Purpose:
This module teaches students about
watersheds, their parts, and the functions of each watershed part. Why
watersheds? Because that’s where we live – most obviously in
mountainous terrain like West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands.
Perhaps more importantly, the watershed
– rather than political boundaries - has become the organizing concept
underlying environmental assessment and protection efforts at both the
local, state and regional levels. This is a logical approach, as most
of us "live downstream" from somebody else, and that somebody we are
downstream from lives in our watershed. For example, the Chesapeake Bay
is "downstream" from West Virginia, and efforts to protect the
Chesapeake Bay from pollution focus on pollution delivered through
watersheds (like the Potomac).
Federal and State Government agencies -
including those throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed - increasingly
seek to solve problems by working with inclusive citizen's groups known
as watershed associations; as the name implies, watershed associations
consist of people living within a watershed. This has created a new and
very positive way for citizens to work with and impact government
action.
The Flash activities, scavenger hunts,
links, and background information provide students with a solid base for
understanding what a watershed is while giving them a sense of place in
their own watershed. This foundation is important when learning about
more complex topics such as pollution, development, and resource
management.
Web Based Tools:
v
Interactive Learning
Activities:
What is a Watershed?, Potomac
Watershed Puzzle and Watershed Creator
What is a Watershed?, Potomac
Watershed Puzzle and
Watershed Creator were developed to provide students with
most of the information they will need to have a basic understanding of
watershed parts and functions. These activities do not discuss the
hydrologic cycle in detail, largely because it is treated so well on a
number of other websites. We have links to a number of these sites in
the watershed section of the Bookshelf under hydrologic cycle. In
particular the United States Geological Survey site offers a very
comprehensive look at the water cycle anywhere and the Waterloo site has
a nice water cycle animation. This allows the instructor to cover other
topics such as those suggested below in the Follow Up sections.
What is a Watershed? (elementary,
middle)
is a simple Flash narrative about the watershed concept
paced for the elementary school level. However, based on substantial
feedback, is quite effective for middle school and even the high school
level. The idea of using water flowing off the roof of a shed to
introduce the watershed concept was based on an experience in the real
world where CI staff was in a shed with a bunch of middle school
students talking about watersheds - and it started to rain. While this
activity does not focus on explaining the water cycle, it shows the
portions of the water cycle most relevant to explaining the watershed
concept as rain falls from a cloud, runs over and through the ground to
a stream, and is pulled by tree roots via evapotranspiration from the
ground.
The Alice
Ferguson Foundation
developed a teacher driven, call and response approach to delivering
the What is a Watershed lesson to younger students that we
like a lot. Here it is:
Preparation
--Set up the projector & computer to
display the activity on the screen, as follows:
1.
Turn on the computer and the projector.
2.
Navigate to the activity from
www.cacaponinstitute.org or go directly to here:
http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/Watershed/What_Watershed.html
3.
You may need to focus the lens of the projector a bit to see the
activity clearly.
The Activity
(15 minutes)
1.
SIMPLIFY for much younger students – introduce the term, talk
about the parts of the word, etc. – you can still do
KWL, but
K.I.S.S.
J
2.
Begin the online activity. On the screen that asks, “What is a
Watershed?” begin a
KWL
chart, and record what students already know about a watershed and
what questions they have.
3.
Advance in the activity. Ask students if they have ever seen
signs like these that say watershed in them. Where do you see them? What
do you think of them?
4.
Advance in the activity. “What is a watershed, anyway?”
5.
Advance in the activity. “Is it a shed full of water?” Thumbs
up or down….
6.
Advance. “So what is it?” Add to the KWL chart if appropriate.
7.
Advance. “Shed’s roof is a clue.” Note: the drops go really
slowly down the roof and mountain. Ask students, are there hills
outside the school? Outside their home? Which way does the water go when
it hits the hill?
8.
Advance. “Rain flows down hill to a stream.” Activity defines a
watershed.
9.
SKIP the next slides if they seem too advanced for your students.
a.
Advance. “Water can flow to the stream over the surface.” This is
what we see. “Can also flow through the soil and rocks.”
b.
Advance. “Water flows most quickly on the surface, more slowly
through soil and rocks.”
c.
Advance. “Not all rain that goes through the soil gets to the
stream.” “Trees take it in and it goes to the sky.” Discuss
transpiration and the water cycle.
10.
Advance. “Click cloud to make it rain.” “Rain marks the boundary
of the watershed.”
11.
Advance. “Click sun to make it stop.”
12.
Advance. Repeat definition. Add to the KWL with concepts learned
throughout the activity.
13.
Advance. “Downstream, streams join others to create bigger
watersheds.” Local school creek joins the Potomac River which joins the
Chesapeake Bay. Add to KWL.
14.
Advance. “Everything in a watershed is connected by water –
rocks, soil, and all the living things.” Is your school in a
watershed? Do our actions here impact our stream? The Potomac River? The
Chesapeake Bay? How? Add to KWL.
Advance. “We all live downstream or
upstream of someone else in our watershed.” Why does this matter?
Add to KWL.
Potomac Watershed Puzzle
(PWP). The purpose of this activity is to expose the students to the
parts of the watershed, provide a definition for the “parts,” and
provide a basic description about their functions. Potomac Watershed
Puzzle has six distinct sections:
1.
It opens with an animated sequence that is designed to gain the
students attention as well as introduce the idea that the parts of a
watershed aren't just on the surface, but also underground.
2.
The second section provides a definition of a watershed, which
leads into an opportunity to put a watershed jig-saw puzzle together.
The puzzle introduces the idea that a watershed, like a puzzle, has many
parts. This puzzle can be skipped if time does not permit it to be
completed.
3.
The third section opens with instructions. After reading the
instructions, the user clicks on "buttons" that bring up text describing
each part of the watershed. This is the first learning phase.
4.
The fourth section is a matching quiz where students match
watershed parts with watershed functions. It is "open book", which
means that the student can review the information for each of the
watershed parts before they choose their answer. Finally, it is scored
very gently. The student has eight possible answers for each of
ten matching questions, and each match has a maximum score of one. If
their first guess is wrong, their score is dropped 1/8 of one point, if
wrong twice, their final score is dropped 2/8 of one point, etc. The
purpose here is to get them to READ the material. They do have
to find the correct answer for each match before they can move on.
5.
The fifth section is the true/false memory challenge, and here
the students are on their own. There is no open book they can read to
search for answers, and no second chance to get an answer right.
6.
The final step is the results page. It includes the name of the
game, the name of the student (if they signed in), the date the game was
played, and a complete score sheet. The student should print this page
and turn it in to their teacher. The results will also be stored in a
database and can be retrieved at a later time.
Watershed Creator
is designed for the middle or early high school level (or elementary if
the instructor deems it appropriate). This activity provides students
with more detailed information about the parts of a watershed and their
functions. Watershed Creator has five sections:
1.
The first section provides the definition of a watershed
2.
The second section is a "how-to-play" tutorial.
3.
The third section is a matching game that challenges students to
connect watershed functions with watershed parts. As questions are
answered, the parts of the watershed appear until it is complete. As in
Watershed Puzzle, this section is "open book", which means that the
student can read information about each of the watershed parts before
they choose their answer. It is scored very gently. The student
has seven possible answers for each of eleven matching questions, and
each match has a maximum score of one. If their first guess is wrong,
their score is dropped 1/7 of one point, if wrong twice, their final
score is dropped 2/7 of one point, etc. The purpose here is to get them
to READ the material. They do have to find the right answer for
each match before they can move on.
4.
As in Watershed Puzzle, the matching game is followed by a
true/false memory quiz. There is no open book they can read to search
for answers, and no second chance to get an answer right.
5.
The final step is the results page. It includes the name of the
game, the name of the student (if they signed in), the date the game was
played, and a complete score sheet. The student should print this page
and turn it in to their teacher. The results will also be stored in a
database and can be retrieved at a later time.
In the Potomac Watershed Puzzle
and Watershed Creator each exercise is scored. The scores are
available to print once the student has completed all of the exercises
in either activity.
v
Potomac and
Chesapeake Bay Watersheds Scavenger Hunt
This activity is a web based scavenger
hunt designed to provide students with additional information and facts
about their local and regional watersheds, and to expose them to some of
the many agencies and organizations working to protect the Potomac and
Chesapeake Bay watersheds. It can be a stand-alone exercise used to
improve computer skills or as a compliment to the interactive
activities. This activity has both elementary and middle school levels.
The scavenger hunt involves answering a
series of questions developed around specific text from internet sites.
The scavenger hunt is started by clicking on Web Scavenger Hunt on the
classroom's blackboard - which leads to the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay
Watershed Scavenger Hunt webpage. This page contains the list of
questions with hyperlinks to the websites containing the answers. If a
direct hyperlink to the correct answer could not be offered,
instructions are provided within a specific question on how to access
the correct webpage.
Instructors are provided, on request,
with a guide for this activity. The guide includes the questions,
website links, text from each website that answers the questions, and a
copy of the student question sheet. Please email us at
Cacapon Institute and request this information. The question sheet can
be downloaded by the students through the scavenger hunt webpage or
handed out by the teacher. Both the student question sheet and the
teacher guide are in PDF format.
v
Links
A list of watershed curriculum links has
been provided within the student classrooms, available by clicking on
the watershed section of the bookshelf. The links pages contains both
the relevant student links and links to other material and references
complimentary to the topic. Instructors can guide their students to
links through the classroom.
Instructional Procedure:
It is suggested that this module begin
with very little introductory material. Background information,
including the complete informational content of each activity, is
available online in the classroom's bookshelf, but it is not necessary
to have the students read this material before completing the online
activities. The Potomac Watershed Puzzle and Watershed Creator
were designed to provide students with most of the information necessary
to understand the basics of watershed parts and functions. Once one or
both of the activities are completed, they can be followed by the
Potomac and Chesapeake Bay Watersheds Scavenger Hunt and/or the
Follow Up information provided below. These activities do not
discuss the hydrologic cycle in detail, largely because it is
treated so well on a number of other websites. We have links to a
number of these sites in the watershed section of the Bookshelf under
hydrologic cycle. In particular
the United States Geological Survey site offers a very comprehensive
look at the water cycle anywhere and the Region of Waterloo site has a
nice water cycle animation. We suggest that these sites be included in
the watershed curriculum, as noted below.
Follow Up:
The information provided here is just a
suggestion for follow up. More ideas can be found within the student
and teacher links here.
Once the students have completed the web based activities additional
information can be discussed in the classroom. The students can also
explore watersheds through at home activities and internet and library
research. These activities would also be ideal as a preliminary to
hosting Cacapon Institute's Watershed Stewardship Fairs, or the WV
Conservation Association's Conservation Field Days
Classroom Activities:
v
What watershed do I live
in? – A teacher led discussion to help the students learn about the
watersheds they live in, from the small creek behind their house to
larger watersheds such as the Potomac River. This information found on
the internet through the Environmental Protection Agency’s website (see
the links page) or through the use of topographic maps.
v
Understanding the water
cycle. As noted above, activities in the PHWS site do not discuss the
hydrologic cycle in detail. Its not that the water cycle isn't
important, but rather that the subject is treated so well on a number of
other websites. We have links to a number of these sites in the
watershed section of the Bookshelf under hydrologic cycle. The Region
of Waterloo site has a very nice water cycle animation that introduces
the way water moves through a watershed. We suggest starting at this
site, and then visiting the United
States Geological Survey site that offers a very comprehensive look at
the water cycle. We suggest that students read the opening sections on
the following topics: precipitation, infiltration, springs, surface
runoff, and evaporation, followed by a classroom discussion on how
different land uses might affect the way water cycles in a watershed.
v
My role in the watershed.
– A teacher lead discussion/lesson informing students about the role and
impacts people have on watersheds. Government agencies - including
those in West Virginia - increasingly seek to solve problems by working
with inclusive citizen's groups known as watershed associations; as the
name implies, watershed associations consist of people living within a
watershed. This has created a new and very positive way for citizens to
work with and impact government action. Topics covered could include
pollution from humans (it is suggested to discuss locally relevant
pollution sources), impacts humans have on ground water (see links
page), and what people can do to help protect and improve the health of
their watershed (information can be found at many of the links). This
discussion could lead into the Pollution curriculum module.
v
Prince William County
Schools (Virginia) is using
the eSchool as a part of their Meaningful Watershed Experiences
curriculum for Grade 6 Students: From the Mountains to the
Estuary: From the Schoolyard to the Bay. With their
permission, we have excerpted the
Watershed Lesson Plans from the
PWC
curriculum (500 KB, PDF). It includes the following lessons: What is a Watershed?;
Watershed Boundaries; Topographic Map Investigation: Play Dough
Mountain; Overview of the Chesapeake Bay; Watershed Investigation (Part
1: Questions for Topographic Maps in Watershed Investigation, Part 2:
How Humans Influence Watershed); Watershed Management Game: Where Has
All the Water Gone?”; Modeling: A Drop in the Bucket; Water
Conservation; Wonders of Watersheds Vocabulary; Watershed Systems Board
Game; and River Talk - Analogies of a Watershed.
v
Watershed Research
– Students can learn more about watersheds through internet and library
research. Students can be given the task of preparing a one page paper
on topics related to watersheds. This paper can either be presented in
class or handed in. Suggested topics include:
·
Additional research of
watershed parts and their functions
·
Research of locally
relevant pollution sources
·
Research on watershed
resources such as timer, drinking water, etc. found in local watersheds.
·
Research on organizations
working to help improve and educate about watersheds. Focus on what they
are doing and why.
·
Research on watershed
protection practices.
At Home Activities:
The links provided for this module
contain various at home activities for students to complete, such as
learning about water use in their home and what types of impacts a
student’s home is having on their watershed. It is easy to locate these
activities when surfing through the websites.
CSOs:
Potomac Watershed Puzzle
(PWP) is the first of a series of
activities that explores the physical landscape of the Potomac Highlands
and interactions of people in that landscape. These activities are also
intended to help teachers “provide
opportunities for students to use education technology interwoven with
relevant curricular content,” as required by the WV Content Standards
and Objectives (CSO).
Social Studies.
This curriculum can readily be
used to provide the framework for regionally relevant discussions on
citizen involvement in decision making.
Standard 1: Citizenship (SS.S.1)
Students will:
·
develop and
employ the civic skills necessary for effective citizenship by using
criteria to make judgments, arrive at and defend positions and evaluate
the validity of the positions or data (Evaluation Skills);
-
demonstrate and employ the
participatory skills of interacting, monitoring and influencing that
are essential for informed, effective and responsible citizenship,
including participation in civic life to shape public policy
(Participatory Skills);
SS.5.1.1 describe how groups and institutions
work to meet the individual needs and promote the common good (e.g., Red
Cross, laws).
SS.5.1.2 explain the political process and
describe its importance in decision-making.
SS.5.1.3 explain the consent of the governed as the source of
authority of government
SS.6.1.2 evaluate, take and
defend positions on the purposes that government should serve (e.g.,
debates, essays).
SS.7.1.2
explain actions citizens take to influence public policy decisions.
SS.7.1.4 locate, access and
organize information about an issue of public concern from multiple
points of view.
SS.8.1.1
evaluate how citizens can participate in government at the local, state
and national levels (e.g., voting, community service, letter writing).
SS.8.1.2 identify and
practice forms of civic discussion and participation consistent with the
ideals of citizens in a democratic republic.
SS.8.1.5 explain the
political process and the opportunities for citizens to influence
government.
SS.8.1.6 locate, access, analyze, organize and apply information about
selected public issues, recognizing and explaining multiple points of
view.
SS.8.1.7
explain and analyze various forms of citizen action that influence
public policy (e.g., how groups can work with governmental agencies to
impact the development of tourism).
SS.8.1.8
analyze the influence of diverse forms of public opinion on the
development of public policy and decision making.
SS.8.1.9 examine the strategies designed to strengthen the common good,
which consider a range of options for citizen action.
SS.8.1.10 identify, analyze,
evaluate and interpret sources and examples of the responsibilities,
privileges and rights of citizens.
SS.9.1.1 compare and
contrast various citizens’ responses to controversial government
actions.
SS.9.1.3 make informed
decisions as to what government should and should not do.
SS.9.1.4 explain how the
interactions of citizens with one another monitor and influence the
government.
SS.9.1.5 evaluate ways
conflicts can be resolved in a cooperative, peaceful manner that
respects individual rights and promotes the common good.
SS.11.1.1 discuss ways
citizens can work cooperatively to resolve personal, local, regional,
and world conflicts peacefully.
SS.11.1.2
analyze and evaluate the influence of citizen action on public policy
and law making.
SS.11.1.3 analyze the
changing nature of civic responsibility.
Geography.
Watersheds – rather than political boundaries - have become the
organizing geographic concept underlying environmental assessments and
protection efforts at both the local and regional levels. Therefore,
curricula that add to an understanding of watersheds will interface
seamlessly with common themes in the elementary and middle school
geography CSOs, which include:
·
describe and
explain the physical processes that shape the earth’s surface and
create, sustain and modify the cultural and natural environment
(Physical Systems);
·
describe the physical and
human characteristics of place and explain how the lives of people are
rooted in places and regions (Places and Regions);
SS.5.4.4 - locate, identify and contrast
the major rivers, landforms, natural resources, climate regions, major
soil regions and deserts of the United States
SS.6.4.4 - locate and identify the
continents, major climates, major bodies of water and natural resources
(e.g., knowledge of landforms such as peninsulas, mountain ranges,
plateaus, river valleys, lakes)
SS.7.4.10 - compare and
contrast geographic regions (e.g., physical, cultural, perceptual,
economic).
SS.8.4.4 - identify the four
major geographic regions, major rivers, landforms and points of interest
in West Virginia.
SS.9.4.4 - use the most appropriate maps
and graphics in an atlas to answer specific questions about geographic
issues (e.g., topography, transportation routes).
Science
Standard 6: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives (SC.S.6)
Students will:
● demonstrate the ability to evaluate
personal and societal benefits when examining health, population,
resource and environmental issues;
● demonstrate the ability to evaluate the
impact of different points of view on health, population, resource and
environmental practices;
● predict the long-term societal impact of
specific health, population, resource and environmental practices; and
SC.5/6/7/8.6.3 - critically
analyze the effects and impacts of science and technology on global and
local problems (e.g., mining, manufacturing, recycling, farming, water
quality).
SC.9.6.1 -
research uses and values of natural resources.
SC.9.6.2 - research current
environmental issues (e.g., effects of pollution, solid waste
management, local, national, and global issues).
SC.10.6.2 -
research current environmental issues (e.g., depletion of fossil fuels,
global warming, destruction of rainforest pollution).
SC.10.6.3 - describe the
impact of cultural, technological, and economic influences on the
evolving nature of scientific thought and knowledge.
AB.6.4 - describe the
impact of cultural, technological, and economic influences on the
evolving nature of scientific thought and knowledge.
BTC.6.2 - describe the impact
of cultural, technological and economic influences on the evolving
nature of scientific thought and knowledge.
AES.4.1 - review foundational
earth science concepts including rocks and minerals, properties of
waves, constructing and interpreting weather maps, surface features
found on maps, climatic relationships to biomes, use of data gathering
instruments, temperature-phase change relationships.
AES.4.32 - explain common
problems related to the conservation, use, supply and the quality of
water.
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