MODULE OVERVIEW
By
Louisiana Team 11
JoDale Ales, Ph.D., Beleta Bischoff, Kathy Meares, Mary Gail Yeates 

Environmental Decision Making:  Our Shrinking Groundwater

         In this module students will develop understandings about groundwater resources and the  impact that 
        humans and the forces of nature have on groundwater depletion.  Through a  series of individual and 
        cooperative group activities the students will investigate the relevance of fresh, accessible groundwater to 
        them.  Groups will compare the water quality of different  sources of drinking water by conducting water quality 
        tests on drinking  water.   Students  will use their knowledge and skills of science,         
        mathematics,  and computational science to  develop conceptual understandings 
        and build  physical and computational groundwater  models based on real time data.  They 
        will manipulate the models and make decisions based on data  generated by the models.  
        They  will develop an understanding of citizenship and how citizens can make a difference 
        in public policy.  This module emphasizes the importance of citizen responsibility (both individual
        and community-centered) for helping maintain sufficient amounts of accessible and high quality groundwater. 

        The activities in this module are designed to follow in sequential order including the culminating  activity.  The 
        culminating activity challenges the students to use higher level thinking skills when making connections 
        between  concepts and events and applying science concepts to a novel situation.