Lesson-2 on Mni Wiconi (Water is Life): Designing and Testing Solutions (Water Filtration)

Authors

• Reycel Jugo, He Dog School, 28152 Hwy 63, Parmelee, SD 57566Follow
• Madhav P. Nepal, South Dakota State UniversityFollow

DOI

https://doi.org/10.62812/IJEI1995

Document Type

Curriculum Resource

Publication Version

Published

Publication Date

Summer 6-30-2026

Keywords

Water Filtration, Engineering Design Process, Water Quality, Problem-Based Learning, Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Description

Students apply the engineering design process to build, test, and refine a simple water filter prototype. This hands-on experiential learning activity focuses on the properties of filtering materials and iterative problem-solving.  In this lesson, students will apply the engineering design process to build and test their own simple water filters. They will use their newfound knowledge to begin developing a practical solution to the problem presented in Lesson 1 - Mni Wiconi: A Water Engineering Challenge for 4th Graders.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Scenario: Having identified the problem, students are now tasked with designing and building a prototype water filter using a limited set of provided materials (or that are available in locality, like organic materials) to make the “polluted” water cleaner.

Pages

8

Type

Lesson Plan

Format

PDF

Language

English

Publisher

Open Prairie, South Dakota State University

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Recommended Citation

Reycel Jugo, and Madhav P. Nepal. 2026. Lesson-2 on Mni Wiconi (Water is Life): Designing and Testing Solutions (Water Filtration). ILEARN Teaching Resources. Volume 8 (1): 216- 223; DOI: https://doi.org/10.62812/10.62812/IJEI1995