AICE Environmental Management AS - Managing Water Supplies Day 5

6. Managing Water Supplies Day#5. Lesson plan

After students have explored global water distribution, water security, water insecurity, and completed their water insecurity case studies, Day 5 shifts the focus toward solutions. Students investigate practical and sustainable strategies that governments and communities use to improve water security while evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. This lesson prepares students for Cambridge-style evaluative questions by encouraging evidence-based discussion and critical thinking.

Objectives

6.1 Global water distribution
- describe and evaluate strategies for managing water security

Materials

Vocabulary

Ecological demand: the amount of water an ecosystem requires o continue functioning

Bellringer

Bellringer#5
Alternative: Describe two causes and two effects of water insecurity.

Lesson Outline

Bell ringer#5

Purpose: Activate prior knowledge and review concepts from previous lessons.

Begin class with Bellringer #5 while attendance is taken. Students revisit water insecurity concepts before transitioning into solutions. Bellringers also provide excellent retrieval practice, helping students retain information over time.

Teacher Tip: Review answers together and encourage students to justify their reasoning rather than simply providing the correct answer.

Lecture/Notes – Lecture/Notes (PPT – slides 21-28)

Introduce the key points of the lesson using the PowerPoint presentation – Chapter#6 Managing water supplies – slides 21-28.
Highlight how different methods of saving/ using less water work to manage water security. Methods such as improving irrigation techniques (drip irrigation), planting crops that don’t use too much water, irrigating at night work to reduce water consumption in agriculture.
Describe how freshwater is produced using desalination of sea-water through methods such as distillation and reverse osmosis.
While lecturing students take notes using the Student Guided Notes handout.

Task Cards – Set #2

Once instruction is complete, students reinforce their learning using the second set of Water Supply Task Cards.

These cards include Cambridge-style questions requiring students to:

Describe management strategies
Explain how they improve water security
Compare different approaches
Analyze advantages and disadvantages
Interpret diagrams and short scenarios

Suggested Classroom Uses

Partner discussions
Small-group stations
Whole-class review
Exit ticket
Homework practice

Task cards encourage students to verbalize scientific explanations while receiving immediate peer feedback.

Managing Water Supplies Practice Questions

Students finish the lesson by completing an AICE-style practice assignment.

The practice questions include a variety of Cambridge command words such as:

Define
Describe
Explain
Compare
Suggest
Evaluate

Students apply knowledge from the lesson to unfamiliar situations, building confidence with the style and rigor expected on Cambridge examinations.

Teacher Tip: Encourage students to underline command words before answering each question and discuss how the required response changes depending on whether the question asks them to describe, explain, or evaluate.

Suggested 90-Minute Lesson Flow

Time	Activity
10 minutes	Bellringer #5 and class discussion
25 minutes	PowerPoint lesson with guided notes
20 minutes	Teacher-led discussion of water management strategies
20 minutes	Task Cards Set #2 (pairs or small groups)
15 minutes	AICE-style Practice Questions and review