Coastal Ecology—Watershed Health

Summary: The health of watersheds can be affected by a myriad of factors, and watershed councils and managers often must prioritize issues and projects for local regions. In this topic guide, students connect with local watershed councils to identify, learn more about, and participate in the resolution of current local watershed issues. Because issues will vary from place to place, examples are provided as a guide.

Concepts to teach: Place-based education, community organizations, public communication, resource management

Goals: Students understand and can explain an issue affecting the local the local watershed, and can identify, propose and/or participate in concrete solutions to the issue.

Standards:
H.2E.4

Specific Objectives:

1. Meet with and interview representatives from local watershed organizations, land managers, or other community members who are involved with maintaining and improving the health of the local watershed.
2. Propose or take part in activities that address local watershed health issues.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Oregon Watershed Enchancement Board (OWEB)
  • An Overview of Oregon Watershed Councils
  • Find your local watershed council and get involved.
  • How Watershed Assessments are conducted and used
• EPA Surf Your Watershed provides a variety of information about your local watershed and and organizations that may be working on projects related to watershed health in your area. Type in your zip code find “Citizen-based Groups at work” in your watershed.
• Oregon Explorer—Use this natural resources digital library to find issues, actions, maps and data from wetlands around the state.
• Bureau of Land Management Environmental Education highlights a variety of ways students throughout the state participate in projects focusing on watershed health.
• Conduct water quality studies as described in the Macroinvertebrates and Salmon Studies topic guides. Report findings to local watershed council.

Assessment:

• Honoring our Rivers—The Honoring Our Rivers student anthology project showcases Oregon student writing and artwork focused on rivers and watersheds. From poetry to prose and fiction, from illustration to photography, students from across the state submit their work to a juried-review process and finalists appear before the public in an annual anthology and at exhibits, events and readings hosted by Honoring Our Rivers.
  • Address a local watershed issue in a piece submitted to Honoring our Rivers.

Introduction—Watershed Modeling

Summary: Students will create and explore small scale models of watersheds made from either paper or in a large group using a shower curtain. Students work to identify various living and nonliving features within their model and look at how they function within a watershed. Run-off, erosion, and sources of pollution are explored using water bottles and props.

Concepts to teach: Watershed features, watershed health, runoff & erosion, point & non-point source pollution.

Goals: Students will explore the features of a watershed and understand how various natural processes might be impacted by human activity.

Standards:
7.2E.4

Specific Objectives:

1. Identify nonliving and living features found in a watershed and describe how water interacts with those features.
2. Understand and describe how human activities can affect watersheds.
3. Name at least two actions they can take to keep a watershed healthy

Activity Links and Resources:

• A Watershed Model in Your Hands—This activity was written by the Oregon Coast Education Program. Students work individually to create a watershed model using paper.
• Crumple a Watershed – This similar lesson developed by OMSI includes student instructions, worksheets, and extensions.

Assessment:

• Students create diagrams and descriptions to predict what will happen when water is added to the model. After the experiment, students compare their predictions to what actually happened when the model was used and explain why the model performed the way it did.
• Create a Venn diagram comparing the model watershed and natural watershed.
• Journal reflection: Describe how the model demonstrates watershed processes.

Introduction—Watershed Walk

Summary: This topic guide focuses on introducing students to watersheds by experiencing the one right outside their door. Students begin by using mapping programs and brief activities to learn about the water cycle and how water moves through the watershed. Students will then engage in a guided watershed walk on local school grounds to identify features and observe the water cycle in action.

Concepts to teach: Reading maps, local geography, water cycle, watershed features and surfaces.

Goals: Students will learn about how water moves through their local watershed and its related features.

Standards:
Science—3.1P.1, 4.2P.1, 5.2P.1
Social Science—SS.03.GE.01, SS.03.GE.02, SS.03.GE.03, SS.03.GE.04, SS.05.GE.03.03, SS.05.GE.04, SS.05.GE.07.02

Specific Objectives:

1. Students will be able to name their home and/or school watershed
2. Students will be able to identify the main body of water closest to their home and/or school.
3. Students will be able to define at least four features of a watershed (e.g., rivers, creeks, soils, vegetation, slope, etc.)
4. Students will be able to describe how water cycles through the local watershed.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Watershed Walk was developed by OCEP Leadership team members and contains the activity description as well as a copy of the “Coastal Water Cycle Journey” (adapted from Project WET’s “Imagine!” activity) that takes students through the life of a water droplet.
  • Watershed Walk activity description and “Coastal Water Cycle Journey”
  • Watershed Walk worksheet recommended for older elementary audiences with developed writing skills
  • Watershed Walk worksheet recommended for younger elementary audiences
• Quests are interpretive clue-directed hunts that get people outside exploring their communities.
  • Watershed Quest—This lesson plan from PBS KQED outlines activities essential to place-based understanding of your community’s watershed, and then students create a Quest to share their learning with others.
  • If you make your own Watershed Quest, share your creation with Oregon Coast Quests
• Google earth has many different features and layers that allows students to “fly” to any place around the world while exploring their local watershed and even look at historical imagery if available.
• EPA Surf Your Watershed—find a myriad of information about your local watershed. Type in your zip code to discover stream flow data from USGS, watershed assessments, and even demographic information.

Additional water cycle activities:

• Water Cycle Game from OIMB GK12 Curriculum. This lesson allows students to move around and get a feel for different lengths of time water spends at each stage of the water cycle.
• Water Cycle Simulation from Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum—Where does our water go?
• Water cycle hexaflexagon from Bonneville Power Administration This is a great tool to show how water changes from one form to another through the water cycle. It is a bit difficult to assemble so practice making them a few times before having students assemble them.

Assessment:

• Pre/Post Watershed Knowledge survey
• Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 3 could be applied or modified:
  • What are clouds made of
  • Rainfall
  • Where did the water come from
  • Wet jeans and vignette
• To obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website
• Evaluate completed student worksheets as a way to gauge understanding and address any misconceptions about watershed knowledge.

Introduction—Watershed Walk

Summary: This topic guide focuses on introducing students to watersheds by experiencing the one right outside their door. Students begin by using mapping programs and brief activities to learn about the water cycle and how water moves through the watershed. Students will then engage in a guided watershed walk on local school grounds to identify features and observe the water cycle in action.

Concepts to teach: Reading maps, local geography, water cycle, watershed features and surfaces.

Goals: Students will learn about how water moves through their local watershed and its related features.

Standards:  ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes

Specific Objectives:

1. Students will be able to name their home and/or school watershed
2. Students will be able to identify the main body of water closest to their home and/or school.
3. Students will be able to define at least four features of a watershed (e.g., rivers, creeks, soils, vegetation, slope, etc.)
4. Students will be able to describe how water cycles through the local watershed.
5. Students will be able to describe at least three things people do which have a negative effect on watersheds.
6. Students will be able to describe at least three things they can do that have a positive effect on the watershed.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Watershed Walk was developed by OCEP Leadership team members and contains the activity description as well as a copy of the “Coastal Water Cycle Journey” (adapted from Project WET’s “Imagine!” activity) that takes students through the life of a water droplet.
  • Watershed Walk
  • Watershed Walk worksheet
• Why Care for the Watershed PowerPoint—Use this OCEP-created presentation to introduce a watershed unit.
• Quests are interpretive clue-directed hunts that get people outside exploring their communities.
  • Watershed Quest—This lesson plan from PBS KQED outlines activities essential to place-based understanding of your community’s watershed, and then students create a Quest to share their learning with others.
  • If you make your own Watershed Quest, share your creation with Oregon Coast Quests
• Google Earth has many different features and layers that allows students to “fly” to any place around the world while exploring their local watershed and even look at historical imagery if available.
• EPA Surf Your Watershed—find a myriad of information about your local watershed. Type in your zip code to discover stream flow data from USGS, watershed assessments, and even demographic information.

Assessment:

• Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 3 could be applied or modified:
  • What are clouds made of
  • Rainfall
  • Where did the water come from
  • Wet jeans and vignette
• To obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website
• Evaluate completed student worksheets as a way to gauge understanding and address any misconceptions about watershed knowledge.

Coastal Ecology—Web of Life

Summary: This activity will give students a look at how all animals and plants in a system are interconnected and what can happen when just one organism is removed. Some of the discussion focuses on the sea otter- a species that is now extinct from the Oregon coast.

Concepts to teach: Food chains, Food webs, Interdependence, Endangered Species

Goals:

• Define interconnectedness and explain its ecological implications.
• Use vocabulary related to food webs and ecology.
• Discuss the plight of the sea otter and how that has affected systems off of Oregon’s coast.

Standards:
6.2L.2, 7.2L.2, 8.2L.1

Specific Objectives:

1. Explain why threatened or endangered species are important to the ocean.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of food web interactions.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Summary for Web of Life, adapted from the “Food for Thought” lesson plan from the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources

Assessment:

• Assessments included in the OCEP Web of Life