After studying and testing water quality in a nearby water source, learners will compose and send letters to government representatives and nonprofit foundations or agencies supporting efforts to reduce pollution.

Anticipatory Set:

Involve learners in the cubing activity: Attachment One: Cubing contains the directions and the questions learners answer on each side of the cube. Cubing is a strategy which asks students to look at a single concept or process from several points of view. This forces students to stretch their thinking. Read Attachment One: Cubing carefully to become familiar with the activity. You will need the following materials from the materials list: tissue or shoe boxes, one per each peer group. Following are the six questions each group should answer. They should fill out Attachment One: Cubing as well as use a caption or drawing to briefly represent their complete group answer on the attachment.

• Describe it: What are the Great Lakes? Look for place, name, and location as themes of geography.
  
  
• Compare it: What is it like? Is it like anything else you know of? What is it?
  
  
• Associate it: What does it remind you of?
  
  
• Analyze it: What are the Great Lakes made up of besides water? What kinds of pollution exist in our lakes?
  
  
• Take a stand: How can we help our lakes get better? How are our lakes used and by whom?
  
  
• Argue for or against it: Take a stand, list reasons why we should or shouldn't try to clean up our Great Lakes Basin.

• Form cooperative groups to complete the cubing activity and Attachment One: Cubing. Use the cubing technique to help students think more critically about the uses of the Great Lakes and the erosion of the ecosystems that arise from it.
  
  
• Discuss ways all of society, past and present, have contributed to pollution of the ecosystem. Items to highlight are ground water contamination, sewage systems, fertilizers, insecticides, industrial accidental and illegal dumping such as spent oil and release of PCBs. Ask learners about trash, cans, and plastic can holders' role in pollution, harming wildlife. Talk about acid rain.
  
  
• Discuss how the concepts involved in stewardship and philanthropy can be connected to the saving of the Great Lakes ecosystems and list at least ten different things that we can do to help.
  Instructor's Notes. Field trip experiment: Prior to taking learners on a field trip to the nearest lake, river, stream or pond, secure water quality tests, one to each peer group, and obtain school, district and parental permission. Obtain chaperones, transportation and provide protective gloves and goggles. This preparation should begin at least two weeks prior to the activity. Provide collection bags for each peer group to collect litter at the site.
  Alternative to field experience: Conduct water quality tests on drinking fountain water samples and water that the instructor has obtained from the local pond, river, lake or stream. If your local elementary or primary unit does not have microscopes, contact the local high school or curriculum laboratory to borrow needed equipment.
  
  
• Conduct an experiment with water to show how easy it is to pollute it and how difficult it is to clean it up. See Attachment Two: My Experiment which is to be completed by each group.
  
  
• Each group should report their findings to the class.
  
  
• Discuss with the learners the role of government in protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem.
  
  
• Have the learners use the media center or library to find out their representatives and senators to their State Government and United States Government. Obtain the addresses, proper title and spelling of names. They should look up voting records to determine the conservation record of the representative or senator.
  
  
• Help learners identify nonprofit groups and organizations, which help protect the waterways. Use www.Guidestar.com and their search engine to locate philanthropy organizations in your area involved with water conservation efforts. Use the advanced search, enter Great Lakes, pollution or water. Some of the foundations found in those searches will be:
  
  
  • Center for Environmental Studies, Grand Rapids, MI
    
    
  • Defender of the Great Lakes, Houghton, MI
    
    
  • Environmental Association for Great Lakes Education, Duluth, MN
    
    
  • We Are Here Foundation, St. Clair Shores, MI
    
    
• Use the information gathered in Lessons One, Two, and Three to write letters to one Congressman or Senator and a nonprofit foundation or organization about the importance of preserving the Great Lakes ecosystems and encourage them to vote for programs and laws that are friendly to our environment or to continue their work on environmental issues. Each group is to write letters supporting either the legislators' past voting record, or encouragement to pursue more protection. Nonprofits should be encouraged to fund environmental causes and perhaps be asked for suggestions on how the learners can get involved in further service activities. It is recommended that third grade learners write two letters, one from A-C and a second to a nonprofit organization. Fourth grade learners should be able to write three letters and all four should be written at the fifth grade. See Attachment Three for sample letters.
  1. To their state Representative or Senator
  2. To the United States Senator from their state
  3. To their own U.S. Representative
  4. To a nonprofit organization involved in protecting the Great Lakes
     
     
• Use peer group editing techniques in completing the letters.

Elements of Service Learning:
Reflection
Pre-Activity: Learners are to participate in reflection prior to the service, during the service and after the service is completed. A picture journal is an excellent way for learners to react to a key word the instructor gives from content and philanthropy at each stage of the activity. Learners may keep these reflections in a journal or scrapbook. Another suggestion is to have each group post a very large sheet of paper in the classroom and record their activities and reflections each day. Letters from the foundations, Senators and Representatives should be collected and placed in a display area.
Evaluation
Learners, individually, write a letter to the learners in the class to follow about their activity and tell them what to do next year to improve the activity and what were the best parts of this unit.
Celebration
Learners may invite parents/guardians to class, demonstrate their cubes, and share the letters and responses they receive. Certificates of appreciation and achievements for all students may be presented.

Learners should involve the household in answering the following questions:

• How do we know that the water we drink is clean and safe?
  
  
• What would we do if the water in our house became unsafe to drink?
  
  
• List three ways we can conserve water in our household.