Background

What’s polluting the Werribee river? In this scenario based program, students will work as a team to investigate the health of the Werribee River. Students will conduct a series of water quality tests and a macroinvertebrate study of 3 sites along the river to identify what is impacting on the health of this important water system. Students will present their findings in the form of a video “press release” outlining their findings and making recommendations on how to improve the quality of the water for the future.

Students will use a variety of primary and secondary information to justify their findings.

This is a hands on program which features practical activities and requires team work and logical thinking to solve the question: What’s polluting the Werribee River?

Learning Intentions

In this program students will:

• Gain understanding of the tests used to establish water quality
• Utilize a range of water testing equipment to identify the quality of a water sample
• Work as a team to identify relevant data from irrelevant information
• Communicate their findings in a video format.

Activities

Students will:

• Use a range of water quality tests to establish the state of a series of water samples
• Utilize primary and secondary data to identify a water contaminant and its possible source
• Prepare a video statement advising local residents of the dangers of the pollutant and necessary remediation steps.

Victorian Curriculum

• Science and technology contribute to finding solutions to a range of contemporary issues; these solutions may impact on other areas of society and involve ethical considerations (VCSSU089 [1])
• Water is an important resource that cycles through the environment (VCSSU101 [2])
• Collaboratively and individually plan and conduct a range of investigation types, including fieldwork and experiments, ensuring safety and ethical guidelines are followed (VCSIS108 [3])
• Construct and use a range of representations including graphs, keys and models to record and summarise data from students’ own investigations and secondary sources, and to represent and analyse patterns and relationships (VCSIS110 [4])
• Use scientific knowledge and findings from investigations to identify relationships, evaluate claims and draw conclusions (VCSIS111 [5])
• Communicate ideas, findings and solutions to problems including identifying impacts and limitations of conclusions and using appropriate scientific language and representations (VCSIS113 [6]).