SUBJECTS
Math, Science
GRADE LEVEL
Senior (9-12)
PLEDGE
2 - Human Right to Water
Resources Needed:
- The Water Princess by Susan Verde or Video: The Water Princess Read by Georgie Badiel
- Computers with spreadsheet software or access to Google Sheets
- Template spreadsheet for students
- Optional: slide deck
Introduction:
- Read The Water Princess aloud to the class (or show the video reading).
- Ask students what percentage of the world they think has access to safely managed drinking water.
- Share the fact that “[w]hile the number of people lacking safely managed services has decreased significantly in recent years, 2 billion people still lacked access to safely managed drinking water services in 2020 (UN-Water, 2021)”. Ask students what percentage of the world population that is (~25%). Then ask whether they think this is better or worse than before.
Lesson:
- Tell students you will be calculating percentage change using data on global access to water from 2000 and 2020. If necessary, review what percentage change means.
- Have students open the spreadsheet, make a copy, and follow the instructions.
Follow Up Activities:
- Discuss the advantage of using percentage change to assess change (instead of the raw numbers).
- What does the data show us? Is the situation getting better or worse?
- If current trends persist, only 81% and 67% of the world’s population will have access to safely managed water and sanitation services, respectively, by 2030 (WHO and UNICEF, 2021). Is that good enough?
- Have students graph the data.
- Have students interpret the data.