Last week, I was teaching my 6th graders about the water cycle and I noticed they were fixated on thinking this continuous cycle was flawless. I asked the class if they thought there might be problems with the water cycle to which many of them replied, "no, because it's been this way forever so if there was a problem it would be fixed or we would know about it." Some students said yes, there are problems with the water cycle because nothing is perfect, and most students said they had no idea. When I was in 6th grade, I wouldn't have known either.

I decided to take this teachable moment and transform it into a miniunit on the water crisis. First we discussed the word crisis, identifying that a water crisis would be a very bad problem that would need attention. We then spoke about how the water cycle affects us directly, and what, if any, repercussions we might see if there were problems with this cycle. Last we talked about what might cause these problems as we referred back to our Lorax-inspired, environmental science unit from last month. The students still had trouble visualizing what a water crisis might look like, because although many of my students come from very low income, underserved neighborhoods, not one of them lacks access to water.

We watched the Why Water video (to the right) and I asked students to take notes. After the students heard "every 19 seconds, a mother loses a child to a water related disease," the room turned into a different place; the students were in shock. Some of them started writing sad faces all over their notes paper and some of them started counting to 19; every time they did, they wrote RIP on their papers. It was clear my kids were confused and didn't know how to react to these facts, so instead of moving on to a new topic, I wanted to see how far I could push them.. (something one of my students now calls "Ms. Gilbert's WHY BOMB, because I answer all of their questions with questions by dropping a "why bomb" on every answer they give. sorry I'm not sorry.)

I had the students read about the water crisis in various countries such as Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Kenya and Honduras. I had students summarize what was happening in that country and synthesize their thoughts by making connections and asking questions. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of most responses, but the question I saw on almost every single paper was, "How can we help?"

So, I thought I'd start with my birthday.

I'm turning 23 years old and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for donations, of any amount, from everyone I know. It's not going to me. All of it is going to build freshwater projects for people in developing countries.

Almost a billion people in the world are living without clean water -- but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 30,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but still have to walk hours each day to get dirty water for their families.

My birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don't need; it's to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion people living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year. A donation of just $5 will go a long way and would be incredibly appreciated!

The best part of all this: 100% of all donations go directly toward water projects. And about 18 months after this campaign ends, charity: water will show us where and how every dollar we raised ended up helping in the field. We'll see GPS coordinates, photos and more details about the communities we've impacted.

Please help me not just provide clean water to those in need, but please help me show our students today that we can make a difference. We have the power to do big things, and if this is a message I can bring back to my classroom, I am certain I will have the best birthday ever.

thank you for any contribution you can give! and as always, thank you for your support.

Love,
Liz