Week 7: Water for life

Introduction

Last week you were introduced to some of the concepts and skills associated with science, technology and maths, and the different ways in which these concepts are communicated. This week you will be able to further develop some of these skills in order to explore our relationship with water and what its existence means for world population. There will be more of a focus on maths and technology this week as you work out how much water you use and consider ways of reducing that consumption.

Watch Laura introduce Week 7:

Download this video clip.Video player: he1s_1_wk7_640x360.mp4

Show transcript|Hide transcript

Transcript

Laura Hills – author

Hello, and welcome to Week 7 of the course. In last week’s introduction to science, technology and maths, you had the chance to discover more about the nature of these subjects, and also the particular language and skills that we associate with them. This week we will be doing a case study of water, by bringing together science, technology and maths.

So why water? Because water is essential to life, and without water there would be no life. It’s also part of our everyday experience, and so it’s something you know a lot about already. This week we’ll be exploring the relationship between water and population. In particular, how the population is impacted on by rainfall. On a more personal note, you'll have the chance to calculate your own water consumption and think of ways in which you can reduce that.

So that’s a brief overview of this week, and I hope you enjoy it.

End transcript

Download

 

This week you will be exploring the topic of water. Water is essential for life, and without water there would be no life. Water also has many special properties that single it out from other substances and that make it of interest to scientists in all areas.

Water is also a subject that is part of your everyday experience; you know a lot about it already. For example, water is the most common liquid on the Earth: it forms ice; it falls in the form of rain; all plants and animals need water to survive.

This week you will:

• explore the relationship between population and water
• enable you to investigate your own use of water
• develop your study skills of reading diagrams and tables
• use your skills to calculate fractions and percentages.