Far more of our freshwater is stored underground as groundwater than is in our lakes, rivers, and streams. Philippe Cousteau travels to the Orange County Water District in Fountain Valley, CA,to meet with engineer Sandy Scott Roberts, who explains how they manage and use the freshwater from this surprising underground source.

Participating in this hands-on lesson, students in grades 6-8 will lead each other through the integration and application of a real-life situation. This lesson provides a PowerPoint and worksheets to help students understand precision agriculture and its use of geographic information systems to help farmers use a sustainable growing method. Students will then integrate their knowledge and skills to create their own mini irrigation system.

Looking at Earth from space, it definitely looks like a water planet. Although 71% of Earth is composed of water, freshwater is limited and must be managed. Philippe Cousteau meets with Kat Bormann from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Marty Adams from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to learn how freshwater resources are being managed using innovative technological solutions.

This design challenge moves your students from passive to active learners through a cross-curricular, hands-on team challenge in direct correlation to real-world issues of water conservation. In this lesson, students, grades 6-8, will learn about aqueducts through a close reading activity. They are then given different scenarios in an engineering design challenge to create an aqueduct to supply freshwater to their city, despite various obstacles.