Teaching resources

The water cycle

Water moves between lakes, rivers, oceans the atmosphere and the land in an ongoing cycle. You can learn about the water cycle at:

The table below shares a list of resources to help students understand water catchments.

Resource	Learning outcome
Icon Water's activity guide	Hands as a map activity Teaches students the basics of catchments using their hands.
Waterwise Queensland's story of a river	The story of a river A fictional story that will show students how land activities affect rivers.
Waterwise Queensland's story of a river lesson guides	The story of a river A fictional story that will show students how land activities affect rivers.
Healthy Catchment game guide from Waterwise Queensland	Healthy catchment game Teaches students to think about what items should or shouldn’t be in their local waterways.
ACT water catchment map	Schools in the ACT water catchment map Locates your school’s local catchment and where water goes in the ACT.
Murray-Darling Basin catchment map [127.7 KB].	Catchment maps These maps will show you what your home’s local sub-catchment is.
Upper Murrumbidgee catchment map [221.9 KB]	Catchment maps These maps will show you what your home’s local sub-catchment is.
New Zealand Government's activity guide.	3D catchment basin Build a 3D catchment basin to teach students how structures can affect water collection.
TeachEngineering's how-to video.	3D catchment basin Build a 3D catchment basin to teach students how structures can affect water collection.

The table below shares resources to help teach students about stormwater.

Resource	Learning outcome
School stormwater audit activity by the Rumbalara Environmental Education Centre.	Stormwater audit Students will explore their local stormwater drains, investigate how polluted they are, why, and how they can positively impact their local waterways.
Cool.org.au stormwater audit activity.	Stormwater audit Students will explore their local stormwater drains, investigate how polluted they are, why, and how they can positively impact their local waterways.
Cool Australia's lesson guide.	Write tips to reduce stormwater pollution Students can use what they learned in the stormwater audit to write tips reduce stormwater pollution for their school.

The table below shares resources to help teach students about land, plants and water.

Resource	Learning outcome
Melbourne Water's lesson guide.	The links between erosion and water clarity Explore the link between turbidity, a measure of water clarity, and erosion. Students will also learn about the effect of high levels of turbidity on the survival of living things in freshwater environments.

Teach students about keeping waterways healthy with these activities:

Contact the ACT Healthy Waterways team to borrow a drain stencilling kit and raise awareness that only rain should go down the stormwater drain.
Visit your local pond, lake or wetland and use educational materials or have a Waterwatch educator teach students about the importance of water.