Water Wisdom

Teacher's Guide

“Wet” Your Appetite

Objective

Students will learn how much water is needed to produce food and will create a Water-Wise menu.

Subjects

Math

Nutrition

Social Studies

Critical Thinking

Overview

Students will analyze a typical daily diet and estimate how much water is needed to produce food for one day. They will then design a new menu that will conserve water by half.

Materials

Water—The River of Life Fact Sheet

“Wet” Your Appetite handout

Scratch paper and pencils for each student

Preparation

· Write the list of foods to the right up on the board without the gallon amounts, and also write the menu below that represents a typical American diet. Cover up the menu so that students can’t see it or gallon amounts until later.

Menu for a typical American Diet

Breakfast:

2 eggs—124 gal.

2 slices bacon—100 gal.

2 pieces of toast w/butter—110 gal.

1 glass of orange juice—49 gal.

Lunch:

1 hamburger on a bun—625 gal.

1 serving french fries—15 gal.

1 serving carrots—6 gal.

1 cookie—55 gal.

1 glass milk—48 gal.

Dinner:

1 beef steak—1200 gal.

1 serving rice—25 gal.

1 tossed salad—15 gal.

1 soda—10 gal.

1 slice apple pie—90 gal.

Presentation

1. Pass out Water—The River of Life fact sheet and have students read to themselves or take turns reading aloud. This can also be done earlier as a homework assignment.

2. As a class, ask students what two things water provides us that we literally could not live without (drinking water, food).

3. Ask students to figure out how much water they consume every day as drinking water and as water added to other drinks like juice or soda. (Answers will vary, but generally it’s 4-8 glasses of water a day per person).

4. Explain to students that much of our water is used by agriculture to grow food and other crops. Ask students the following:

· Are there are any foods that require more water to produce than other foods? (Animal products, especially beef, use more water than plant products.)

· Why? (To produce food from animals, water is needed to grow crops to feed these animals during their lifetime before they provide us with eggs, dairy or meat. It takes up to100 times more water to produce a pound of beef than it does to produce a pound of wheat.)

· Ask students to play the Guessing Game and guess how many gallons of water are needed to grow one typical serving of the following foods. Have students raise their hands and call on two students to guess amounts for each food listed. This lets all students participate in game. When all guesses are tallied for each food, provide correct answer starting with the top of the list:

· Lettuce (3 gallons)

· Tomato (8 gallons)

· Orange (14 gallons)

· French fries (15 gallons)

· Bread—2 slices (20 gallons)

· Rice (25 gallons)

· Milk—one glass (48 gallons)

· Cheese –(56 gallons)

· 1 egg (62 gallons)

· Chicken (330 gallons)

· Pork (400 gallons)

· Beef Steak (1200 gallons)

5. Are students surprised by these findings? If so, spend five minutes answering questions and discussing their observations.

6. Explain to students that most of the water we consume during our lifetime comes from the foods we eat every day. Uncover the menu on the board and explain that this resembles a typical American diet. Ask students if they eat any of the foods listed on the board. Since water is almost always needed to produce foods we eat, explain that students will do some math on scratch paper, to figure out how many gallons of water are needed to produce the food for each meal listed and to figure out the total water needed for all three meals. After a few minutes, call on students for their answers. (Breakfast: 383 gal.; Lunch: 749 gal.; Dinner: 1340 gal. ; Total for all meals: 2472 gal.)

7. Ask students to identify the foods that consume the most water. Ask them why they require the most water (This question helps them reiterate the concept taught earlier in procedure #3).

8. Explain that the class will now create a Water-Wise menu that uses half the amount of water. Pass out the “Wet” Your Appetite Handout. Tell students to refer to the list of foods and the gallons needed for each food. Break students into groups of four or five. Ask students to come up with a new daily menu that they will then share with the class. The goal of this new menu is to reduce water use by approximately half. Since there are many ways to do this, their task is to create a menu that most closely represents what they would eat, and that is balanced and nutritious. In other words, no substituting cookies for sandwiches, and no lettuce-only lunches!

9. After students have created new menus, have one student from each group share their groups’ menu with the class. Write these new menus on the board including total water needed for the meal.

10. Discuss findings:

· Are the meals listed balanced and nutritious?

· What were some considerations students made in creating their new menus?

· Do the meals include animal products or are they only plant-based?

· Is it possible to eat meat and conserve water? (Note: It is not necessary to be a vegetarian to reduce water use by half when consuming food. While a vegetarian diet significantly reduces water consumption, it is important to teach that we can still eat meat and conserve water. This especially makes sense when looking at a weekly diet. If beef is eaten four times a week, it can be halved to twice a week for water conservation benefits.)

11. Pick one of the students’ Water-Wise menus to work with and using the total gallon amount figures from the menu on the chalkboard and the newly created menu, have students figure out the total amounts of water needed for each menu for one week and one month (30 days). Is there a significant reduction in water use between both menus after a week? A month? (Chalkboard Menu: one week=17,304 gal.; one month/30 days=74,160 gal.)

12. Ask students to discuss what they’ve learned about how food consumption directly relates to water use. Will this affect their food choices when they are allowed to choose what they eat? (Note: Some students don’t have much choice at home regarding what foods are served to them. If this is the case and they mention this, explain that they usually have choice when ordering meals at a restaurant and that they will have freedom to choose what they eat when they are older. Whatever foods are served at home, it is important to be thankful to the family for providing that food. The goal here is to raise awareness about the impact food choices have on our water supply and to empower students with knowledge they can use throughout their lives..

Extensions

· Using the handout, have students create a Water-Wise menu for a day to follow at home. Discuss experience.

· Discuss ethnic cultures that mostly eat a plant-based diet. What foods do the traditional peoples of Mexico, Lebanon, India and China eat? Is meat the main part of their diet? Have students research the foods of these countries and have an international potluck where students bring in food from the country they’ve studied. Examples of foods include: chips and salsa, bean dip, bean burritos, hummus and pita bread, falafel, vegetable curry, stir-fried veggies with tofu, vegetarian egg rolls, fried rice, chow mein, etc.