‘Water’ as a theme offers many opportunities to learn basic science concepts, and study natural phenomena. But how do we help children connect this theme with personal experiences and pressing environmental issues? This article describes an attempt to do this in a rural middle-school classroom.

Teaching science to energetic 11- and 12-year-olds presents teachers with both a challenge and an opportunity.

The syllabus¹ may tell us what they should learn, but how do we bring it to life? How do we teach children to apply science to explore natural phenomena? How do we help them connect a topic in the textbook with their local environment?

These questions underpinned my approach (see Unit Plan Sheet) to exploring the theme of ​‘water’ over a period of five weeks in a school located in a drought-prone district of Andhra Pradesh. 

My students came from the surrounding villages and hamlets. Their parents were marginal farmers, pastoralists, or ran small rural businesses. Most of these children were the first generation to have progressed to middle school in their communities.

Like many rural areas in India, these local communities had an intimate knowledge of their natural environment coupled with low levels of formal science education.

Learning in the classroom

I began by reviewing water-related concepts that students had learnt earlier. For example, my students had studied about mixtures and solutions, and investigated the solubility of different substances in earlier lessons. 

They had also used different methods to separate water from mixtures, and learnt about capillary action. In addition, they had learnt about the three states of matter (solid, liquid and gas), and had observed transpiration in plants (see Fig. 1).

A review of what they already knew provided a good starting point for studying the water cycle and water quality.

We explored the water cycle through classroom discussions and demonstrations. Learning about precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, and percolation led to a discussion on how water constantly changes its ​‘state’ and moves around the planet.

The concept of percolation then led to a discussion on groundwater — the main source of water in the region. Students were aware of how local communities and livelihoods were stressed by falling groundwater levels.

I used a simple model to demonstrate how water percolates through the soil, collects in aquifers, and is pumped out of borewells (see Box 1).

This sparked off a lively discussion on groundwater, with students raising questions like: ​“Why do we find groundwater only in some places and not in others? Does a water diviner know where to find water? How deep does the water flow underground — is it like an ocean underneath? Why do we have to dig deeper to find water in borewells each year?”

Another familiar and relevant aspect that we discussed was water quality. Most of my students had heard their elders referring to the increasing levels of ​‘salt’ in water. They had also observed white deposits on vessels used to boil water. 

They could now understand that the water from borewells was a mixture of several substances. A demonstration to show that soap lathered more with distilled water (soft water) than with borewell water (hard water) led to a discussion on water hardness. 

We constructed a simple solar water distiller to observe how salts and other impurities could be separated from water. 

Some students also raised questions related to water ​‘ownership’ and rights, like: ​“If our neighbour pumps too much water from his borewell, will ours dry up? How can we share groundwater fairly?”

This led to discussions about how water was used in each of their villages, as well as community management and conservation of water sources.

Learning from the community

Since we lived in a drought-prone area, we had all experienced water scarcity in very personal and immediate ways. Investigating local water sources, their usage and conservation was a natural extension to what we had discussed in the classroom.

As a first task, each student maintained a personal log of their water consumption (see Activity Sheet I). They recorded how much water they had used for different purposes over a day, and compared their consumption with their classmates. 

This made them more aware of how they used (or wasted!) water, and ways in which they could conserve it. Next, we did a basic ​‘water survey’ in the school (see Box 2).

We investigated where the school’s water supply came from, where it was stored, and how much was used every day. Students were fascinated by a new rain water harvesting system that was being built in the school. 

This provided a great opportunity to discuss different ways of collecting and storing rainwater in the community.

The idea of doing a ​‘water survey’ was extended to their communities.

The students, who came from several different villages, worked in groups and created ​‘water maps’ showing water sources like borewells, surface wells, percolation tanks, and streams in their villages. 

They recorded water storage and distribution facilities like the village overhead tanks and community water taps (see Fig. 2). They also interviewed their grandparents and village elders to find out how the sources and usage of water had changed over time.

Back in the classroom, students were invited to share their findings. Many students were surprised to discover that there were no borewells when their grandparents were young. 

They learnt about local streams and ponds that had dried up. They heard about ways in which water was managed and shared as a community resource by earlier generations, and were able to contrast this with the current private ownership of borewells in their villages. 

Through conversations with their elders, they learnt of how the cultivation of water- intensive crops like paddy had replaced once-popular rain-fed grains like millets. 

This led to a deeper discussion of the many ways in which the advent of borewells had changed farming practices, and how water scarcity was affecting farming and livelihoods in their own villages.

The discussion about changing water use patterns, water distribution, and water scarcity in their villages extended to a discussion about similar issues across the country and the world.

For example, we used maps to locate sources of freshwater in India, discussed why it was becoming scarce, and considered ways in which it could be conserved and managed.

From learning to action

While water usage was being studied in the classroom, we began to look for more ways to conserve water on the school campus. Creating a kitchen garden to reuse the relatively clean water from washing or bathing (called greywater) appealed to the class. 

After scouting around the school for accessible sources of greywater, we decided to reuse the waste water from washing hands and vessels in the dining hall. A plastic pipe was laid to redirect this greywater to a small plot nearby.

Students and teachers spent several evenings clearing the plot, preparing the soil, and digging channels to distribute the water (see Fig. 3).

Students formed small groups, each of which took responsibility for individual vegetable beds. They decided what to grow in their beds, brought seeds from home, planted the seeds, and tended their beds with enthusiasm. 

After every meal, they would run to check that ​‘their’ plants got water. After a few initial arguments, they negotiated ways to ​‘share’ the greywater fairly using a system of ingenious ​‘dams’ and channels that they constructed.

The kitchen garden became the site for many lively discussions about water, soil, plants, and agricultural practices. Students asked questions, shared their observations and knowledge. 

For example, a student wondered whether the roasted dhania (coriander) seeds he had brought from home would sprout. This led to a discussion about seeds, and how they grow. Some students wanted to spray their plants with pesticides, while others objected and preferred to ​‘share’ the fruits of their labour with insects and birds.

Each encounter in the garden was an opportunity to explore and learn new ideas from each other.

While my students were thrilled to harvest vegetables, and contribute them to the school kitchen for their midday meal; I was pleased to see them developing greater initiative, responsibility, and cooperation. 

It was satisfying to see a child who struggled with reading in the classroom take the lead in the garden, or to listen to a timid child talk confidently about agriculture. The project provided a space for these children to develop skills and interests that were not possible inside a classroom.

Benefits of this approach

Using a teaching approach that integrated different types of activities kept students enthusiastic and motivated. It offered them the opportunity to develop different skills, and to learn in a variety of ways. For example, some of them enjoyed reading texts related to these activities, while others contributed through their skill at model making.

Some took the lead in gardening, while others contributed actively to classroom discussions. Thus, the diversity of activities made for a more inclusive learning environment.

Using the local community and context as a resource helped enrich learning in innumerable ways. Rural students were able to recognize and value connections between their own experiences, school science, and larger environmental issues. 

Learning science in this way allowed them to go beyond textbook-mandated knowledge and to systematically explore the local environment. Children learned about indigenous water-management practices from village elders, and were able to link this to contemporary issues. Their enthusiasm to go beyond the curriculum, and to take action to conserve water was an unexpected benefit.

The outcomes of this unit went beyond the ​‘marks’ that the mandatory ​‘unit test’ revealed about student learning. Students continued to engage with the ideas they had explored in class in practical and tangible ways. They were more mindful of their water usage in school, and could often be seen chiding younger children for ​‘wasting’ water.

The school kitchen garden continued to be the site of enthusiastic activity and discussions. Subsequently, students and other teachers went on to establish additional small garden plots at other wastewater outlets around the school.

Challenges and suggestions

Teaching a topic that included many activities, designed for inside and outside the classroom, presented several challenges. It took time to plan the curriculum, gather resources, and organize activities (see Box 3).

Using an approach that encouraged students to explore each of these ideas took more time compared to that needed for a purely textbook-based one. Some prior planning, and the support of colleagues and students played a key role in making this experiential approach possible.

I was fortunate to teach in a school that was able and willing to give teachers and students the time and opportunity to explore this approach. In schools where it’s not possible to spare the time or the resources to try such an approach, other simpler ways could be used to connect interesting and locally relevant activities with the classroom teaching of science. 

For example, activities linked to the topics being studied in class can be given to students to explore as part of their homework. Science clubs or science fairs in schools could be used as opportunities to initiate projects which explore these topics in deeper, and more multifaceted ways. The benefits of such an approach are well-worth the effort.

Key takeaways

• The study of basic science concepts, natural phenomena, and environmental issues can be integrated in the theme of ​‘water’ in middle school.

• Using the local context as a resource for learning enables children to see connections between their own experiences, science, and environmental issues.

• Including diverse activities in the local environment offers children the opportunity for enthusiastic and motivated engagement in practical action.

Acknowledgements: This article is based on the learning units developed as part of ​‘Exploring Science’, an activity-based science curriculum, at the Rishi Valley Education Centre. The author would like to thank the students and teachers of the Rishi Valley Rural Education Centre middle school where this unit was developed and used. The material can be accessed at https://​www​.rishiv​al​ley​.org/​e​x​p​l​o​r​i​n​g​-​s​c​i​e​n​c​e​-​o​v​e​rview.

Reference:

1. NCERT (2006), ​‘Syllabus for classes at the elementary Level — Volume 1’, New Delhi.

About the Author

Kavita Krishna is an engineer with over 15 years of experience in teaching, curriculum development, and teacher education in rural and urban schools. 

She can be reached at kavitak2006@​gmail.​com