Peace Corps

• Subject(s): Language Arts & Literature, Social Studies & Geography, Environment & Health
• Grade Level(s): 6–8, 9–12

Overview

As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge, students awaken to find that the lake—which is the main water source for the village—is brown, with the fish in it—dying—and the surface is covered with algae. There is also a very strong odor. By gathering information from people in the village and weighing the choices available students will present the option they feel will benefit the villagers the most, and help overcome this challenge and save the lake.

Background Information

Factoids from the game:

Runoff crossing over the surface of a field carries away pollutants that it deposits in other waters, including streams, rivers, wetlands, oceans, and groundwater?the water that sits below the surface of the Earth that can be tapped by wells for household water. Source: EPA: Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution

Each individual can play an important role by practicing conservation and by changing certain everyday habits. Keep litter, pet wastes, leaves, and debris out of street gutters and storm drains-these outlets drain directly to lake, streams, rivers, and wetlands. Source: EPA: What you can do to prevent NPS pollution.

The biggest threat to the health of the Earth's seas comes not from pollution at sea but from people's actions on land. About four-fifths of pollution at sea comes from land-based actions. Source: United Nations Environmental Programme.

Procedures

Explore the Soil Runoff WebQuest

Play the Soil Runoff Challenge (Flash)

Additional Resources

Coverdell World Wise Schools:

• Lesson plan: Fighting Soil Erosion (Grades 3-8)
  Students to explore the issue of soil erosion in Guinea through a narrated slide show and experience different strategies Guineans are currently using to address soil erosion.
• Podcast: Environmental Solutions Come Slowly
  Listen | Read
• Story: The True Cost of Coffee

Other Sources:

• EPA: Polluted Runoff for Middle School
• EPA: Polluted Runoff Education Resources
• National Geographic Education Network: When Rain Hits the Land
• NOAA: Coastal Management (Grades 9?12)

Framework and Standards

Enduring Understandings

• There is a balance between human needs and environmental protection.
• Cultural beliefs and practices often affect how solutions to challenges are met.
• Our choices can often affect those around us.

Essential Questions

• How do cultural viewpoints influence a community's decision making in regards to environmental challenges?
• How can a community reduce the negative impacts it has on the environment?
• What role do local governments and communities play in environmental protection?
• What impact does lack of access to clean water have on a community?
• In what ways do the decisions individuals make affect not only those around us, but also the environment?

Standards

Social Studies:

Thematic Strand I: Culture

• How culture influences the ways in which human groups solve problems of daily living
• How people from different cultures develop different ways of interpreting experience
• Language, behaviors and beliefs can both contribute and pose barriers to cross-cultural understanding

Thematic Strand III: People, Places, and Environments

• Human modifications of the environment

Thematic Strand IX: Global Connections

• The causes and consequences of various types of global connections
• The actions of people, communities, and nations have both short and long term effects

Thematic Strand X: Civic Ideals and Practices

• Perspectives of various stakeholders in proposing possible solutions to issues

Geography:

Essential Element V: Environment and Society

• How human actions modify the physical environment
• How physical systems affect human systems
• Changes in meanings, use, distribution, and importance of resources

Science:

Content Standard C: Life Science

• Regulation, behavior, populations, ecosystems

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

• Types of resources, environmental changes, environmental quality, natural and human induced hazards