Water Usage @ Home Experiment

Did you know that the average American uses between 80-100 gallons of water each day?   How much water does your family use per day, are you above, below, or within the average range? 

The current 6th grade science students (HGT and HS) are in the middle of a water use project that will have them measuring water use in their home for the next 7 days.  Students should be counting each of the following ways they use water in their house including number of minutes the sink and shower are used in 30 sec increments, the number of toilet flushes, the number of loads of laundry, cycles of the dishwasher and times the bath tub is filled.  Students will then be calculating the gallons of water used per day on average.  It would be extremely helpful to them in double checking their work if they had access to a water bill if possible.  Students will be expected to blog at least 3 times during this process and share experiences while conducting this experiment on KidBlog!  Good luck in your quest to collect water usage data in your home :) 

Here are the rough estimates for water sources.  Again, please consult owner manuals if you feel like usage is greater or less than that listed below.  
Toilet 3.6 gallons per flush
Low Flow Toilet 1.5  gallons per flush
Sink – 1.5 gallons per minute
Shower – 2.5 gallons per minute
Dishwasher – 25 gallons (10% of that if Energy Star product)
Washing Machine – 35 gallons (14 gallons if Energy Star product)

Students will be expected to create an infograph (visual representation that transforms data into information) of their water experiment which will include: Students need to tell the story in a visual manner of the finding of their experiment and what they learned.(More details to come on Wed/Thurs!)
Title
Hypothesis
Procedures
Data Collection
Daily H2O Totals
Weekly H2O Average
Conclusion
* What did you learn by conducting this experiment?
* How will this experiment impact your future water use?
* How will this experiment impact your family's water use?

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1186/
http://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=3F93145A-1
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hydrogeo/visualizations/watersheds.html
http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/ccr/index.cfm

Thank you,
Ms. Donahue