Insufficient supplies of water have become a major global issue, making water-conservation education important for students.  A recent  New York Times article reports that in Texas, where regions have been experiencing severe drought, school districts are finding ways to provide interactive learning to encourage water conservation.

Here are a few of the resources you’ll find at PBS LearningMedia to help students learn about our need to use water wisely:

Air and Water: Water  (Interactive, Grades K-5)  Children discover why water is important to human beings. They also learn how water becomes polluted and find out what one can do to reduce pollution and conserve water.

Water (Video, Grades 4-6)  This video segment from IdahoPTV’s D4K shows us from where we get water, how it’s stored and how powerful it can be. We learn how important it is to conserve the .3% of usable fresh water available on earth.

Water Conservation:  Mexico  (Video, Grades 3-12) This video segment adapted from Last Oasis shows the challenges Mexico City faces in providing enough water for its growing population. As a result of over pumping of its ground water, some parts of the city are sinking 12 inches a year.

Water Use and Conservation:  (Lesson Plans, Grades 3-12) These lessons plans from WNET’s Planet H20 help students consider what it means to conserve water, monitor daily water use and propose methods for home water conservation.