Mission: Save Water

Have you ever thought about the amount of water that you're using?

In our STEAM class, the first few weeks leading up to this project, we learned a few new things about Water. We learned about percentages, proportions, pie charts, fractions, we learned how to use Google Sheets & we carried water from the Chicago River. We learned what the total percentage of water is on Earth. We learned about other countries and their access to water -- I learned that I use about 79 gallons daily, and the average US citizen uses almost 152 gallons daily!

NG Water Average Pie Chart 2019

For some of our field experiences or "trips" for our class, we went on a water taxi, which is a boat that transports people to places they need to go. It goes pretty fast, it's pretty windy if you're out on the stern of the boat, but we went when there was really nice weather so I enjoyed it very much. We also carried water from the Chicago River, and the weather was even better. Carrying the water from the river to my school was a lot of work, but it was still a lot of fun because I got to work together with my classmates.

The pie chart shows my daily water usage average. I use more gallons for hygiene then anything else if we're not counting indirect usage. Indirect water usage is like buying something from Starbucks, or using some type of water that isn't in your home or you haven't directly used it yourself. Direct water usage examples are turning on a faucet or a hose. Indirect water usage examples is processing wood to make paper, or producing steel for vehicles. You're not directly using it yourself, but it was made for you to consume/have.

NG Water Poster 2019

For the Action Project, I made a poster. It displays all the stuff we've learned so far about our class called Water, which is basically STE(A)M. This is my poster. It displays all the basic stuff like a title, an image and a few things that kind of pop out, like the color yellow. I think my poster turned out well, it's kind of messy but I'm not sure how I can make it more clean without removing a bunch of things also it might make it a bit boring.

My poster shows the daily average of water usage from the US, from Australia, and from my daily usage, also my water usage pie chart.

From where I live, it takes me about 2 minutes to get water from the nearest source, which for me is Lake Michigan. If I were to have to get my 79 gallons of water that I use daily, it would take me 32 minutes (counting there and back).



What are ways we all can cut down on water usage?

You can ...

To, Hiu Water Taxi 2019

1) Take shorter showers. Maybe reduce them to 5 - 10 minutes.

2) Get a low-flush toilet. Every time you flush, the toilet uses about 1.6 gallons.

3) Save up your dirty laundry so that you can wash a big load, instead of doing a little bit during the week. Every load uses about 15 to 30 gallons, depending on the size.

4) Turn off the water while shaving or brushing your teeth. The sink wastes about 2.2 gallons per minute if you leave it on.

5) Install water saving shower heads or flow restrictors.

To, Hiu Mission Water 2019

Everything we've learned in the last few weeks has led up to making this poster. I think everything we've done in the past few weeks was really cool. The water taxi, carrying water from the Chicago River, even the math part of this class!

Just remember... save your water!

Cited sources:

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-percapita.html