Water for Schools
Menu

Topics

These are the ideas the water sector runs on, each translated for the classroom. A topic page explains the background a teacher needs, shows which subjects the topic feeds, and collects every material we have for it.

The water cycle

Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation form the loop every other water topic on this site connects back to.

K–2 · 3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 198 materials

Watersheds

Every drop of rain that reaches land falls within a watershed, tying local geography, land use, and water quality together.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 235 materials

Groundwater & aquifers

Groundwater fills the pores and cracks of underground rock and sand, forming a hidden reservoir that supplies wells and springs.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 208 materials

Drinking water treatment

Coagulation, filtration, and disinfection turn raw water into something clean enough to drink straight from the tap.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 258 materials

Water towers & distribution

Pumps fill towers and tanks, and gravity and pressure carry the water from there to every faucet in town.

K–2 · 3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 401 materials

Wastewater treatment

Screens, settling, and microbes clean sewage in stages before it returns safely to a river or lake.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 213 materials

Stormwater & green infrastructure

Rain that cannot soak into the ground becomes stormwater, and where it goes depends on what covers the soil.

K–2 · 3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 303 materials

Water quality & testing

Simple tests for pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen turn a stream or tap into a real data source.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 321 materials

Hydraulics & flow

Detention time, flow rate, and pressure calculations are part of daily operations at every water and wastewater plant.

6–8 · 9–12 — 145 materials

Water Rates & Utility Economics

How water utilities price service, finance aging pipes, and defend rate increases in public hearings, a subject that brings together mathematics, civics, and affordability.

6–8 · 9–12 — 280 materials

Water Careers

A look at the operators, engineers, and technicians who keep water flowing, the licenses and degrees they earn, and the pay and openings behind a workforce approaching retirement in large numbers.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 329 materials

Lead in Drinking Water & Flint

The chemistry, history, and current regulation behind lead in drinking water, anchored in the Flint crisis and the ongoing effort to replace lead pipes.

6–8 · 9–12 — 106 materials

PFAS & Emerging Contaminants

An introduction to PFAS 'forever chemicals' in drinking water, the science behind them, and a federal rule still taking shape.

6–8 · 9–12 — 97 materials

Drought, Reuse & Desalination

How dry regions stretch every drop through conservation, water recycling, and desalination, from Orange County's reuse plant to Carlsbad's ocean intake.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 207 materials

Aging Infrastructure

Why pipes laid a century ago are failing today, what it costs to replace them, and how communities decide what gets fixed first.

6–8 · 9–12 — 191 materials

Conservation & Water Use

Where the water in a shower, a faucet, and a leaking pipe actually goes, and the household math behind using less of it.

K–2 · 3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 476 materials

Dams & Hydropower

How dams store water, prevent floods, and generate electricity, and the tradeoffs communities weigh when a dam comes up for removal.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 142 materials

Irrigation & Agriculture

Farms move and measure water on a very large scale, from acre-feet of irrigation storage to the water used to grow the food in a meal.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 167 materials

Reverse osmosis & membranes

Pressure forced across a semipermeable membrane strips salts and other dissolved contaminants from water, at a real and measurable energy cost.

6–8 · 9–12 — 103 materials

Pumps & pumping

Pumps supply the pressure and lift that gravity alone cannot provide, moving water uphill through treatment plants, distribution systems, and sewers.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 146 materials

Environmental biotechnology

Wastewater treatment plants rely on managed communities of bacteria and other microorganisms to break down waste and remove nutrients from water.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 113 materials

Aquatic chemistry

The chemistry of water, including its pH, alkalinity, hardness, and disinfection reactions, determines whether treated water is safe to drink and how operators adjust it every day.

6–8 · 9–12 — 137 materials

Unit conversions

The water industry runs on unit conversions, moving between gallons, cubic feet, million gallons per day, and pounds of chemical dosed in almost every calculation an operator performs.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 126 materials

Water facility operations

Water and wastewater treatment plants run every hour of every day, and the operators who staff them monitor gauges, run tests, and log readings that become legal records.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 346 materials

Water testing & sampling

Field kits, laboratory analysis, and continuous monitors each answer a different question about what is actually in a water sample.

3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 222 materials

Pollution in water

Pollutants reach rivers, lakes, and drinking water supplies both from identifiable pipes and from runoff spread across an entire landscape.

K–2 · 3–5 · 6–8 · 9–12 — 280 materials

Nutrients: pollutant and resource

Nitrogen and phosphorus pollute waterways when they run off in excess, while crops and wastewater-treatment microorganisms need them to grow.

6–8 · 9–12 — 116 materials