Höje Å:  Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow- Project Water 1998-99
By Eva Dessborn, Polhemskolan, Lund
eva.dessborn@polhemskolan.lund.se

Students from Polhemskolan
active in Höje Å 1990-1999

Introduction
The Environmental Education is a cross curriculum responsibility in the Swedish schools. During the schoolyear of 1998-99 a group of students aged 16-17 at Polhemskolan, Lund, Sweden, carried out a project called "WATER".

The project was utilizing a number of different teaching and learning divices, most notably, problem-based learning.

Aims and Objectives
After having finished the project, the student should be able to:

•  Describe the architecture of the water molecule, and from that explain the inter- and intramolecular bonding in water
•  Describe chemical and physical properties of water, like density, heat capacity, boiling and melting points, osmosis and diffusion
•  Describe the hydrological cycle, and describe water flow in surface and ground water
•  Describe the availability of fresh water and its distribution on the globe
•  Have knowledge of water consumption in Lund, the water supplies and treatment of drinking water and sewage water
•  Estimate the quality of  stream water using chemical analysis and biological index.
•  Give example of big building projects concerning water, and thereby give example of unexpected and unwanted consequences.
•  Give example of water regulation projects in the province of Scania during the last 100 years, and explain the environmental problems that have arisen from these projects cultures.
•  Describe the Höje Å Project
•  Describe how people change a landscape when using it.
•  Discuss different conflicting interests in the planning of a landscape
•  Analyze how different historical, cultural, economical, political and biological factors will act on the development of the landscape.
•  Recommend  measurements that should be taken when the area around Höje Å is developed

 

 Organization
 The project has its roots in regular science classes. During these sessions, the students got the foundation in knowledge which helped them to carry out the last part of the project, (Höje Å, Yesterday, today and Tomorrow) aimed at making the students realize that human activities, concerns  and influences are all acting together with nature when a landscape is being formed.

 

 Part of the students week has been scheduled as "project work", and the subjects social science, natural science and Swedish language has put part of their scheduled lecture time into a common project time. The students have been trained in Problem Based Learning, and were therefore used to work on their own and seeking the knowledge they need to solve a task.

 During water project the following subtopics were explored:
1. The chemical and physical aspects of water
2. The Hydrological cycle. Surface and Groundwater
3. Water use in Lund
4. The availability of  fresh water and its distribution in the world
5. How to measure the quality of water in a stream. Biological and chemical methods
6. Building project and water management

All these topics, as well as a week by week description of specific learning activities, are available on a CD-Rom made by the teachers involved. The author can be contacted for more information about this. Here we will only  briefly look at the international component of the project.

 Water distribution in the world
 As an introduction to the topic the students watched a slideshow on the water-situation in developing countries. They were then given the task do survey and to write an essay on some infections that are widespread, and water-born.
 
 During several periods, the students were studying  articles on the use of water  in Sweden and in other countries.
 Many of them were from a magazine called "The world around us"  and the topics were:

•  "Stop wasting water" on the uneven distribution of water on the globe
• "International co-operation is necessary" describing a UN conference on Water in New York 1998
• "Water is dignity"  On the project of getting clean water to rural areas in developing countries.
•  "On the other side of the Baltic"  The article was dealing with the modernisation of sewage treatment along the Baltic coast

Also, the students were corresponding with students in Indonesia. Here is their letter of introduction.

 

Students bridging troubled waters and nations

Hello!
We are seven students at "Polhemskolan" (a gymnasium in the south of Sweden). Just like you, we are doing a project in school about water. Here is a short summary of the water use in the town of Lund, which we live in.
We get our drinking water from lakes north of Lund. From there, the water is purified and led through pipelines to our homes. The process is quite complicated and makes the water almost free from any substances (except some minerals), it tastes very good (no chlorine taste as in some other countries). We use about 390 litres a day/person. It goes to dishes, washes, showers and so on. 1000 litres of water from the faucet costs about 10 Swedish crowns, which is a little more than a US dollar.
 After we have used the water, it is purified again, now very carefully, and then led out to the "Höje å" (a stream). It does cost a lot of money to purify the water, and it is not even totally clean. But clean enough.
Besides all this information about the water use in Sweden and Lund, we also learned more about the "Aral lake" in Russia, and the "Assuan dam" in Northern  Africa. We compared them to similar projects here in Skåne (the county we live in). One example of a similar project is that we have changed directions of streams to get more arable land. That leads the water faster to the sea. As a result, the water is not purified by the earth, which leads to overgrown seas. But we are up to fixing these problems and we hope that it will be better in the future.
We are looking forward to hear from you about how you purify and use your water.
Best wishes  Ida, Erik, Moa, Karin, Carin, Hanna and Åsa

Evaluation
After the project, the students evaluated it. Over all they thought that they had gained a lot of knowledge, and they thought that they had reached the goals set up. The work got increasingly interesting as it progressed. However, not until they were preparing the role-play did they fully understand the importance of it.

Strangely enough, they had seen the project as a science-project , and they were concerned over the fact that we had spent so much time in science, which is not their major. They were also a bit (read very) annoyed over the fact that a lot of  the time spent on the project, the other students at the school were having as spare time.

As their teacher, I am very pleased with the results of the project. The aims were reached, the results of the work came out with good quality. I am convinced, that when the students look back on this in a few years time, and when they walk along Höje Å, they will realize that the time spent was worth while.