Think Globally Act Locally | The Power Of R

Shannon Tran of Vanier Secondary wanted to do something special with her grade 8 math class the two days before final exams. So she called me up and we started designing a review package of algebra, rates and ratios, volumes, areas, fractions, percentages, integers, graph interpolation, and probability of events. I studied hydrology at BCIT and I was excited to actually put my education to work.

Ms. Tran and I designed a math review package that worked through the applied math in the Regional District’s hydrological cycle. Applied learning is the best way to learn and connecting math curriculum with the outside world is very valuable for the students. I love to bring our amazing and precious resources to life in the classroom.

Students calculated rainfall volumes over certain months of 2009, percentages of ground absorption, lake volumes using different prisms, fresh water usage fractions, fresh water intake rates, chlorination ratios, reservoir volumes, household use probabilities, and finally, backyard rain barrel volumes and projections. Each stage in the review had a lesson about our fresh water and carried the message of how valuable it is at every stage of the hydrological cycle.

Collecting and keeping water clean is a very expensive process. When we use water inefficiently, we need to spend more tax dollars to build reservoirs (millions of dollars), pump stations, and water treatment facilities. In the Comox and Strathcona Regional Districts we use extremely high volumes of fresh water in the driest summers… hmmm… Why, you ask? Because we’re crazy about watering our lawns, in fact, we use the most water per capita in the world… THE WORLD! If we have to be the best at something it would be better to be efficient and happy, right? A simple solution to the problem just takes a little bit of math.

To further the learning, the presentation has been offered as a cultural math activity to share with GP Vanier's partner school in India! This multicultural resource sharing is a very exciting component of the project. Lessons from India obviously demonstrate a much different picture of water use and efficiency. Implementing low-tech solutions from developing communities around the world is a great way for Canadians to be more efficient with our own fresh water.  One of those valuable technologies is as old as human history itself; the rain barrel.

Rain barrels that connect to your gutters are a great solution for garden watering. It rains on Central Vancouver Island approximately 3 meters every year – multiply that by the surface area of your home’s roof and voila, we’ve just calculated how much free water we can make. Now that we know what we’re missing out on, it’s time to take action. It only takes a little bit of math to see exactly how we can make the world a better place.