Could Our Drought Be Someone Else's Flood?
Water is a constant part of our lives, existing in many places and in many forms, but not often presented to young learners as a system. Understanding the causal story behind the transformation of water, how water accumulates, how it is stored, and how it can affect communities when released unexpectedly is the focus of this storyline.
This storyline investigates the interesting phenomenon of droughts and floods existing in very proximal locations, raising the question for students, “Could our drought be someone else’s flood?”
The storyline begins by looking at different regions and how those regions are shaped by the presence, absence, and forms that water takes. Students look across disciplines by seeing how culture, geography, and science are interrelated due to the role of water in an ecosystem. Students explore phenomena of droughts and flooding. Recognizing the importance of water, students are then introduced to and explore how gravity, weather, and human activity are causal factors in water movement.
Students then explore questions related to the type of water present—fresh or saltwater—and how this variable influences the physical geography as well as the biosphere in a region. As students then progress to looking at the causal stories behind weather and precipitation, they begin to raise questions and construct explanations about where rain comes from, where it goes, and how this might relate back to the driving question of how floods and droughts might be related.
Taken together, students will explore how the hydrosphere connects what happens in the atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. Water is recycled continuously through our different spheres. Changes in our climate have affected our weather patterns causing regions to receive different amounts of precipitation at different times, often resulting in droughts or floods. Students move toward understanding that even though a particular drought might not cause a particular flood, because the earth is a system, these phenomena are related.
