K12: Grade 5: Lesson 1: Freshwater

K12: Grade 5: Lesson 1: Freshwater

A Valuable Resource

Water is critical to sustaining life on earth. The human body relies on water. We need water to grown food. How is it that only one percent of all of the water on earth is freshwater? 

1 Percent

Almost 75 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water. About 96 percent of it is ocean water. That leaves only 4 percent of all water in the form of freshwater, but 3 percent of this freshwater is frozen in glaciers and polar ice. Only 1 percent of all the water on Earth is usable freshwater. 

Multiple Choice

How much of the Earth's water is usable freshwater?

• 75 percent

• 96 percent

• one percent

• 3 percent

Multiple Choice

... is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase.

• Condensation

• Precipitation

• Runoff

• Evaporation

Multiple Choice

... is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt).

• Ocean

• Aquifer

• River

• Lake

How important is water? 

The Basilica Cistern, located in Istanbul, Turkey, was built in sometime in the 3rd and 4th centuries during the Early Roman Age. It is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns in Turkey. These ancient cisterns provided life giving water during hard times to ancient peoples. 

Multiple Select

What did the ancient city, Constantinople, now Istanbul, lack in times of drought or attack that could provide enough drinking water? Select all that apply.

• walls

• large rivers

• springs

• oceans

Multiple Choice

What was the solution to Constantinople's problem regarding drinking water?

• Use the existing aqueducts (large systems to transport water)

• Have slaves carry water into the city

• Build many underground cisterns

• Use salt water from the Mediterranean Ocean

Multiple Choice

Farmers in Kansas and other states that sit atop the Ogallala aquifer, the largest freshwater aquifer in North America, are pumping out water for crop irrigation far ... than natural seepage of rainwater can replenish it.

• faster

• slower

Open Ended

Why is water conservation important?