small attitude changes made at home have a great impact in the world.

 

The students were divided in groups and given two topics to research and measure at home. Each student had to measure the amount of water in liters spent by them during a regular shower; after that, the group had to come up with ways to save water repeating the same activity. The same process was applied to brushing teeth, washing hands, washing dishes and etc. according to each group`s decision. 

 

The topic was related to daily activities in which they had to think of possible ways to save water. When comparing the data results within their groups, it was clear who had honestly followed the procedures decided by the group and who had not. Some of them repeated the data collection in order to see if their result would be the same or closer to those of the group.

 

After the first phase of personal data collection, the groups made projections on a larger scale by using the main of the group data. Therefore, they were not thinking as individuals anymore. A graph was made using the Numbers program in the iPad. The fifth graders were amazed with the difference in the amount of water saved when considering a large number of people. They were able to observe from the graphs the amount of liters saved or wasted in the process. The difference on the double bar graph showed a gigantic volume of water that could have been saved.

 

During the process, with Ms. Thais, the art teacher, students had the opportunity to create designs related to the topic. The idea was to come up with a logo that demonstrates the importance of saving water. They started the process using paper and concluded using pic-collage. We had so many great designs! In the end, one design from each group was chosen to be printed onto beautiful T-shirts that remind people of the importance of saving water in the planet!

 

Doing this research on an individual basis was a helpful tool to make them more conscious of their roles as citizens of the world. 

 

I am very proud of their hard work and very happy to see their level of involvement in the activities. I am also grateful for your support during this project at home. Therefore, this Tuesday, the students are invited to come to school wearing the T- shirts they created as a celebration!