Water Postercard Portfolio

Scroll down for information about each picture.

Using the postercard portfolio as posters for wall display.

Cutting up the postercard portfolio into individual pictures for class use.

Using the postercard portfolio pictures as the basis of an interactive lesson using a teacher's own lesson plan.

The unique Postercard Portfolios gives you two presentations in one...

The portfolio consists of two double sided laminated posters containing a total of 28 approximately letter-sized pictures in full color. All of this is contained in a transparent plastic wallet, or portfolio.

They are arranged so that you can show them as posters, reversing them to give variety to the classroom over the weeks, but you can also cut them up and use the 28 pictures individually in any way you choose. For example, you can use them to begin a themed wall display, or you can put them on desks and provide students with your own lesson plan. When used loose, the wallet is a convenient place to keep all of the pictures.

Support

The portfolio has 28 pictures. You can find three levels of support here for each picture: Simple, Moderate, and Advanced.

Picture 1. The water cycle.

Simple

This diagram shows, using red arrows, how water moves from the oceans, into the air. Then how it makes clouds which may cause rain or snow. The rain then seeps into the ground (as does the snow when it melts) and the water seeps into rivers. Rivers then return water to the oceans. This is the water cycle.

Moderate

This diagram shows how water can be transferred from the oceans to the air and then to the ground, as part of an ongoing movement of water between ocean, air and land. This is what makes the water cycle. Notice that the water changes form as it moves. It starts off as liquid, becomes a gas (water vapor) and then goes back to liquid again in the clouds.

Advanced

This diagram shows the water cycle and how it works. The main processes are evaporation from oceans, and condensation of vapor to droplets to form clouds. The water is transferred to rivers through the soil by gravity. Some is also recycled by transpiration from plants and evaporation from wet land surfaces. A large amount of energy is needed to get the water from the oceans to the air. This is provided using heat from the oceans.

Picture 2. How we use water in the home.

Simple

Here you can see several ways we use water in the home. Are there other ways we use water which are not shown here (for cooking, drinking, etc.)?

Moderate

This diagram shows some of the ways in which water can be used in the home. Clearly some ways use more water than others. Are there other ways we use water which are not shown here (for cooking, drinking, etc.)?

Advanced

We use water in different amounts for different uses. Filling swimming pools and cleaning cars uses more water than a dishwasher. Cleaning by shower uses less than washing in a bath. But it is not as simple as how much is used at a each time. It is also a matter of how often water is used for each purpose.

Picture 3. Water supply and drains for a house.

Simple

This is a side view of a house so that we can see all of the pipes. You can see that some pipes supply water and others carry it away. Try to work out what the red ones do, what the blue ones do and what the gray ones do.

Moderate

This is a diagram of the water supply and drainage of a house. Notice that hot and cold water has to flow up to the house, and for this it must be under pressure. Water flows out by gravity, but because the flow is slower, the pipes must be bigger.

Advanced

This shows the plumbing system of a house. See how the water goes through the meter (blue square) then into a heater to create the hot water supply. Some bipasses the heater and continues to faucets as a cold supply. Drains all remove water by gravity. Notice the pipe up the side of the house to allow air to escape and prevent air locks. U-bends also prevent smells getting into the house.

Picture 4. Water supply pipes and sewers under a street.

Simple

This street has been dug up so that drains can be installed. Look to see how big the drains are compared with the people. Which pipes are the clean water and which pipes are the drains?

Moderate

Water takes up a considerable amount of space. In general, water pipes are buried under the street to save space. This only becomes a problem if a leak develops in the pipes. This picture gives an idea of how distruptive it can be to replace or add pipes.

Advanced

Pipes can be made of steel, ceramic or plastic. You can see steel and plastic pipes here. How would you ensure that the joins were watertight? Great care has to be taken because a fault can be very expensive.

Picture 5. Saving rainwater in Africa.

Simple

In this picture you can see one way that poor people in the African countryside store water. The water is kept in a large concrete 'jar'. Where do they get the water from?

Moderate

This is typical of the inventive ways of people who have no running water. Rainwater will be less likely to be polluted than water from a river. Rivers can also dry up. So an extra amount in a concrete jar can be useful.

Advanced

In countries with a long, dry season, the more water that can be stored locally, the less time will be taken going backwards and forwards to a river. This concrete jar can store water that will keep a family going for several weeks. Would it keep you going for several weeks, and if not, how would you have to change your habits to make it last?

Picture 6. A water storage tower.

Simple

This picture shows a community water tank. It is situated near to a small town. The water is pumped into the tank and then allowed to run down a separate pipe to local houses.

Moderate

Community water tanks are often used as a way of helping with ground water pumping. A small pump continuously takes water from the ground and puts it into the tank. Then, when there is a heavy demand, the water level in the tank goes down. Between periods of peak demand, the small pump can fill the tank again. It is a good, energy efficient way to work.

Advanced

The amount of water that can be extracted from an underground source may be limited. On the other hand, demand peaks in the mornings and evenings. These two different patterns of supply and demand can be balanced by using a community water tank.

Picture 7. Living without running water in America at the end of the 19th century.

Simple

This is a picture of a home about a century ago. It is a very simple home with no water. Many places used to be like this. Where do you think the water came from?

Moderate

We are now used to running water either from a local well and electric pump or a municipal supply. But this has only come about in the last half a century. People in the countryside before this had no running water and so they had to use a well and pull the water up by hand.

Advanced

Water is one of the most difficult utilities to bring to rural communities because the pipes are expensive and they also have to be buried in the ground. This is why individual supplies are uncommon in developing countries and why they have only been common in rural America for the last half century. Even today, many rural people have to use their own wells. The advantage of this is that most well water is unpolluted.

Picture 8. Carrying water back from the well.

Simple

Here you can see some women and children with pots on their heads. The pots are full of water. They are carrying water back from a well.

Moderate

This picture shows women and children carrying out their day's most difficult and heavy job - fetching and carrying water for the family. This happens all over the developing world, and especially the country where there is no local supply of water.

Advanced

This picture shows how many people spend a good part of each day. Because there is no water locally, they have to trudge to a well or a river. Even with such skill at balancing pots on their heads, it is difficult to carry enough for the family needs.

Picture 9. Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, Arizona/Nevada.

Simple

This is the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. It is one of the world's great dams. You can see that it is made from concrete and that it is very tall. Behind it is a huge reservoir (called Lake Mead).

Moderate

This concrete dam is arched towards the reservoir of water behind it. It is hollow and yet the arching makes it tremendously strong.

Advanced

The Hoover Dam performs a number of useful roles. It holds back water which can then be diverted through canals to provide drinking water and irrigation for farms. Releasing water through the turbines housed in the building at the foot of the dam also allows hydro-electric power to be produced.

Picture 10. Dam and reservoir.

Simple

This diagram shows the main features of a dam and reservoir. Notice that the dam and reservoir are in a deep, narrow valley.

Moderate

This diagram shows the working of a dam and reservoir. The site for the dam must be chosen so that the dam uses as little material as possible and also traps as much water as possible.

Advanced

Many dams and reservoirs are located in uplands where the valleys are deep and narrow. Rainfall is usually greatest in such locations as well. If a deep, narrow reservoir is created then it will lose less water by evaporation in summer than a wide reservoir. It will also flood less land and so be less of an environmental problem. The lines around the reservoir show how the level changes due to the way the dam is operated.

Picture 11. Watering vines by spraying water onto their roots.

Simple

This is an example of water conservation. The black water tubing has small nozzles along its length. When the water is turned on the nozzles send a spray of water to the roots of each plant.

Moderate

This picture shows vines in California. Because farming uses a lot of water in dry, hot places like California, it makes sense to use as little of it as possible. By using sprays of water close to the plant roots, water is not wasted on the ground between the plants.

Advanced

This is the most water-saving way of irrigating crops. However, providing the pipes is expensive. It is also relatively easy to use on a crop that lasts for many years. But it would be hard to use this method to water a field of wheat, for example.

Picture 12. Using native plants to save water in a desert town.

Simple

This is a garden in a desert town in Arizona. Notice that the plants are palm trees and cacti. These plants can survive on very little water.

Moderate

This show a way of thinking about gardening from a water conservation point of view. The plants do not need watering during times without rain. They also make an attractive arrangement.

Advanced

If you live in a dry environment you might be tempted to use a lot of water and grow plants that thrive in wetter parts of the world. But why should you live in a desert and not make use of the beauty of the desert plants? This garden shows how attractive desert plants can be. They are an excellent example of conservation of plants and water.

Picture 13. Polluted water flowing through a sewage treatment plant.

Simple

This is a picture of a sewage plant - a place where waste from our homes and factories is treated and made clean again. Look at the color of the water and you can see that cleaning is really needed.

Moderate

This picture shows a sewage plant. The water flowing in has detergent foam on it and its gray color tells of highly polluted water.

Advanced

The sewage plant you can see has to treat water that contains both organic and inorganic wastes (effluent). This requires a many-staged process which takes time and costs money. You can see an example of the fact that it is expensive by looking at the scale of the building in the background.

Picture 14. A latrine runs directly into a lake.

Simple

This picture shows a non-flushing toilet, called a latrine. You can see the group of houses in the background that share the latrine.

Moderate

The picture shows a latrine placed on the side of a lake. The waste from the latrine can be seen flowing into the lake. If the lake water is used for drinking or cooking (as it will be) then there is a real danger of disease.

Advanced

This picture shows an extreme example of why it is vital that toilet waste be kept away from drinking water. If it is not, a range of diseases, such as cholera, will occur and result in many deaths.

Picture 15. The stages of building the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, Arizona/Nevada.

Simple

This picture shows the building of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the 1930s. The big picture in the middle shows the black canyon before work started on the dam. Follow the dates around to see how the dam was built.

Moderate

This picture sequence gives us a rare opportunity to see the stages of building a dam and its location. The choice was a deep, narrow canyon. This means the dam could be quite small for the amount of water held back. The way the dam was built is shown in the picture sequence.

Advanced

A rare opportunity to see the nature of dam construction. The first step was to cut a channel around the gorge to divert the water. In December 1932 you see the main gorge was dry. Now building can commence. Then you can see the foundations and the stages of building the dam ever higher. Finally the building with the electricity turbines is built at the foot of the dam. In 1936 the water is no longer diverted, but sent through the turbines to generate electricity.

Picture 16. A reservoir drained during a drought.

Simple

Here you can see a reservoir, but it has hardly any water in it. Look at the sides to see where the water used to be when the reservoir was full.

Moderate

Reservoirs are designed to store water when there is a surplus, and to release it for use when there is a drought. So the level of the reservoir goes up and down through the year. However, in a very dry year the whole of the reservoir may be used. What do people do after that?

Advanced

If you look at the 'shore' lines around the reservoir you can see where the levels used to be. The reservoir water has been released in stages, with time between release to allow a new beach to form. Notice, too, that the bottom of the reservoir is very silty. A reservoir is a body of still water, so when a river enters it the material it is carrying settles out. As a result, all reservoirs will fill up in time. Many reservoirs have a life of one to two hundred years.

Picture 17. An irrigation canal.

Simple

This is a canal which is designed to bring water to an area of farmland. Water is taken from the canal and fed onto the land so that the crops can grow during a dry summer.

Moderate

This canal is designed to carry water mainly for watering fields. This is called irrigation and the canal is called an aqueduct. Notice that the canal has high banks. The banks are a cheaper way of making a channel than digging it entirely from the ground.

Advanced

Irrigation is one of the main ways in which water is used in many countries with hot, dry summers. The cheapest way of bringing large quantities of water from a reservoir is by an open channel. The channel has to have a very gentle slope, so that the water will keep flowing, but it must not be too steep or the water will scour the bed. As a result, aqueducts tend to hug the contours of the land just like canals.

Picture 18. Recreation on the Colorado River.

Simple

A large river can be used for many things. Here you see that it is being used as a holiday resort. You can see that people relax by the cooling breezes coming off the water and also use the river for boating.

Moderate

If a major river has barrages on it, it becomes a staircase of steps where the water level stays the same. This makes it easier for the land beside it to be developed. In this case the development is as a holiday resort.

Advanced

Controlling a river is done for many reasons, such as flood control, keeping water back for droughts and the production of hydro-electric power. But another very important use is recreation. If you look in the background of this river you will see that the land is barren, rocky desert. So the river provides a place for people to enjoy themselves in an otherwise inhospitable area.

Picture 19. Sprinklers irrigate a field.

Simple

Here you can see how a giant field is watered when there has been no rain for some time. You use a giant boom with wheels in it. The boom has electric motors which makes it move in a great circle. You can see the circle in the air view.

Moderate

Irrigation is more efficient use on water if land is sprayed rather than flooded. But this requires very sophisticated equipment. In this picture you can see a system called central pivot irrigation. The boom with its sprinklers is computer controlled to swing around a central point. It moves a few meters and then stops for a minute, and then moves a few meters further on. In this way it waters a great circle very efficiently.

Advanced

This picture shows central pivot irrigation, which is a system that is widely used for cereals and other crops that cannot be flooded. It is also very efficient on water use. In this picture the boom is connected to a central pivot where the water is brought from an underground pipe. The water is then conveyed across the boom to the spray heads.

Picture 20. Re-using water in the desert city of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Simple

This is a picture of a hotel in the middle of the Nevada Desert in the city of Las Vegas. And yet there is a huge waterfall in front of it. How do they do this? By using the same water all of the time.

Moderate

This is a picture which shows how a desert can be turned into an oasis, with a lake and a waterfall. Not as much water is used up as you might first think because the water is recycled using giant pumps. It needs a lot of electricity to keep the waterfall going.

Advanced

How you use water depends on how easy it is to get, and how much you have to pay for it, compared to how much money you can make by using it. In the case of this hotel in the desert city of Las Vegas, the cost of the water is tiny compared with the other costs of running the hotel. But it produces an attractive setting that encourages people to visit. Thus, this waterfall and lake are very cost-effective features.

Picture 21. Flood irrigation.

Simple

This field of trees is being watered by flooding the fields. The small soil dams help hold the water in place.

Moderate

Many tree crops are irrigated by flooding. The flooding lasts only for a day or two because the trees could not survive in waterlogged conditions. But when the ground is thoroughly soaked the water is stopped and the soil dries out. When the soil becomes too dry, the ground is flooded again.

Advanced

Flood irrigation is a common way to irrigate tree crops. A central pivot system would be impossible to use. The alternative is to have a network of pipes delivering water to the tree roots through small sprinklers. Flooding like this wastes a lot of water, so its use depends on the cost of water being kept low.

Picture 22. A satellite image of a reservoir.

Simple

This is a picture of a reservoir taken from a satellite. This 'moon's eye view' of the reservoir shows the dam and the huge amount of water ponded up behind it. It is just like looking at a map.

Can you find the dam? It is the only smooth part of the edge of the reservoir.

Moderate

This is a satellite view of a reservoir, with the dam at the lower right. If you look carefully you can see it is an earth dam with gently sloping sides. Notice how the location of the dam allows a large area of storage for a relatively small dam.

Advanced

Look at the satellite picture and first make out the mountainous area by looking at the texture of the land. It takes some practice to identify landshapes from a satellite picture, so look hard. Compare it with the flat land which is farmed (lower right). Then you can see that the dam was placed on the edge of the mountainland.

Picture 23. White water rafting.

Simple

This shows people white-water rafting. What part of a river would you find this on - upper course, middle course or lower course? Would you find it in uplands or lowlands?

Moderate

White-water rafting is just one of many ways in which people can enjoy the river. They are enjoying this in a fast-flowing part of the river where most other recreational use of the river would be difficult. Can you think of other uses (fishing)? Would they conflict?

Advanced

White-water rafting gives a vivid impression, not only of the rapid flow of the river, but also of the local turbulence in the river. You can see this by the way people find it hard to steer a straight line.

Picture 24. How people used to collect water.

Simple

This is a picture of the way people collected water from a well in the 19th century. They built a winding gear over the well and then carried the bucketfulls of water away on their heads.

Moderate

For many people in 19th century, drawing water from a well was part of the daily chores. There were two reasons why the wells were narrow: it took less effort to dig a narrow well and you couldn't lift a large, and therefore, very heavy, bucket anyway.

Advanced

Wells have to be sunk to aquifers and they take a lot of effort. Digging them was also dangerous because of the constant chance of wall collapse. Some wells were over a hundred meters (300ft) deep.

Picture 25. An oasis, Morocco.

Simple

This is a source of water in a desert. It is called an oasis. This oasis has enough water to grow crops. You can see them in the front of this picture.

Moderate

An oasis is a place where groundwater rises to the surface to make a permanent spring. Most springs have a limited flow of water and cannot support large communities.

Advanced

This desert town in Morocco shows the enduring need for water in a harsh environment and how it has concentrated people close together. There would be other reasons to be close, such as for defence, because water is a precious commodity in a desert.

Picture 26. A dam and reservoir.

Simple

This is a plane's eye view of a dam and a reservoir. See how it has been built across a narrow part of the valley.

Moderate

This picture shows the construction of a dam. Notice it is arched towards the water. The pressure on the dam makes the blocks in the dam squeeze closer and so the dam gets stronger, not weaker, as more water pressure is added.

Advanced

Dams impound reservoirs and use much land. It is therefore important to choose locations where land is poor. You can see in this picture that the land is forested and was not previously under farm use.

Picture 27. Washing up in polluted water, slum, Africa.

Simple

This picture shows a young girl trying to clean her pan with dirty water. She lives in a slum and this is all the water she can get.

Moderate

This picture shows how difficult it is to avoid disease in slum conditions without proper washing facilities.

Advanced

This picture highlights why it is so important to provide everyone with clean water. By washing up in this open environment, close to trash and decaying remains, there is a high chance of catching a disease.

Picture 28. The kind of notice put out during a drought.

Simple

This picture shows that when there is a drought, there have to be priorities on how water is used. Watering gardens is not a priority.

Moderate

This shows that in some places where water shortage is not uncommon, drastic measures might sometimes have to be taken to make sure there is enough water for drinking.

Advanced

When watering of gardens is restricted or banned, it is not just to save water, but also to send out a political message about the need to be careful with all kinds of water use. Watering gardens is a low priority and can, in any case, be done with gray water (the water that has previously been used for washing up and so on).