These science resources for teachers and other educators help students learn about water footprints and how to reduce their water use. There are many excellent (and free!) online resources that can help teachers that do distance learning.

Here is our curated list of websites, curricula and quizzes you can use in your classroom.

Educational Resources: Top Water Websites

• US EPA WaterSense Kids
  Kids learn why it’s important to save water and some simple ways to do it.
• EPA Drinking Water & Groundwater Education Materials
  Teachers can find water resource educational material broken out by age group.
• EPA Water Lesson: Keeping All of Our Waterways Clean
  Students learn about the water cycle, keeping pollution out of waterways and mercury in fish.
• EPA: Water Science
  Students learn that when rivers, lakes and oceans become polluted, wildlife is endangered, drinking water is unsafe and swimmable and fishable waters are threatened.
• EPA Surf Your Watershed
  Students find their watershed and get a list of citizen groups and organizations working on water quality in those watersheds.
• US Geological Survey: The Water Cycle
  Teachers can use this updated water cycle model to help students understand human influences on the natural water cycle.
• US Geological Survey Water Science for Schools
  Students can find information about different aspects of water along with pictures, data, maps and an interactive center.
• US Geological Survey Water Resources Information
  Teachers find materials on topics ranging from groundwater and aquifers to watersheds and cartoon posters for grades K-12.
• Project WET Home and Distance Learning Resources
  Teachers can find a suite of free and discounted resources that educators, parents and children can use to learn about water while meeting standards in math, language arts, science and even fine arts. 
• Arizona Project WET (Water Education for Teachers)
  Kids at all grade levels learn about the scientific and social importance of water, where it comes from, how to protect water sources and how to use water without wasting it.
• Project Wet Discover Water: The Role of Water in Our Lives
  Teachers and students alike can find a self-directed educational resources about the complex and important roles of water in our lives.
• Project WET: Home and Distance Learning Resources
  Here is a suite of free and discounted resources that educators, parents and children can use to learn about water while meeting standards in math, language arts, science and even fine arts. 
• Water Use it Wisely: Lesson Plans
  Find fun and educational activities that help kids learn about water and water conservation.
• Water Use it Wisely: Kids H2O Activities and H2O Facts
  This is a long list of activities to help kids learn about water.
• New York City Department of Environmental Protection: Environmental Education
  Find a wide range of free programs and resources about New York City’s vast water supply and wastewater treatment systems.
• New York City Department of Environmental Protection Climate Change Education Module
  These multi-disciplinary lessons and activities introduce students and teachers to a range of New York City specific climate topics.
• Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation
  Take part in a friendly competition between US cities to see who can be the most “water-wise.”
• Wyland Foundation’s Teacher Resources
  Teachers can find activities to do with students and students can find information about other students and adults who serve as water protectors.
• American Water Works Association: DrinkTap
  DrinkTap Kid’s Place has lots of materials available to students, families and educators learn more about how water works.
• American Water Works Association: Farm Bill Key in Protecting Drinking Water
  This video illustrates how farmland runoff carries nutrients, insecticides and sediment that impact downstream community water sources.
• WWF: Free Rivers Augmented Reality App
  This app puts the river landscape in your hands and lets you immerse yourself in a virtual world, where you’ll meet the people and wildlife that live along the river.
• LOTT Clean Water Alliance: WET Science Center 
  The Water Education and Technology Science Center is a free, hands-on water education center that offers many online resources.
• Denver Water: Youth Education Program
  This page has activities and information to increase knowledge of water in Colorado, educate children about Denver Water and help create wise water-use behaviors.
• Hydroviz Energy-Water Nexus
  This module helps students learn about the energy-water nexus focusing on their ability to quantitatively examine water availability in the US and elucidate key drivers governing electricity water demand such as population growth, cooling technology, fuel portfolio, and electricity trade. 
• Science News for Students: A Wave of Change is Coming to Our Planet’s Water Resources
  This module about water resources is part of The Climate Change Chronicles, a 10-part series about the impacts of climate change, the new science behind it and the ways in which the planet is adapting to it.
• Water and Energy Conservation for LA Middle School Students
  This engaging and fun water and energy conservation project was created for Los Angeles Unified School District middle school students and teachers. 
• Boise Environmental Education: For Families
  These free resources for use with kids of all ages keep the faucet of knowledge flowing!
• US Climate Resilience Toolkit: Socioeconomic & Equity Resources
  This page provides access to weather, water and climate data in either of two formats: a dashboard with graphic displays or plain-language questions in a web app.
• UT Austin Bootcamps: Water Conservation and STEM
  These resources enhance K–12 STEM-focused water conservation learning, discover how technology is being used to impact water conservation today and increase kids’ and teens’ impacts on water conservation. 
• Alliance for Watershed Education of the Delaware River
  This site offers a wide variety of online and digital programming, including K-12 lessons, all from the centers that make up the Alliance.

Educational Resources: Water Curricula and lesson Plans

• Alliance for Water Efficiency; Learning Landscapes Lessons 3-8 lesson plans about climate-appropriate plants and landscaping
• Gray, Green, Blue: Water Security and You! 9-12 video series and lessons
• The Water Project K-12 lesson plans
• H2O for Life K-12 lesson plans and STEM guide
• Sustainable Water Challenge K-12 curricula
• Facing the Future K-12 curricula
• Project WET K-12 curricula
• Project WET Student Lessons and Tutorials Pre-K through high school lessons 
• The Water Sourcebook Series K-12 water activities
• Instructor Materials: Overview of the Water, Agriculture and Sustainability Module Undergraduate water and agriculture lesson plans
• California Academy of Sciences: Your Hidden Water Footprint 6-10 lesson plans about water footprints
• California Academy of Sciences: How Much Water Do You Eat? 3-12 lesson plans about the water footprint of food
• Stephen Leahy: Your Water Footprint 4-8 book (for purchase) that provides extensive water footprint information
• National Geographic: Will There Be Enough Fresh Water? 7-12+ lesson plan
• American Museum of Natural History H2O=Life Educator’s Guide 9-12 lesson plans
• California Department of Water Resources K-12 lesson plans
• Swarovski Water School K-12 lesson plans
• Global Water Partnership: Central and Eastern Europe Primary school lesson plans and worksheets about water management, available in English, Czech, Slovak and Hungarian languages
• Towards Water Literacy: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Standards for Teaching and Learning About Humans and Water A study of water-related K-12 standards for teaching and learning about human dimensions of water systems
• Towards Water Literacy: Analysis of Standards for Teaching and Learning About Water on Earth Research about water-related K-12 standards for teaching and learning about water and natural systems
• The Writing Water Curriculum Project Lesson plans about water challenges in Northern Colorado

Educational Resources: Water Quizzes and Games

• American Water Works Association: The Story of Drinking Water
  Online quizzes and games – do you know the story of drinking water? Find out with this quiz.
• EPA WaterSense ‘Test Your WaterSense’
  Think you know everything there is to know about water? You can’t be sure until you Test Your WaterSense!
• National Geographic Climate Change Quiz
  How much freshwater do we have and how much is the changing climate affecting our supply? Find out in this quiz.
• Thirstin’s Question and Answer Game
  Here are twenty-five questions and answers for kids to test their water knowledge.
• FunTrivia: Saving Water – Every Drop Counts
  This quiz includes facts about water and how to save it in the home.
• The Colorado River Water District Water Wizard Quiz
  Dive right in and test your water knowledge with these multi-level quizzes.
• Water Environment Foundation: Pipe Up! This game teaches kids what’s involved in building the systems that deliver our water and making sure we have access to clean water.
• Texas Water Resources Institute: Texas 2040 Save Our Rivers 
  This interactive game helps players understand how drought and population growth will affect Texas rivers.
• Turning Green Classroom
  This site offers eco learning with 25 simple, fun and impactful themed activities and interactive lesson plans for teachers, families and students.
• Global Citizen Shrink Your Water Footprint: Take the Quiz
  This quiz helps users think about the way we consume and how we can move our systems towards more sustainable practices.

Learn more about water footprints with our middle-school and high-school lesson plans.