Water in the House - Worksheets 1 and 2
1. Fascinating Facts 1
2. Fascinating Facts 2
Aims:
To provide key information to the pupils about using water and saving water.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 1
Fascinating Facts 1 - Using water
A hundred years ago most people had no water
supply in their homes but had to carry water
from a tap or well on their street. Seventy years
ago, most people had a cold water supply only
in their homes and all water for washing or
washing clothes had to be heated on an open
fire or range.
Today we use much more water than seventy years ago because:
• Water is piped directly into our homes.
• We wash, shower or take baths more often.
• We have lots of hot water.
• Washing machines and dishwashers use much more water.
• Gardens are watered with hoses or sprinklers.
• Cars are washed.
• One flush of your toilet uses as much water as one person in the third
world has to use for a whole day's washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking.
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© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 2
Fascinating Facts 2 - Saving water in the house
Old fashioned houses use more water than they need.
The reason for this is that they were designed in the days
before computer design, when it was difficult to calculate
how much water they used. Today designers not only
design beautiful sinks and showers, but also think a lot
about water efficiency.
Though many people in Scotland still live in houses built
during Victorian times, there are still lots of things
householders can do to make houses more water efficient.
IN THE GARDEN: Watering the garden with a sprinkler
system can use up to 9 litres of clean water every minute. If
a barrel or water butt is fitted to the drainpipe it will collect
rain water from the roof. This simple piece of equipment
saves money and makes sure that people have water for
their garden even during a drought. Washing a car with a
bucket uses much less water than a hose.
WATER TANK:All bathroom fittings work best when
the water pressure is high. Since water is heavy,
the best way to make sure that water pressure is
high is to put the water tank in the loft.
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© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 2 continued
Fascinating Facts 2 - Saving water in the house continued
BATHROOM FITTINGS:
Washing is very important. But different methods of washing use different
amounts of water. If you fit a shower instead of a bath a family of four could save
a thousand litres of water every week! Baths and power showers also use more
heat, so when you fit a shower you also save on gas or electricity.Sinks often look
the same size, but some are deeper and use much more water. It is important to
choose the most water efficient design.
Old fashioned toilets had a different shape which meant they needed to use more
water to flush. Fitting modern water efficient toilets saves thousands of litres of
water every year.
KITCHENS:
When people did all the washing up in the sink, sinks needed to be
bigger. Now people use dishwashers, sinks can be made much
smaller.The size and type of tap you use can also effect water and
fuel efficiency for hot water taps. Spray taps are more efficient than
normal taps for rinsing dishes, and aerating taps are even better.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheets 3 - 4
3 Activity 1 How much water do you use?
4 Activity 1 Answer Sheet
Aims
• To enable pupils to find out how much water they use.
Materials
• Copy of Worksheets 3 and 4 for each pupil.
Method
• This is a fun quiz to see how much pupils know about the amount of water
that they use.
• Hand out Worksheet 3 to each pupil.
• The quiz can be completed individually, in pairs or in a small group.
It can also be a homework task.
• Hand out the answer sheet and see how pupils scored.
• Encourage pupils to use the quiz with a member of their family.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 3
Activity 1 - How much water do you use?
How much do you know about the amount of water we use?
Try this quiz:
Circle the answer.
1. How much water is used by someone taking a shower?
18 litres
22 litres
27 litres
2. How much water is used by someone taking a bath?
95 litres
105 litres
80 litres
3. How much water is used each time you flush the toilet?
9 litres
10 litres
5 litres
4. How much water is used when you wash your face and clean your teeth?
4 litres
6 litres
9 litres
5. How much water is used when you get a drink?
0.5 litre
1 litre
222 litres
6. Washing clothes in a washing machine uses on average:
80 litres
100 litres 110 litres
7. Washing dishes by hand uses how much water?
7.5 litres
8 litres
8.5 litres
8. How much water does a garden sprinkler use each minute?
7 litres
8 litres
9 litres
Check your answers with the Answer Sheet.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 4
Activity 1 - How much water do you use? Answer sheet.
1. 27 litres
2. 80 litres
3. 9 litres
4. 4 litres
5. 1 litre
6. 80 litres
7. 7.5 litres
8. 9 litres
Give yourself two points for each correct answer.
If you scored:
12 - 16 points
Congratulations! You know a lot about the amount of water
that you use.
8 - 10 points
You know a little bit about the amount of water that you use. Look at
the questions that you did not score any points and try to remember
the answers.
Less than 8 points
Could do better!
Try this quiz at home with members of your family to check how much
they know about using water.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 5 - 6
5 Water use investigation
6 Water use investigation - using your information
Aims
• To experience planning and undertaking an investigation.
• To practice producing and interpreting results in graphical form.
• To encourage informed attitudes on water usage.
Materials
• Worksheets 5 - 6
Method
• This investigation will take 7 days to complete including one weekend.
• Explain to pupils that in this investigation they a re to monitor the use of
water in their home for 7 days.
• Hand out Worksheet 5 and discuss the investigation.
• Pupils should complete Worksheet 5 to identify the specific water use
they will be monitoring. Divide pupils into small groups to design and produce
a record sheet that will be used.
• After 7 days pupils complete Worksheet 6 in class time and present their
results in graph form.
• The data from this investigation will be useful to refer to when pupils
consider how water can be saved.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 5
Activity 2 - Water use investigation
This investigation should take seven days to complete.
For this task you must prepare suitable tables so that you can gather information to
show the amount of water used in your home.
Before you begin:
Think of all the different uses we have in the home for water, e.g. having a shower,
watering the garden, cleaning the car, washing dishes, even boiling potatoes for
dinner.
Consider what the content is going to be in each table. The one in the bathroom or
toilet will be different from the one in the kitchen. Make sure you have a table for
every place in the house where your family use water.
Tell your family about the investigation and ask them to mark a tally mark down on
one of your tables whenever they use water - even when you are not around to
remind them. If someone is using a garden sprinkler, record the number of minutes it
is in use. Remember to leave a pen or pencil attached to your table.
Your tables might look something like this:
Room 1 Bathroom - Water use
Mon
Tues
Wed
Shower
Bath
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun
TOTAL
At the end of the seven days, bring your tables back to school.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 6
Activity 2 - Water use investigation - using your information
Complete this table with your results.
How you use
water
Average
amount of use
Taking a shower
Taking a bath
Flushing a toilet
Washing face,
hands, cleaning
teeth
27
80
9
4
Getting a drink
Washing clothes
by hand
1
15
Washing clothes
in a washing
machine
80
Washing dishes
by hand
7.5
Number of
times
Total amount
of water used
Washing dishes in 30
a dish washer
Washing car with
a bucket
7
Washing car with
a hose
15 litres per
minute
Watering the
garden with a
sprinkler
9 litres per
minute
Total amount
used by your
family
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© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 6
continued
Activity 2 - Water use investigation
using your information continued
a. Using the figures provided on your table calculate how much water your family
used for each purpose.
b. Now calculate how much water your family used in a week.
c. Present this information in graph form:
• decide which type of graph is best suited to present this type of information clearly
• name your graph
• label the axes
• decide on the scale and how to express it
d. Draw your graph and present it for display.
e. Make a graph to show how much water the family of each pupil in your class used
in a week.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 7
Activity 3 - Why do we use so much water at home?
A hundred years ago, most people only had a cold water supply in their homes and
all water for washing themselves or washing clothes had to be heated on an open
fire or kitchen range.
Modern technology in our homes today has made life easier for us compared with a
hundred years ago, but it also means that we use more water.
1. In your group, discuss in what way modern technology has encouraged us to use
more water that we did a hundred years ago? Note down your ideas here.
2. In your group, think about how we can save water at home and make a list of
ways we can save water and other ways we waste water at home in
the boxes below.
Saving Water
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Wasting Water
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 8
Activity 4 - How much water do you use to brush your teeth?
You will need:
Your classroom sink
A bucket
A measuring jug
Toothbrush and toothpaste
How to find out:
1. Place a bucket in your classroom sink.
2. Clean your teeth as you would normally do at home.
Collect the water you use in the bucket.
3. Carefully pour the water into the measuring jug.
4. Measure how much tap water you have used and record the results.
5. Collect the results of all the people in your group who have done this experiment
and make a graph of the results.
• decide which type of graph is best suited to present this type of information clearly
• name your graph.
• label the axes.
• decide on the scale and how to express it.
Try to answer these questions using your graph
1. How much water had the group used altogether to brush their teeth?
2. Who used the least water to brush their teeth and how much was used?
3. If everyone had brushed their teeth in that way, how much water would have
been saved?
1. Ask the person who used the least water to demonstrate how they brushed
their teeth.
2. Think about the method they used. Why did they only use a small amount of
water?
3. Even if we all use that method what other things might affect the amount of
water we use?
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 9
Activity 5 - What happens when water freezes?
You will need:
A plastic water bottle water
The use of a freezer or ice box of a fridge
How to find out:
1. Fill the bottle to the top with cold water.
2. Put it in the freezer or ice box of a fridge being very
careful not to spill any of the water. Do not put the top
on the bottle.
3. Look at the bottle a number of times during the day every hour if that is possible.
Answer these questions:
What happens to the water in the bottle?
What do you see at the top of the bottle?
Why does this happen?
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© Scottish Water 2005
Water in the House - Worksheet 10
Fascinating facts 3 - Frost Protection
Aims
• To provide key information to the pupils about how to protect water pipes
in the house from frost.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005
Frost - Worksheet 1
Fascinating Facts - Frost Protection
Lagging or covering pipes keeps them warm and
prevents the pipe from freezing and possibly bursting.
Different sizes of pipes need different thicknesses
of lagging. Typically for 15mm pipes you will need
32mm lagging. Because of the greater volume of water,
you will need 19-25mm lagging on larger pipes.
Foam lagging is the best material to use and a home
owner needs to make sure that all of the joints and bends
in the pipes are properly covered and the lagging
secured. Pipes exposed to the weather will need
waterproof insulation.
Lagging is only designed to delay freezing for about eight hours in exposed
situations. Even the bestinsulation in cold places, such as the loft, will not protect
the pipes indefinitely in cold weather.
Normal water use will help to prevent insulated pipes from freezing. If you are
away on holiday, a cold spell of 24 hours or over could cause problems.
www.scottishwater.co.uk/education
© Scottish Water 2005