Wisconsin’s Groundwater –
Facts and Teaching Resources
Christine Mechenich
Center for Watershed Science
and Education,
UWSP/UWEX
Goals:
• Background (so we’re all on the same
page)
• Activities (so you’re ready to teach when
you get home)
• Scaffolding (so you have an example of a
logical sequence)
Whom do you want to teach?
5th grade
and high school
2nd to 7th grade
age 5-adult
Juniors and Seniors
in Ecological
Science
11-14 year olds
8th grade Earth
Science
8th grade Earth
Science, MS/HS
Environmental
Science, Elementary
school science
demos
K to HS students
How much of Earth is covered by
water?
100 x
100 x
How much of Earth’s water
is usable freshwater?
A Drop in the Bucket
Polluted,
too deep,
trapped in soil
Wisconsin Waters
• Wisconsin has more than 15,000
lakes and 13,500 miles of
navigable streams and rivers.
• Almost 3 percent of Wisconsin’s
area—nearly a million acres— is
lakes.
• Wisconsin has about 1.2 million
billion gallons of water
underground—if it were above
ground, it would submerge the
state in 100 feet of water.
Incredible
Journey
game
from
Project
Wet and
NOAA
What-A-Cycle water cycle activity
NOAA
9 stations
What-ACycle
Activity
Ground
station card
Groundwater and Surface Water –
A Single Resource
(USGS Circular 1139)
Groundwater is Valuable to Wisconsin
• 95% of Wisconsin communities
and 75% of Wisconsin residents
rely on it to meet their daily water
needs
Public Water Supplies in Wisconsin –
Surface Water
Water Use In
Wisconsin, 2005
USGS Open File
Report 2009-1076
Groundwater is Valuable to Wisconsin
• 95% of Wisconsin communities
and 75% of Wisconsin residents
rely on it to meet their daily water
needs
• Supplies almost all water for
agriculture – livestock, irrigation,
dairy operations
• 1/3 of industrial water use
• 1/2 of commercial water use
Groundwater Quality Concerns
9-11% of private wells exceed
the drinking water standard for nitrate
Sources of Nitrate
in Wisconsin Groundwater
On-site
Waste
Disposal
9%
Lawns and
Other
1%
Agriculture
90%
Shaw 1994
Groundwater Quantity Concerns
Little Plover River Dry-up July 2006
Photos by Adam King and Kyle Homan
Computer modeling of the Central
Sands
Surface water and
groundwater –
a single resource