LETS DEMONSTRATE!

RIVER CATCHMENT

FROM SOURCE TO MOUTH

1.LCD: PAINT DOCUMENT

2. MATERIALS LIST• LCD PROJECTOR• Clear bowl 5 litres approx (for your catchment area)• Water jug or watering can ( for your rain fall)• IF YOUR NOT NEAR A TAP 2x water bottles or empty soft drink bottles (one with clean water , one with grey

water)• 6 plastic freezer bags.• Used shopping bags and paper towel for cleaning up.• IN PLASTIC BAGS COLLECT A HANDFUL EACH OF : Dead leaves• Blood and bone/ or kitchen bones• Animal manure/ or use imagination• Pebbles and stones• Dirt• Garden fertilizer in package• Garden or household insecticide• Garden Herbicide or weedkillers in package• Salt• Oil• Grey water in bottle• Detergent• 2x household strong cleaners eg: metho and window cleaner• Cigarette butts in a plastic bag• Headless naked plastic doll (sex of your choice) from the two dollar shop!! (DONT HAND THIS OUT THIS IS FOR

DRAMATIC PUPOSES. YOU NEED SOME FUN TOO!)

3. METHOD• 1. DISTRIBUTE: Before students come into the room have each item spread around the room in order one item

per table so each student can participate by adding something to the bowl.• 2. OPEN: river catchment from source to mouth with PAINT. This will allow you to make changes on screen as

you go. NOT from this power point. The document includes a word list they can refer to in order to discuss the demonstration. Note student answers to the question “would you drink the water at this location?”

• 3. AT THE SOURCE: Put the bowl in front of you and pour the water. Use the terms PRECIPITATION and SOURCE to describe the start of the picture on the left hand side. Ask the students if they would drink the water at this stage.

• 4.THROUGH THE FOREST: Describe how water moves downhill under gravity and that it picks up speed and power as it goes so has enough energy to carry stones and dirt. Have those students come and their bags to the bowl. Ask students what word on the word list best describes this ( RUN-OFF) Ask students what living things can be found in the forest? Explain how water INFILTRATES into the GROUND WATER zone by following the path made by roots and the cracks in rocks. Next tell them that the rubbish on the forest floor. Have students with bags of leaves, blood and bone and manure come up and add their contribution and stir!! Ask the class “how could we clean it at this stage to make it safe to drink?” Tell them this is the types of locations were Melbourne’s water supply comes from. Discuss the pros and cons of this.

• 5. ACROSS RURAL LAND: Explain how the water is slowing down as the land becomes flatter over farmland. Here it picks up salt because the GROUND WATER is so close to the surface as large trees have been removed and no longer soak it up and this brings salt to the surface and EVAPORATION from the sun forms a salt crust. The farmer adds chemicals for his crops to grow such as herbicides, fertilizers and fungicides that all enter the water system. Have students bring these up but use your judgement about wether you put these in or the student ( USE TINY AMOUNTS). SEEPEAGE or escape of these chemicals into the environment is common through the soil. Ask the class “how could we clean the water at this stage to make it safe to drink?”. Discuss difference between water for animals and water for humans. Explain this is the reality for people living on the Murray River.

• 6. IN THE BURBS: Discuss how domestic water use is 2/3rds the states water use. Have students add the bottle of grey water. Next explain why water restrictions stopped washing our cars, add the detergent. Lastly explain the storm water RUN-OFF carries car oil, student adds oil. Ask the class “how could we clean it at this stage to make it safe to drink?” Discuss role of waste water treatment plants. Would they drink the water after it was treated?

• 7. INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND: Tell student s the river is looking like an open sewer rather than a river now. What type of evidence of human activities would they find here? Explain that many of the chemicals used here are so toxic that people working here wear protective clothing and some of the buildings have large clearance zones between them and other buildings in case of explosions!! Have students add their “toxic” strong cleaning chemicals (anything with a strong smell) Dumping of chemicals into water ways is illegal but spills still happen with disastrous consequences. Explain to the class that clean up bills run into the millions of dollars. Ask the class “how could we clean it at this stage to make it safe to drink?” In poor parts of the world millions of people do live in slums in these exact conditions.

• 8. THE CITIES DIRTY UNDERBELLY: The number one litter in the bay is cigarette butts , have student add their bag. Explain that also the worst time to swim in the bay is after rain as all the storm water systems and sewage overflows go straight in to the bay during storms and Immediately after. Finally for dramatic effect, and because I had an all male class, we add the headless plastic doll, a victim of crime in Melbourne’s under world.

• 9. SUMMING UP: Focus on the board. Move the speech balloons into position so that the contents of the water at each location matches. Next ask students why Victoria has its reservoirs in the mountains and not near Melbourne? Go over each of the words in the word list to check meaning.

Ms. Kylie-Ann Walsh , Senior Geography Teacher.