Water Education Resources: Grades 7–8
Suggested lesson plans and activities for water-related learning in the seventh and eighth grade classrooms.
Featured Activities from The Water Project
Downloadable lesson packages — PowerPoints, handouts, and worksheets ready to go.
Water Use — Full Lesson Package
Enough activities for an entire lesson on water use, including documenting household water consumption.
Are You Dehydrated?
A fun activity about dehydration and the health importance of water, done both in the classroom and at home.
Interactive Resources
Clickable diagrams at three levels. The Advanced level is ideal for grades 7–8. Available in 35+ languages.
Interactive 8-step walkthrough covering pre-treatment, primary/secondary treatment, disinfection, discharge, digestion, biosolids, and cogeneration.
A 2-minute video from PBS explaining how runoff carries materials through watersheds into rivers and how smaller watersheds connect to larger ones. NGSS-aligned.
Learn how water is filtered, then follow step-by-step instructions to build your own water filter. Downloadable PDF for grades 4–8.
Step-by-step instructions for building a physical aquifer model. Learn what aquifers are, how they work, and why they’re important.
Printable matching game — match everyday activities with the amount of water they use.
Printable card game — one team reads the answer, the other must choose the correct question. Test your water knowledge.
Word Games
Search for water source vocabulary words.
Help the children get to the clean water faucet.
Find vocabulary words from The Water Project’s Water Challenge.
Free printable crossword with water cycle vocabulary and answer key.
Fact Sheets & Quizzes
Six common water-wasting mistakes presented with humor. Learn about conservation and pollution prevention.
10 fun facts — from how old Earth’s water is to how much your brain is water (75%) to how much a household uses per day (50 gal/person).
45 facts covering physical properties, body composition, and production requirements (e.g., 120 gallons for one egg, 62,600 gallons for a ton of steel).
A web-based scavenger hunt about Potomac and Chesapeake Bay Watersheds. Available in elementary and middle school versions.
Bulletin Board Ideas
USGS Water Education Posters
Each poster includes educational activities. High-res images and PDFs, color and B&W, select topics in Spanish. All free and public domain.
Classroom Activities
Each activity includes educational lessons, vocabulary words, and hands-on instructions. Curriculum materials courtesy of the Water Environment Federation.
Learn about wastewater and wastewater treatment with this science tutorial.
Learn about water-related careers by interviewing people who work in the field.
Learn about the history and formation of rivers in your area.
Develop math skills while calculating volumes of groundwater.
Increase your knowledge about groundwater systems.
Learn about groundwater and the water table.
Learn the relationship between groundwater and surface water.
Create an aquifer and use the model to demonstrate well placement and groundwater contamination.
Relate concepts from physics to hydraulic heads used in groundwater flow control.
Create a model depicting how groundwater becomes contaminated.
Study the impact of pollution on the environment and human health.
Design a landfill and consider the effects of leaky landfills on the water supply.
Learn about underground storage tanks and their detrimental effects on the water supply.
Last updated March 2026. All links verified at time of publication.