Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune in: Imagine a world without pipes

20 minutes

Find out: Independently investigate pipes in the home

20 minutes

Take action: Visually communicate your findings about pipes

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune in: Imagine a world without pipes

Step 1. Begin this lesson by inviting students to take a moment to think about how lucky we all are to have fresh drinking water when we turn on the taps in our houses or schools and that we can use a toilet in the comfort of our own homes without it spreading disease and making a mess. Explain to students that there are many people in many parts of the world where this isn't the case.

Watch the following clip:

Understand Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTX28qH5jT4)

Explain to students that this clip was made by the United Nations and is about Goal 6 of their Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Step 2. Now explain to students that one of the things that contributes to ensuring clean water and sanitation is having pipes that go in and out of our houses and school. You can't often see them when you're inside a building, but if you've ever seen a building site, you will see pipes all over the place.

Pose the following thought starter: Imagine a world without pipes. Engage students in a discussion around this statement. You can use the following questions to guide your discussion:

where do we use pipes in our daily lives?
how important are pipes to the comfortable functioning of our daily lives?
how would a lack of pipes affect our daily lives? Would it be manageable but annoying, or would you struggle to survive?
what if we had to change our pipes every five years? Would that be annoying or manageable? Why?
what if there was a problem with some of the pipes, such as something leaking out or (maybe worse!) something leaking in? What impact would that have on you?

Through your discussion, ensure students understand that clean drinking water and effective sewer systems (sanitation) are fundamental to public health.

Find out: Independently investigate pipes in the home

Step 1. Distribute one copy of the Student Worksheet to each student. Invite students to use the questions and websites provided on the Worksheet to work independently to investigate the services pipes provide to our homes and communities.

You might like to break up the research task by splitting students into groups of four and assigning each member of the group one link, then have the group share their findings with the class.

Links:

Step 2. As a class, reflect on your findings.

It was probably obvious to students during your previous discussion that having no pipes would mean that no water could be sent directly to our homes to shower, wash our dishes, or drink.

But were students surprised to find that, without pipes, we'd have:

no gas to cook with or potentially heat our homes
no electricity
no internet, as these wires and cables are housed within pipes to keep them protected and clean as they run underground
no drinking water
no toilets! Sewerage pipes take waste water away from the house.

So many of the services we might take for granted are delivered to our homes via pipes. Take a moment to speculate with students what our homes might be like if we didn't have pipes to deliver clean drinking water or remove the sewage, and introduce the necessity for clean water and sanitation in the context of pipes and plumbing.

Through your discussion, you could suggest to students that because we rely on pipes for sanitation and health, it is important to design resilient, efficient, sustainable pipes with a long design life and fit for purpose.

Take action: Visually communicate your findings about pipes

Step 1. Students will now work independently to create a visual communication piece demonstrating the importance of pipes in the home and their services. Students can create their communication pieces using art materials. The communication piece could be a painting, montage, technical drawing, 3D model or any other medium that suits your available materials.

Students should label their communication pieces with explanations from the research conducted earlier in the lesson.

Explain to students that this piece should communicate information about the importance of pipes to an audience who knows nothing about pipes.

Here's what a good one might look like:

You could share this image with students and talk to them about what makes this a good communication piece and what might be missing. For example:

this is good because it shows what different types of pipes are used and where these pipes go in a house.
this could be improved by using bigger labels and adding some more information about what each type of pipe does and whether they are taking things in or out of the house (e.g. drinking water pipes take water into the kitchen, bathroom and laundry, sewage pipes take water out of the house).

Work together with your students to establish the criteria you all expect in the communication pieces and record this information on the board.

Step 2. Give students time to create their communication pieces.

Differentiation: The complexity of the communication piece can be adjusted according to the time available and student ability. Students could also work in mixed-ability pairs to complete this task, with pairs allocating roles to complete the task on time and to the criteria.

Once complete, invite them to check their communication pieces against the criteria you created earlier.

Students can then present their work to the class.

Reflection

Independently, students complete the following question:

I am still wondering ...

You might like to have students write these wonderings on a sticky note and collect them at the end of the class so you can keep them in mind and refer back to them as you discover more throughout the rest of this unit. Alternatively, you can use these questions to guide students' further inquiry in the classroom.

Differentiated Learning

Some opportunities for differentiation are included throughout this lesson. In addition, students who finish early could spend some time exploring some of the other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and reflecting on the kinds of actions that might be required to address these goals.

Services and Utilities of Plastic Pipes

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Summary

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