M6 Readings on Water

This week we are looking at water resources and water pollution.

Foundation Resources

Tracking US Groundwater: Reserves for the Future by William Alley. This article has an excellent explanation of groundwater and how to track it. However, is a bit more technical than we need. Read the beginning of the article carefully, to the heading How Much Groundwater is Available. Then, skim the article. Read more carefully again when you get to the Conclusions at the end. All of your quiz questions will come from the beginning and the Conclusion section.

How Much is Clean Water Worth? by Jim Morrison in EBSCOhost. Have you ever put a price on the air you breath or the water you drink? This article shows that nature yields very large economic benefits; benefits which should be considered when making important decisions for our nations cities and towns

Focus Resources

Why Global Water Shortages pose threat of Terror and War from The Guardian. Are problems like these impacting your country of choice? Note the policy/legal perspectives in this article.

How Stuff Works: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Global Water Crisis: an overview of how the water crisis started and what science can do to help. 8 minutes.

http://youtu.be/R78EtdkeTrY

California's Extreme Drought Explained, from the New York Times. Our neighbor to the south is experiencing extended drought. Given that much of our nations fruits and vegetables are grown in California, the ramifications of this are frightening. 3 minutes

http://youtu.be/rHWHuP91c7Y

2013 Report Card for America's Infrastructure - Drinking Water. America has earned a D for its groundwater. Click through the several pages of this short but impactful report.

Not Safe to Drink from Michigan Public Radio (50 minutes)- this is an audio documentary that you will need for your Activity and Discussion.

Want to know more? Here are some water quality related resources from the NRDC. This reading is optional.

Our Flipboard Magazine for Module 6

Here is a fun way to see the web articles assigned for this module. Ideally, you would view this in the Flipboard app on your mobile device. With this web version, click on the arrow on the right side of the magazine to select. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to page through the articles.

You can also use this to contribute resources to the class (note: this is a different link each week). If you contribute quality articles that are related to this week's topic, then you could earn a gold star!

You must have a (free) Flipboard account to contribute resources. If you would prefer not to get an account, you can send the contribution to me and I will add it to Flipboard for you.

Image from Flickr Creative Commons