KC Water Education (KCWE) provides education and outreach addressing pollution impacting our waterways. Different types of pollutants can make their way downstream and negatively impact water quality. KCWE promotes environmental education and stewardship to change behavior for improved water quality. Grade-level and age-appropriate lessons provide hands-on learning for real-world engagement. Each lesson adds to the learning experience to encourage students to ask questions, analyze and interpret data, and design solutions to improve our community.
All lessons:
• Are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and Missouri Learning Standards.
• Can be taught in the classroom, outdoors, or virtually based on preference.
• Occur within the city of Kansas City limits.
• Are free of charge.
Find each lesson breakdown in the descriptions below. The All Lesson Sheet provides a glance at all lessons. Schedule a lesson with our team at water.education@kcmo.org.
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Students will learn about water and the importance of keeping it clean. They will start by learning about the ways we use water and why it is so important. They will then look at what happens when it rains and how all that water runs to our river carrying trash along with it. Finally, students will learn how KC Water cleans our drinking water every day. The lesson closes with a hands-on activity where students will create and compare a “sad” polluted landscape with a “happy” clean planet landscape.
Total class time: 30-45 minutes
Key components: Introduction includes an overview of where we find water and why it is important. Main story discusses impact on water sources when we have trash on our streets and how KC Water cleans water from the river. Conclusion engages students in a hands-on activity where they decorate landscapes to create a happy and sad street, river, ocean, Earth and discuss what they can do to help the planet.
Key vocabulary: Water, water source, litter, rain, Missouri river, recycling.
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Students participate in the story of Freddy the Fish and his journey from Kansas City to the ocean. As Freddy encounters human activities along the way that are polluting his stream, students add various substances to the water to represent different kinds of pollution. At the end of the story, students discuss how water must be cleaned before humans can drink it, and what they can do to keep pollution out of creeks, streams, and rivers.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes rain, groundwater, and stormwater runoff with pollution. Main story includes Freddy the Fish, human influence on environment, and pollution in water. Conclusion includes summary of overall lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts and Social Studies.
Key Vocabulary: Groundwater, stormwater, runoff, pollution, storm drains, roots, concrete, pesticide, fertilizer, littering.
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Students will learn about water cycles, watersheds, and how water carries matter through a water system. They learn about local watersheds and how they interact with the water cycle. Finally, students will create and manipulate a watershed model and direct parts of the water cycle to learn about the journey of water. The lesson concludes with students understanding pollution runoff.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes concepts and key parts of the water cycle. Main story covers the watershed and pollution runoff to waterways. Conclusion engages students in possible solutions and everyday changes they can make. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts, Social Studies and Fine Arts.
Key Vocabulary: Water cycle, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, collection, watershed, gravity, pollution, pesticide, fertilizer, herbicide
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Students learn about common types of pollutants and their impact on waterways. They start with their definition of pollution that might be found in local waterways. Main story includes human impact, how water carries pollutants to waterways, and a discussion of the importance of clean water through good habits and actions known as “Best Management Practices” (BMPs). Finally, the lesson concludes with students creating and comparing clean water and polluted water to understand how BMPs help filter and support clean water practices. This lesson has an optional activity where students can create clean water message posters to display at school or at home.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes rain, groundwater, and stormwater runoff with pollution. Main story defines and discusses “Best Management Practices” and individual actions to promote clean water. Conclusion engages students in creating a polluted water sample and how filtering out pollution helps improve overall water quality. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Fine Arts.
Key Vocabulary: Groundwater, stormwater, runoff, storm drains, roots, concrete/cement/pavement, gravity, pollutants, fertilizer, rain barrel, Styrofoam, best management practices.
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Students revisit the water cycle topic with the focus of stormwater runoff. They become familiar with the most common types of trash found on the ground in Kansas City and how stormwater can carry that trash to the nearest waterway. A quick tour of the school grounds to point out storm drains and slope followed by students using data sheets to tally the types of trash they observe on the ground. Back in the classroom, students add up the tallies, find an average, and create a bar graph to show the comparisons of the types of trash found around their school property. The lesson concludes with a discussion of why it is so important to keep trash off the ground and what they can do to caution others against littering.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes the water cycle and revisits the topics of groundwater and stormwater runoff with pollution. Main story covers pollution and tallying trash, calculating pollutants found in the area, and averaging totals. Conclusion engages students in discussion regarding observations on pollution and water runoff. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts, Mathematics, and Social Studies.
Key Vocabulary: Groundwater, stormwater, runoff, saturated, storm drains, roots, concrete/cement/pavement, pervious, impervious, gravity, pollutants, tallying.
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Students are introduced to characteristics of water and categories of water pollution. They learn how weathering, erosion, and deposition impact water quality and how various substances interact with our waterways. Finally, they learn how point and non-point source pollution affect water quality.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes the characteristics of water and water properties. Main story covers weathering, erosion and deposition, and various pollutants in water. Conclusion engages students in discussion and debate regarding point and non-point pollution. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts.
Key Vocabulary: Contract, expand, weathering, solvent, solute, solution, dissolved, turbid, suspended particles, erosion, disperse, point source pollution, non-point pollution.
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Students learn about watersheds and how precipitation moves through a watershed. The lesson focuses on stormwater runoff and contaminants carried to our waterways. This lesson also teaches students to think about their city when learning about the journey of stormwater. Finally, students calculate the amount of water found in a square yard and compare this to water falling around common impervious surfaces.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes watersheds and the movement of water, groundwater, and stormwater runoff. Main story includes contaminants found in runoff, sewer systems, and ways pollutants travel with runoff. Conclusion engages students in measurements of water and calculating the amount of water in stormwater runoff. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts, Mathematics, and Social Studies.
Key Vocabulary: Watershed, stormwater runoff, impervious and pervious surfaces.
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Students will learn about watersheds and how water carries matter through a watershed. The lesson focuses on stormwater runoff and contaminants carried to our waterways. Students will model a watershed and learn about solutions to flooding as well as possible methods of pollution control.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes watersheds and the movement of water, groundwater, and stormwater runoff. Hands-on portion will have students using stream tables to model a watershed and how water moves through it. Students will also model how water can move matter within the watershed. Conclusion teaches possible solutions to problems and has students reflect upon what changes they can make. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts, Mathematics, and Social Studies.
Key Vocabulary: Watershed, confluence, erosion, deposition, stormwater, runoff, impervious and pervious surfaces.
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Students are introduced to benthic macroinvertebrates and how they are used to determine water quality. Students learn about the general characteristics of macros, their importance and role in the food chain, and descriptions of a healthy macro habitat. Connections are made as to how stormwater runoff negatively impacts these habitats. Students become familiar with the physical characteristics to identify macros and their level of pollution tolerance. Finally, students study and identify macros found in local waterways. KC Water provides all necessary equipment and supplies for this activity.
Total class time: Approximately 1 hour.
Key Components: Introduction includes the characteristics macroinvertebrates and healthy habitats. Main story includes physical characteristics of macros and their habitats. Conclusion engages students in identifying macros and assigning points to assess water quality. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts and Mathematics.
Key Vocabulary: Benthic, macro, invertebrates, habitats, exoskeleton, larva, nymph, pupa, metamorphosis, pollution sensitive.
*This lesson is best conducted at a water site. It can also be completed in the classroom.
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Students are introduced to various components and substances found in our water ways and how they are used to determine water quality. Students learn about the general research methods through water testing, assessment tools and data collection, and descriptions of a healthy water source. Connections are made as to how stormwater runoff negatively impacts these waterways. Students become familiar with the physical characteristics of water and their levels of pollution through data analysis. KC Water provides all necessary equipment and supplies for this activity.
Total class time: Approximately 2.5 hours. This lesson is a three-part lesson. Part one is the introduction. Part two is water testing and data collection. Part three is data analysis. The lesson can take place over 1-3 days depending on scheduling with instructors.
Key Components: Introduction includes the characteristics of water and healthy water ways. Main component focuses on completing various tests of water quality and collecting data. Conclusion engages students in understanding data to assess overall water quality. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Mathematics and Social Studies.
Key Vocabulary: Phosphates, nitrates, coliform, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and turbidity.
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High school groups can schedule an overview of the Journey of Stormwater to cover discussion topics over the issues of pollution and solutions. Discussion covers some solution-driven practices known as Best Management Practices along with topics over local Green Infrastructure sites and the federal Consent Decree. The lesson can involve a group-led Project-Based Learning event in partnership with KC Water.
Total class time: Presentation approximately 45 minutes. Projects may vary by event.
Key Components: Introduction covers watersheds, water bodies, and contaminants to our waterways. Main component covers city response and best management practices. Conclusion covers individual and group response to stormwater runoff. In addition to NGSS/MLS, this lesson also relates to standards for Language Arts and Social Studies.
Key Activity: Student-lead project-based learning activity that can be tailored to each school group or classroom.
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KC Water Bingo Board is comprised of a series of at-home learning activities in partnership with Remake Learning Days. The object of the bingo board is for everyone to complete a series of activities to learn about stormwater runoff. Students can complete the activities in any order and direction to achieve “BINGO”. Completed bingo boards can be sent to our team for a certificate of completion. Bingo boards should include the name of the student and can be emailed to water.education@kcmo.org.
Total activity time: Varies
Key components: Art projects, video lessons, home experiments with everyday household objects, litter pickups and an outdoor scavenger hunt to learn about stormwater runoff.
Key vocabulary: Pollution, pollutants, recycling, water temperature, water source, rain garden, native plants, permeable pavers, erosion, saturation, watershed, stormwater runoff.
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KC Water understands the importance of educating our future generations on the careers that are available after high school or college. Our staff includes people with diverse education backgrounds in the fields of engineering, science, architecture, finance, equipment operation, skilled labor, and customer service. We can send a single staff member to speak about his or her job, bring out some of our equipment for your students to view, or bring a panel of staff to answer student questions.
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Storm Drain Marking Program (4th grade and up)
In most of Kansas City, the storm drains on the side of the road lead directly to a creek, stream, or river. You can help educate your neighbors about the importance of keeping these drains free of pollution and debris by marking storm drains and distributing educational door hangers in your community. KC Water will provide all of the supplies and training for this fun and rewarding community service project. All ages can participate, but children must be supervised by an adult.Education Litter Pickup (All Grade Levels)
Kansas City is not immune to litter around city streets. In addition to being a sore sight, all litter is a huge problem for water quality. The more litter on the ground, the more litter in our waterways. Organize students to sponsor an educational litter pickup anywhere on school grounds or around the surrounding community. Groups can also plan a fieldtrip to head to a site for an impactful litter pickup. Our educational team will provide the educational component about water pollution and supplies needed to combat the problem. Student groups such as Stucco or other groups can participate in an educational talk and a Project-Based Learning activity where they organize and lead a school-wide litter pickup event. -
Here are links to educational, hands-on, simple water quality lessons and activities that can be used by teachers and parents alike. Many of these lessons and activities meet Missouri State Science standards for all grade levels. KC Water encourages everyone interested in improving water quality to check out these links. And, we would love to hear from you! Let us know what works, what doesn’t work, and if you have other water quality resources you’d like to share. You can send a message to water.education@kcmo.org or use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Check back in the upcoming weeks for more lesson and activity ideas.
Websites with lessons and activities divided into age levels- EPA: Drinking Water Activities for Students and Teachers
- Utah State University Extension: Water Quality Kids Page
- MRI: Protecting Our Water Resources: Student Activities for the Classroom
- Water Use It Wisely
- EPA Games and Activities
- Water Environment Federation: Teachers and Students K-12
- Penn State: Water Lesson Plans
- Michigan Farm Bureau: Water: The Incredible Resource
- Teacher.org: Environmental Lessons
- Stream Teams United Educational Resources
- Never Ending Science
Websites with lessons and activities divided into topicsContent for Middle and High School Students- National Geographic: Educator Spotlight: Exploring Challenges of Water Quality and Access
- Teach Engineering: Urban Stormwater Management
- The Nature Conservancy: Nature Lab
- Into the Outdoors: Cost of Clean Water
- Reflo: Water Story MKE
- Teach Engineering: How Clean is that Water?
- National Park Service: Clear Waters
- TGR Foundation: Project Pipeline
- Missouri Department of Natural Resources: Get Involved
Earth Day Activities- Climate Council of Greater Kansas City – Climate News and Events
- DLTK’s Growing Together
- Earthday.org
- Education.com: Earth Day Activities
- Mrs. Willis’ Kindergarten
- National Geographic Kids: Earth Day
- PBS: Earth Day
- Project Learning Tree: Earth Day Activities to Inspire Your Students and Make a Difference
Drinking Water Week Activities