This design challenge moves your students from passive to active learners through a cross-curricular, hands-on team challenge in direct correlation to real-world issues of water conservation. By creating prototype desalination plants and companies, students in grades 6-8 will understand how substances are separated, the need for freshwater conservation, and ultimately how a desalination plant works.

Water, water everywhere...could the ocean be a reasonable source of freshwater for our communities? Philippe Cousteau travels to the West Basin Municipal Water District’s Water Education Center in Redondo Beach, CA.. Here Darryl Ramos-Young explains the process of desalination and the results of a multi-year pilot study examining the benefits and challenges of turning saltwater into freshwater.

In Southern California, about 80% of the freshwater supply is used for farming. Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau meet with executive chef and farmer Adam Navidi from Future Foods Farms in Brea, CA. Chef Adam uses an innovative farming design called aquaponics to grow lettuce, vegetables, and even fish with less water than the average family uses at home on a daily basis.