Water Warriors Lesson Plan

When an energy company begins searching for natural gas in New Brunswick, Canada,
indigenous and white families unite to drive out the company in a campaign to protect their
water and way of life. In this lesson, students work collaboratively in groups to explore
specific clips of the documentary, become experts in that particular segment, and teach it to
other members of their group and their class.

Lesson Summary
When an energy company begins searching for natural gas in New Brunswick, Canada,
indigenous and white families unite to drive out the company in a campaign to protect their
water and way of life. In this lesson, students work collaboratively in groups to explore
specific clips of the documentary, become experts in that particular segment, and teach it to
other members of their group and their class.
Enduring Understanding:
Water is a life-sustaining necessity that while some communities fight to preserve others
allow greed to quench its undeniable importance.
Essential Question:
Where do ecological justice and indigenous rights fit into the paradigm for the fight for
human rights globally?
Proposed Grade Levels: 7-12
Content Areas:
• Environmental Justice
• Humanities / Human Rights
• English Language Arts
• Civil Engineering
• Short Film Studies

Time Allotment
Time Frame: 90 minutes
Learning Objectives
Objectives:
In this lesson, students will:
• Evaluate the practice of fracking and the impact it has on ecological systems,
particularly the natural water supply in New Brunswick, Canada.
• Draw conclusions about the intersection of monetary gain and environmental
consciousness.
• Examine and become experts in a particular section of the documentary for the
purpose of teaching that section and its content to other members of their class
community.

Prep for Teachers

Supplemental Material:
UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of
water and sanitation for all: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6

Supplies
Materials:
• Laptops
• Access to the short film Water Warriors
• Headphones
• Worksheet
• Pen/Pencil

Support Material for Teachers

• Activity
– Extensions and Adaptions
• Further Information
– Supplemental Materials
– Curriculum Standards

Introductory Activity
Guided Questions (for use during and after viewing of film):
1. To what extent should people consider the environmental impact of economic
activities?
2. How do we show respect for clean water as a non-negotiable, life-giving resource?
3. What obligation, if any, does the current generation have to future generations where
leaving them with clean water is concerned?
4. What role has greed paid in the formation of the United States of America?
Pre-Screening Activity
Before introducing students to the documentary Water Warriors, familiarize them with
issues of water contamination, fracking, etc. as they relate to indigenous populations
through the following readings/resources:
• Gonzales, Carmen. “Environmental Justice, Human Rights, and the Global South.” Santa
Clara Journal of International Law, 2015.
• Articles about Gas and Oil Fracking from Indigenous Environmental Network.
Have whole class discussions about readings to take a pulse of students’ responses and
thoughts about what they read by asking them to deepen their thinking and questioning by
generating Here. Head. Heart. questions:

Here
Ask a question based on something you learned from the text
Head
Ask a question about the facts or concepts presented in the text
Heart
Ask a question about an emotional element of the text or emotional response you had.
Pre-Screening Thought Prompts:
• Prior to watching the film, activate students’ thinking by asking them to contemplate:
• From whose perspective the story is being told?
• How might the story being told by another perspective change the narrative?
• How did the lives of each of the stories of those featured in “Water Warriors” differ?
• Whose story did you prefer? Why?

Learning Activities
Learning Activity:
The jigsaw technique is an approach to organizing a classroom activity that requires
students to work together in order to succeed. It divides classes into groups and breaks
assignments into pieces that the group assembles to complete the (jigsaw) puzzle. After
watching the entire documentary as a whole class, students will work in groups to analyze
one segment of the documentary and then present their findings to the other group
members in the form of public speaking presentations.
Step 1: After watching the documentary Water Warriors uninterrupted as a whole class,
divide students into equal groups of five (5) or six (6), each with a leader designated by
members of the group or the teacher. Arrange students’ seats into a circle. Each student
needs access to a laptop or smartphone and headphones in order to view their section
of Water Warriors.
Step 2: Assign one particular segment of the film for each group to focus on. Clips can vary
in length and can be assigned to homogenous or heterogenous student groups according to
group members’ various differentiation and accommodation needs. Between all the groups,
all documentary clips will be watched allowing students in that group to become experts of
that part of the documentary. Here are some suggestions for how to divide the film for each
group:
Clip 1: Water Is The Gift of Life (0:00 – 5:28)
Clip 2: Industry Pretty Much Runs The Province (5:32 – 8:10)
Clip 3: There Are Two Types of (Fracking) Trucks (8:11 – 10:56)
Clip 4: Sacred Fire Keeper (10:57 – 14:27)
Clip 5: Trauma After The Raid (14:28 – 18:08)
Clip 6: SWM Completes Their Exploration In New Brunswick (18:09 – 21:33)
Step 3: Distribute Jigsaw Activity Notecatcher for Documentaries. Project notecatcher onto
large screen/SMARTBoard/ActiveBoard in classroom. Explain the contents of the note
catcher and model how to use it to record their observations by completing components of
it (i.e. “name of documentary”, “release date”, “video clip segment”) as a whole class.
Step 4: Release each group member to watch their specific video clip from Water
Warriors as they complete the Jigsaw note catcher – up to and including the Individual
Objective Summary.
Step 5: Once the individual objective summary is completed, students in each group work
together to form their individual objective summaries into one complete group objective
summary by piecing together what they wrote individually, in the sequential order in
which the clips are shown in the documentary into one 5-6 sentence-long group objective
summary.
Step 6: Students from each group present /teach the central ideas, key details, clarifying
questions and their small group objective summary to the other members of the class.
Step 7: As an exit/wrap-up activity, allow students to write their feedback to the
documentary’s creators using the “Praise, Question, Polish” reflection strategy:
Prompts:
• Name one thing you can praise about Water Warriors.
• What is a question you’re still left wondering after watching, writing about, and
discussing the documentary?
• Name one thing that needs to be polished.
Reprinted from PBS LearningMedia: Water Warriors Lesson Plan
https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/16cb193f-d407-4155-bdba-
47d1f8543a85/water-warriors-lesson-plan/
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use only. Not for redistribution.