Materials:

• Water Facts quiz
• Markers
• Chart paper
• The Geography of an African Country handout

1. Ask students to make a personal list of all the ways in which they use water every day. From their list, have them select the five uses that they consider the most crucial and think about how their life would be different if water were scarce. As they share their ideas, encourage them to tell what they would have to do differently if they did not have an unlimited water supply.
2. Hand out the Water Facts quiz.  Have the students complete them individually, then take up the answers as a class.  Which facts surprised them?  Which ones didn’t? 
   
   
3. As a class, have the students brainstorm the following questions/issues on chart paper.  Alternatively, break the students into smaller groups and assign one question per group.  Invite the groups to present their ideas to the class.
   • How do they think people living in places where water is scarce view water differently than we do here? 
   • How does the environment that they live in affect their lives? 
   • How do they interact with their environment? 
   • What changes could be made to the environment to improve their living conditions? 
     
     
4. Locate the continent of Africa on a world map.  In groups, have the students select an African country to research:
   • Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria
     
     
5. Distribute The Geography of an African Country Handout, and explain the project to students.  Students will work in groups to research an African country and how the people of this country interact with their environment.  They will investigate how water and drought affect the lives of the people in their country, and what is being done to improve the amount and quality of water in their country.  The groups will create a poster and present their findings to the class in a ten-minute presentation.