Unit 05 · Water Resources & Pollution
Fresh water is scarce, shared, and easily fouled. This unit follows water across a watershed and down into groundwater and aquifers, then asks what pollutes it — point sources you can name and nonpoint runoff you can’t. You’ll trace how nutrient loading drives eutrophication, why biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen tell you a stream’s health, how water is treated, and what water scarcity means for people. Mastery means you can test a water sample and read its story — where it came from, what’s in it, and what that costs the ecosystem.
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watersheds & groundwater | Cannot say where the water in a stream comes from. | Names watersheds and aquifers but cannot trace flow between them. | Traces water through a watershed into groundwater and aquifers and explains how recharge and withdrawal balance. |
| Point vs nonpoint pollution | Treats all pollution as one kind. | Defines point and nonpoint sources but misclassifies examples. | Classifies a pollution source as point or nonpoint and explains why nonpoint runoff is harder to control. |
| Eutrophication & dissolved oxygen | Cannot connect nutrients to a dead zone. | Names eutrophication but not the oxygen crash behind it. | Explains how nutrient loading drives eutrophication, algal bloom, decomposition, and the BOD-driven collapse of dissolved oxygen. |
| Water treatment & scarcity | Assumes water is limitless and always clean. | Lists treatment steps but cannot link them to scarcity. | Outlines how water is treated and explains what drives water scarcity and competition for it. |
| Field technique (water-quality testing) | Misreads the test kit or contaminates the sample. | Runs the tests but records dissolved oxygen, nitrate, or pH inconsistently. | Tests dissolved oxygen, nitrate, turbidity, and pH cleanly and reads the results as a diagnosis of the water’s health. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts; makes no cross-domain connection. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend why it matters. | Connects the unit to its anchor across History · Reading · Writing (plus chosen electives) and defends why the connection matters. |
“Downstream of the golf course the nitrate was high, dissolved oxygen was low, and turbidity had spiked — classic nonpoint runoff feeding an algal bloom. When the algae die, decomposers use up the oxygen; that’s the BOD climbing. Nothing with gills survives a reading that low.”
“The water was a little green. pH is how clean it is, maybe. I got some numbers off the kit but I don’t know which one matters.”
You demonstrate this unit through water-quality testing — dissolved oxygen, nitrate, turbidity, and pH — reading your results as a diagnosis of the water’s health aloud, not on a multiple-choice test. A criterion counts as mastered only when your measurements support a defensible claim about the source and the pollution. Mastery is demonstrated, not awarded.
A 5-page clipboard packet — unit overview, key terms, the mastery rubric, anchor examples, and a score sheet you can print and grade against.