Blue Planet Links does not guarantee the accuracy or objectivity of the information presented on listed websites or publications. We have attempted to present a variety of perspectives on the issues in the hope that the more you know, the more likely you are to influence and make wise public and personal decisions to promote healthy oceans and fresh water.
© 2012 Blue Planet Links
Non–fiction & activities
Links to a zillion things you can learn about H2O
Amazing water! It's probably our most valuable natural resource. Nothing can live without it. As the world's population grows, we use more, poison more, and waste more H20 every day. Learn more:
A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder
by Walter Wick (Scholastic, 1997)
Big Blue Bus
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/canwaters-eauxc...
Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Kids Corner with ideas, facts and quizes."
Bill Nye the Science Guy's Big Blue Ocean
by Bill Nye, Ian Saunders, John S. Dykes (Illustrator) (Disney Press, 1999) Scientist and television personality Nye introduces young readers to the amazing, sometimes mysterious biome that covers nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface. He discusses marine animals and plants, salinity, currents, tides, the effects of earthquakes and tsunamis, and contemporary methods of exploration.
Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Web-site
http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/ocea...
CURRICULUM IDEAS and SUBJECTS include titles of children's books about Oceans and Rivers.
Drinking Water Quality - Taking Responsibility
by Susan L. Connor (Waterworks Publishing, 1998).
Earthforce
http://www.earthforce.org
Ideas for environmental, community-oriented group activities for middle-school students.
EPA's For Kids
http://www.epa.gov/highschool/
American federal Environmental Protection Agency provides an extensive learning resource to help high school students understand the environment. Click on WATER and choose your perspective!
Exploring the Oceans: Science Activities for Kids
by Anthony D. Fredericks and Shawn Berlute-Shea (Illustrator)(Fulcrum Publishing, 1998) Activities, projects, and experiments in this book help children realize how critical the oceans are to our planet. Although most activities do not require access to a seashore, people near an aquarium or seashore will learn how to benefit from such a visit.
Janice VanCleave's Oceans for Every Kid : Easy Activities that Make Learning Science Fun
by Janice VanCleave (John Wiley & Sons,1996) Learning about the ocean and its inhabitants becomes an intriguing adventure. Use a bottle, pennies, a straw, and clay to demonstrate how submarines rise. Make your own wave holder with index cards and a plastic folder. Through these and other activities you'll find out how fish move up and down in water, how pollutants move into the ocean, how to navigate without a compass, how to map the surface of the ocean floor, and much more.
NASA: SeaWiFS - For Kids Only
http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/seawifs.htm
NASA's SeaStar satellite has a program called Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), that studies global water to understand water's behavior and how human behavior affects it. Missions have observed water temperature and color changes to assess such processes and characteristics as El Nino and the ocean's fertility.
National Geographic Explorer
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer
National Geographic's online magazine for children. Search WATER for activities, teaching resources..
Ocean Watch
by Martyn Bramwell (Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc., 2001) Exploring ways to protect our planet.
Protecting Our Planet: Keeping Water
by Ewan McLeish (Raintree/Steck Vaughn, 1998)
Rainwater harvesting
Besides the obvious advantage low-tech rainwater harvesting offers for domestic water, the "extra" can provide farmers with higher and faster growth, more harvests, or different crops, e.g. rice and vegetables rather than sorghum and maize. Google site offers dozens of diagrams, basic information about rainharvesting and rainharvesting projects.
Rivers (Make it work! Geography!)
By Andrew Haslam
Science World
www.scienceworld.ca/ A renovated and revitalized Telus World of Science in Vancouver includes new interactive water exhibits in Our World. Watch for a Fall opening of the Ken Spencer Outdoor Science Park, now under construction at harbor's edge.
Snowflakes!
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/23/science/la-sci-snowflakes-20111224 The mystery of snowflakes: what we do and don't know about them.
The Cloud Spotter's Guide
www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/ The humorous and instructive Science, History and Culture of Clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, UK founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society.
The Incredible Coral Reef: Another Active-Learning Book for Kids
by Toni Albert and Ada Hanlon (Illustrator) Dozens of activities designed to teach children how they can help save the environment, while following the author's underwater adventures on the coral reef.
The Kingfisher Young People's Book of Oceans
By David Lambert (Kingfisher, 2001). Part of an award-winning series.
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Quick Facts About Water
- Water covers 70% of Earth's surface. (That's why astronauts in space dubbed it "The Blue Planet".)
- Only 1% of this resource is drinkable. About 97% is ocean water: salty, unpotable and not usable for irrigation. The other 3% is fresh water, but nearly one-third of that is locked up in the form of glaciers and ice fields.
- The world's population more than tripled in the last century, but during the same time, our consumption of water increased six times. The U.S.A. and Canada, in that order, use the most water per capita.
- Agriculture is the largest user of water world-wide, consuming about 68%. Industry uses 22%.
- Water is life: we might survive a month without food, but less than a week without water.
- Water is weather: rain, snow, ice - and drought. It determines what we eat, what we grow, and what plants, animals and water life thrive.