Introduction

  No one can dispute the importance of agriculture to the human society and in fact, other living organisms. However, more often than not, agricultural activities are pursued in haphazard manner that directly or indirectly affect the quality and supply of water adversely, a commodity so vital for the survival of all living organisms. The thrust of this project is to sensitize the students on how water can be polluted by agricultural activities, how it can be prevented, using internet to find information, ability to develop computer skills such as Microsoft Word Processing and Power Point presentation, to be able to write articles and post it on the Internet, and above all to champion the campaign on the essence of safe agricultural practices in Ghana.

Subject and Grade level: Senior Secondary School (SSS), Form Two (14-17 years)

Lesson Goal:

 To expose and stimulate the enthusiasm of students to embrace the integration of information technology into teaching and learning. To equip the students with technical know- how to be able to use search engines to find information on the Internet. For the students to be able to write articles on proper agricultural practices. To enable students to be able to present the knowledge acquired visually.

Content Objectives

Students will appreciate the meaning of water pollution. Students will come to terms with the value of water to all living organisms. Students will know the various types of agricultural enterprises. Students will know the various types of pollutants that emanate from agriculture and how these pollute water bodies by carrying out agricultural practices. Students will be able to compare the various agricultural enterprises (ie crop cultivation of crops, fish farming and livestock rearing) in terms of the magnitude of their adverse effects on the quality and supply of water. Students will be able to know some precautionary measures to be adopted to avert water pollution.
 

Performance Objectives

Students will be made to search for documented write-ups on negative impacts of crop cultivation, livestock rearing and fish farming on water quality and supply on the Internet. Students will collect samples of water bodies polluted by above agricultural activities from different locations and compare their extent of pollution. These will be represented graphically in a form of Bar Chart. This will give a fair idea of the types of agricultural practices that pollute water highest in Ghana.

Technology Objectives

Students will be able to find relevant information on the Internet using search engines. Students will become familiar with the use of certain technological tools like Power Point presentation. Students will be able to do accurate interpretation of relevant information and analysis of data gathered from the Internet using Microsoft Word Processing and Excel.

Instructional Activities (teacher component)
First, the students will be divided into working groups, each group comprising ten students. Relevant lesson information from resources like Encarta, CDROM will be loaded onto the hard disk whilst those from the internet will be loaded onto the floppy disk residing in the server. All important links and websites necessary for the lesson will be pre-selected and created in the server folder. The information gathered will be used for demonstrative purposes and these can be  accessed by the students  as the computers are networked. Important guidelines on correct wording for using search engines like www.google.com/search and www.yahoo.com/search, strategies on uploading and downloading of information from the Internet onto floppy disk, article writing on the project and Power Point presentation technique will be stressed.
 

Learning Activities (student component) 
Students will put the knowledge acquired into practice. Each group will search for information on the various agricultural practices and how they pollute water. The students will download their information gathered onto floppy disks. Students will 
analyze their information and interpret them, illustrate their outcome in graphic form, write articles on how water is polluted by agricultural practices and possible remedies. They will construct their final work on slides for Power Point presentation
 

Instructional Strategies
The whole lesson will be conducted in 80 minutes (two periods). 15 minutes will be used to issue out necessary guidelines on how the project will be carried out. The students will work in their assigned groups. Strict measures will be taken to ensure that the students grasp the important rudiments of how the project is to be carried out.
 

Project Assessment
 The students will be assessed by the following criteria that will be agreed upon by all students.
Achievement of lesson goals.
Ability to access at least 5 websites related to the project lesson.
Accurate interpretation and analysis of information gathered.
Presentation of work in groups using Power Point.
World links Curriculum and Technology Integration Rubrics.
 

Project Materials and Handouts
 Computer.
Printer.
Downloaded articles from pre-selected websites.
Microsoft Word Processing and Excel.
CDROM on Integrated Science.
Projector.
Power Point.
 

Lesson Resources
 Worldlinks curriculum and Technology Integration (Activity Task).
Search engines-Google and Yahoo.
Microsoft Word.
Power Point.
Netherhall Education Software programme on agricultural practices.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/dwpa/reports/pdf/dwpa01-b.pdf

                                                          THIS IS THE REPORT ON LESSON 
 

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