HOW MUCH OF EARTH’S WATER CAN WE USE?

Last updated: July 7, 2020

Grade level: 2nd – 3rd grades

Environmental Area: Water

Purpose: Understand scarcity of our freshwater resources and develop awareness of water quality

BACKGROUND FOR THE TEACHER

You may think there is a lot of water available for us to use on Earth because more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. However,almost all of the Earth’s water is classified as saltwater in the oceans that cannot be consumed by humans. Freshwater accounts for only 2.5% of the Earth’s water.

As the Ohio River is the major source of fresh water in Southwest Indiana, river water is a very valuable water resource to us. Rivers are particularly precious because the total volume of rivers equals only one millionth of the total volume of Earth’s water.

Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 9.34.48 AM

Ohio River and disrupted water cycle

TEACHER GUIDE

The purpose of this activity is to practice solving percent problems while giving your students an idea of thepreciousness of the water that we daily consume. This activity was created based on data obtained from U.S. Geological Survey.

Worksheet & answer key

Math Skill: Percentages

Using the distribution of freshwater on Earth, in which ice, groundwater, and surface water make up 69%, 30%, and 1%, respectively, students are asked to color the portion of ice yellow, groundwater brown, and surface freshwater red on a grid of 100 boxes.