Water in the House Worksheets 1 and 2 - Scottish · PDF fileWater in the House - Worksheets 1 and 2 ... but some are deeper and use much more water. It is important to ... think about

Aims:

Water in the House - Worksheets 1 and 2

© Scottish Water 2005www.scottishwater.co.uk/education

To provide key information to the pupils about using water and saving water.

1. Fascinating Facts 12. Fascinating Facts 2

Today we use much more water than seventy years ago because:• Water is piped directly into our homes.• We wash, shower or take baths more often.• We have lots of hot water.• Washing machines and dishwashers use much more water.• Gardens are watered with hoses or sprinklers.• Cars are washed.• One flush of your toilet uses as much water as one person in the third world has to use for a whole day's washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking.

Fascinating Facts 1 - Using water


Water in the House - Worksheet 1

A hundred years ago most people had no water supply in their homes but had to carry water from a tap or well on their street. Seventy years ago, most people had a cold water supply only in their homes and all water for washing or washing clothes had to be heated on an open fire or range.

during Victorian times, there are still lots of thingshouseholders can do to make houses more water efficient.

Old fashioned houses use more water than they need. The reason for this is that they were designed in the days before computer design, when it was difficult to calculate how much water they used. Today designers not only design beautiful sinks and showers, but also think a lot about water efficiency. Though many people in Scotland still live in houses built

Fascinating Facts 2 - Saving water in the house



IN THE GARDEN: Watering the garden with a sprinkler system can use up to 9 litres of clean water every minute. If a barrel or water butt is fitted to the drainpipe it will collect rain water from the roof. This simple piece of equipment saves money and makes sure that people have water for their garden even during a drought. Washing a car with a bucket uses much less water than a hose.

WATER TANK:All bathroom fittings work best when the water pressure is high. Since water is heavy, the best way to make sure that water pressure is high is to put the water tank in the loft.

Fascinating Facts 2 - Saving water in the house continued


Water in the House - Worksheet 2 continued

BATHROOM FITTINGS:Washing is very important. But different methods of washing use different amounts of water. If you fit a shower instead of a bath a family of four could save a thousand litres of water every week! Baths and power showers also use more heat, so when you fit a shower you also save on gas or electricity.Sinks often look the same size, but some are deeper and use much more water. It is important to choose the most water efficient design.Old fashioned toilets had a different shape which meant they needed to use more water to flush. Fitting modern water efficient toilets saves thousands of litres of water every year.

KITCHENS:When people did all the washing up in the sink, sinks needed to be bigger. Now people use dishwashers, sinks can be made much smaller.The size and type of tap you use can also effect water and fuel efficiency for hot water taps. Spray taps are more efficient than normal taps for rinsing dishes, and aerating taps are even better.

Aims

Materials

Method

Water in the House - Worksheets 3 - 4


• To enable pupils to find out how much water they use.

• Copy of Worksheets 3 and 4 for each pupil.

• This is a fun quiz to see how much pupils know about the amount of water

that they use.

• Hand out Worksheet 3 to each pupil.

• The quiz can be completed individually, in pairs or in a small group.

It can also be a homework task.

• Hand out the answer sheet and see how pupils scored.

• Encourage pupils to use the quiz with a member of their family.

3 Activity 1 How much water do you use?4 Activity 1 Answer Sheet

How much do you know about the amount of water we use?

Try this quiz:

1. How much water is used by someone taking a shower?18 litres 22 litres 27 litres

2. How much water is used by someone taking a bath?80 litres 95 litres 105 litres

3. How much water is used each time you flush the toilet?5 litres 9 litres 10 litres

4. How much water is used when you wash your face and clean your teeth?4 litres 6 litres 9 litres

5. How much water is used when you get a drink?0.5 litre 1 litre 222 litres

6. Washing clothes in a washing machine uses on average:80 litres 100 litres 110 litres

7. Washing dishes by hand uses how much water?7.5 litres 8 litres 8.5 litres

8. How much water does a garden sprinkler use each minute?7 litres 8 litres 9 litres

Check your answers with the Answer Sheet.

Activity 1 - How much water do you use?



Circle the answer.

1. 27 litres2. 80 litres3. 9 litres4. 4 litres5. 1 litre6. 80 litres7. 7.5 litres8. 9 litres

Give yourself two points for each correct answer.

If you scored:12 - 16 pointsCongratulations! You know a lot about the amount of waterthat you use.

8 - 10 pointsYou know a little bit about the amount of water that you use. Look atthe questions that you did not score any points and try to rememberthe answers.

Less than 8 pointsCould do better!Try this quiz at home with members of your family to check how muchthey know about using water.

Activity 1 - How much water do you use? Answer sheet.



Aims

Materials

Method

Water in the House - Worksheet 5 - 6


• To experience planning and undertaking an investigation.

• To practice producing and interpreting results in graphical form.

• To encourage informed attitudes on water usage.

• Worksheets 5 - 6

• This investigation will take 7 days to complete including one weekend.

• Explain to pupils that in this investigation they a re to monitor the use of

water in their home for 7 days.

• Hand out Worksheet 5 and discuss the investigation.

• Pupils should complete Worksheet 5 to identify the specific water use

they will be monitoring. Divide pupils into small groups to design and produce

a record sheet that will be used.

• After 7 days pupils complete Worksheet 6 in class time and present their

results in graph form.

• The data from this investigation will be useful to refer to when pupils

consider how water can be saved.

5 Water use investigation6 Water use investigation - using your information

This investigation should take seven days to complete.For this task you must prepare suitable tables so that you can gather information to show the amount of water used in your home.

Before you begin:Think of all the different uses we have in the home for water, e.g. having a shower, watering the garden, cleaning the car, washing dishes, even boiling potatoes for dinner.

Consider what the content is going to be in each table. The one in the bathroom or toilet will be different from the one in the kitchen. Make sure you have a table for every place in the house where your family use water.

Tell your family about the investigation and ask them to mark a tally mark down on one of your tables whenever they use water - even when you are not around to remind them. If someone is using a garden sprinkler, record the number of minutes it is in use. Remember to leave a pen or pencil attached to your table.

Your tables might look something like this:

Room 1 Bathroom - Water use Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun TOTAL

At the end of the seven days, bring your tables back to school.

Activity 2 - Water use investigation



Bath Shower

Complete this table with your results.

Activity 2 - Water use investigation - using your information



Taking a showerTaking a bath

Getting a drinkWashing clothesby hand

Washing dishes by hand

Washing dishes ina dish washer

Washing car with a bucket

Washing car with a hose

Flushing a toilet

Washing face,hands, cleaning teeth

Washing clothesin a washingmachine

Watering thegarden with a sprinkler

2780

115

7.5

30

7

15 litres perminute

9

4

80

9 litres perminute

How you usewater

Averageamount of use

Number oftimes

Total amountused by yourfamily

Total amountof water used

a. Using the figures provided on your table calculate how much water your family used for each purpose.

b. Now calculate how much water your family used in a week.

c. Present this information in graph form:• decide which type of graph is best suited to present this type of information clearly• name your graph• label the axes• decide on the scale and how to express it

d. Draw your graph and present it for display.

e. Make a graph to show how much water the family of each pupil in your class used in a week.

Activity 2 - Water use investigationusing your information continued


Water in the House - Worksheet 6 continued

A hundred years ago, most people only had a cold water supply in their homes and all water for washing themselves or washing clothes had to be heated on an open fire or kitchen range.

Modern technology in our homes today has made life easier for us compared with a hundred years ago, but it also means that we use more water.

1. In your group, discuss in what way modern technology has encouraged us to use more water that we did a hundred years ago? Note down your ideas here.

2. In your group, think about how we can save water at home and make a list of ways we can save water and other ways we waste water at home in the boxes below.

Activity 3 - Why do we use so much water at home?



Saving Water Wasting Water

You will need:Your classroom sinkA bucketA measuring jugToothbrush and toothpaste

How to find out:1. Place a bucket in your classroom sink.2. Clean your teeth as you would normally do at home. Collect the water you use in the bucket.3. Carefully pour the water into the measuring jug.4. Measure how much tap water you have used and record the results.5. Collect the results of all the people in your group who have done this experiment and make a graph of the results.• decide which type of graph is best suited to present this type of information clearly• name your graph.• label the axes.• decide on the scale and how to express it.

Try to answer these questions using your graph1. How much water had the group used altogether to brush their teeth?2. Who used the least water to brush their teeth and how much was used?3. If everyone had brushed their teeth in that way, how much water would have been saved?

1. Ask the person who used the least water to demonstrate how they brushed their teeth.2. Think about the method they used. Why did they only use a small amount of water?3. Even if we all use that method what other things might affect the amount of water we use?

Activity 4 - How much water do you use to brush your teeth?



You will need:A plastic water bottle waterThe use of a freezer or ice box of a fridge

Answer these questions:What happens to the water in the bottle?

What do you see at the top of the bottle?

Why does this happen?

Activity 5 - What happens when water freezes?



How to find out:1. Fill the bottle to the top with cold water.2. Put it in the freezer or ice box of a fridge being very

careful not to spill any of the water. Do not put the top on the bottle.

3. Look at the bottle a number of times during the day - every hour if that is possible.

Aims



• To provide key information to the pupils about how to protect water pipes in the house from frost.

Fascinating facts 3 - Frost Protection

Lagging or covering pipes keeps them warm andprevents the pipe from freezing and possibly bursting.

Different sizes of pipes need different thicknessesof lagging. Typically for 15mm pipes you will need32mm lagging. Because of the greater volume of water,you will need 19-25mm lagging on larger pipes.

Foam lagging is the best material to use and a homeowner needs to make sure that all of the joints and bendsin the pipes are properly covered and the laggingsecured. Pipes exposed to the weather will needwaterproof insulation.

Fascinating Facts - Frost Protection


Frost - Worksheet 1

Lagging is only designed to delay freezing for about eight hours in exposed situations. Even the bestinsulation in cold places, such as the loft, will not protect the pipes indefinitely in cold weather.

Normal water use will help to prevent insulated pipes from freezing. If you are away on holiday, a cold spell of 24 hours or over could cause problems.

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Water in the House Worksheets 1 and 2 - Scottish · PDF fileWater in the House - Worksheets 1 and 2 ... but some are deeper and use much more water. It is important to ... think about