Peace Corps

• Subject(s): Language Arts & Literature, Environment & Health, Cross-Cultural Understanding
• Grade Level(s): 6–8, 9–12

Overview

Enhance the experiences from the sanitation and disease challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with lesson plans and additional resources from World Wise Schools.

Background Information

Factoids from the Game:

• Lack of sufficient water and sanitation has resulted in the poor health of both adults and children. This lack of adequate water and sanitation has impacted the earnings of adults and the schooling of children. Women and girls who are responsible for collecting water are particularly impacted. Source: United Nations
• About 2.6 billion people, including a billion children, live without basic sanitation—plumbing and clean water. Source: United Nations
• Many Peace Corps Volunteers work specifically on water and sanitation issues. They work with their community on a wide range of projects, including hygiene education; tapping springs; constructing and protecting wells; and improving facilities for storing drinkable water. Source: Peace Corps

Materials

• Podcasts: Access to Safe Water
• Story: Typical Day-Is there such a thing?

Procedures

Play the sanitation and disease challenge.

Lesson Plan:

• Water: Source of Health, Source of Illness (Grades 5-8)
  Students will learn to appreciate the importance of clean water for the maintenance of good health, and how the lack of clean water leads to the spread of disease and parasites in West Africa.
• Water Quality (Grades 3–5 and 6–8)
  The water pollution of the lake in the village of Wanzuzu has affected much more than just the lives of the humans in the village. Animals and plants have also been affected. Through letter writing students will have the opportunity to express their feelings by writing as if they were a fish in the lake and also understand that sometimes we all must work together to solve a community problem.
• Solving the Water Quality Issue (Grades 6–8 and 9–12)
  Newspapers are one of the main sources of information about our local and world events. Students will create a Wanzuzu newspaper about the important issues the Wanzuzu people are facing due to their polluted lake.
• Soil Runoff (Grades 6–8 and 9–12)
  When the ground is saturated or impermeable to water during heavy rains or snow melt, excess water flows over the surface of the land until it eventually collects in low spots such as ponds, rivers or lakes. This is called runoff. Students will explore several ways in which the lake at Wanzuzu can be protected from further soil run-off and how as a Peace Corps Volunteer they could help their community. The following teacher suggestions are designed to enhance the students learning while focusing on one of the challenges (soil runoff) addressed in the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.

Additional Resources:

• UNICEF Voices of Youth: Water, Environment
  and Sanitation
• World Water Day 2008 : International Year of Sanitation
• World Health Organization: Household Water
  Treatment and Safe Storage
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Safe Water Systems

Framework and Standards

Standards

• National Science Education Standards
  • Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
• Social Studies:
  • Theme I: Culture and Cultural Diversity
  • Theme III : People, Places, and Environments
  • Theme IX: Global Connections