Gee-Wow! Adventures in Water Education. Second Edition.

In February of 1990, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources identified 2,662 sites of soil and groundwater contamination in the state of Michigan alone. Half of all United States residents and one quarter of the Canadian population used ground water as their primary source of drinking water. Groundwater and surface water are integrally connected. Groundwater and surface water flow between political boundaries, connecting neighboring states, provinces, and communities. This curriculum was created to better teach concepts related to water, ground water, and pollution prevention to students in grades K-6. It contains 28 activities centering on ground water and related topics, such as the water cycle, recycling and solid waste, hazardous waste, water conservation, ground water protection, and responsible citizenship. The activities are divided into eight sections: (1) Why Is the Earth Called the Water Planet?; (2) How Is Water Stored and Moved on Planet Earth? (3) Where Is Water Found Underground? (4) How Does Water Move Underground? (5) What Natural Factors Influence Water Quality? (6) How Do People Affect Groundwater? (7) How Does the Quality of Groundwater Affect Life on Earth? and (8) How Can We Protect the Quantity and Quality of Groundwater? All activities use a multi-disciplinary, hands-on, participatory approach and include science, art, math, lab, language arts, geography, music, and social studies activities. The activities are indexed by subject area, type of activity (sucy as lab or demonstration), and grade level. Contains a glossary, a list of Michigan Soil Conservation offices, and 25 references. (MKR)