We're ending our water unit by connecting what we found out to the recent crisis in Flint, Michigan, all while celebrating World Read Aloud Day (2/1/19--we were off for a Professional Development Day) and the start of Black History Month.  A great read for those who've followed along on our water journey OR are concerned about water in general!

As we wrapped up our unit to answer the driving question "Where does my clean water come from and where does it go once we make it dirty?" students revisited the DQB to answer any lingering questions we had yet to answer. Well done fifth graders!

Additionally, students always requested we go on a field trip to either a wastewater treatment facility or a purification plant to find out more about what goes on in those places to help us answer our DQB or the sub-questions we posted.  Sadly, you need to be in 7th grade to visit the WWTF and you need to be in high school to visit the purification plant.  However, Commission to the Water Reclamation District Debra Shore answered Mrs. Brinza's request to visit our classroom (in lieu of visiting either of the aforementioned destinations).  Thank you to Commissioner Shore for confirming what we figured out about our DQ along with a history lesson behind the reversal of Chicago's River.  What a great way to end the unit!