Introduction—Mapping Watersheds & Estuaries

Summary: In these activities, students use remote sensing imagery to explore and classify natural and human derived land uses in watershed ecosystems. The activity from Estuary Education focuses on the San Francisco Bay Estuarine Research Reserve, and students trace the extent of its watershed using Google Earth. In the TIDES activity, students use GIS and orthographic photos of Charleston, Oregon to explore connections and land use. In both activities, students investigate human impacts on watershed and estuaries. Extend these mapping and monitoring techniques for use on a local watershed and estuary.

Concepts to teach: Cycles, productivity, interconnections, land use, remote sensing imagery, human impacts

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Effectively use and interpret remote sensing images.
• Explain how agricultural ares, industrial sites, landfills and sewage treatment plants affect water quality in a watershed.

Standards:
H.2L.2

Specific Objectives:

1. Identify the processes in the watershed that affect conditions in the estuary and explain some specific examples
2. Describe and demonstrate several ways of visualizing and mapping large ecosystems.
3. Apply understanding of changes in the watershed and the resulting effects on the estuary to explain real-life situations regarding land use and weather in watersheds
4. Understand how water quality factors are affected by natural and man-made sources of pollution and contamination.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Estuary and the Watershed:  From the NOAA/NERR Estuary Education website.
  • Summary for Mapping Watersheds and Estuaries
  • Tutorial: Using Google Earth to Explore Estuaries
• TIDES “Mapping Watershed, Habitat & Uses” lessons from the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
  • OCEP Remote Sensing and GIS: An introduction to the world of Mapping Your Watershed
• EPA Surf Your Watershed find a variety of information about your local watershed. Type in your zip code to discover stream flow data from USGS, watershed assessments, and even demographic information.
• Mapping the Connection—This topic guide in OCEP Module 2 focuses on how watersheds are connected to the ocean.

Assessment:

• Apply mapping techniques to a local watershed and estuary.
• Additional assessments included in the Estuary Education module and OCEP summaries.

Introduction—Mapping Your Watershed

Summary: This laboratory activity is designed to help students use remote sensing imagery to explore and classify natural and human derived land uses in watershed ecosystems.

Concepts to teach: Interconnectedness, cycles, various coastal habitats

Goals: Students will look critically at their local landscape using remote sensing imagery and ground truth to identify habitats present in a coastal watershed and develop a classification scheme of natural and human derived land uses.

Standards:
6.2E.1, 6.3S.1, 6.3S.2, 6.4D.1, 6.4D.3
7.2E.1, 7.2E.4, 7.3S.1, 7.3S.2, 7.3S.3, 7.4D.1, 7.4D.3
8.3S.2, 8.4D.1, 8.4D.2, 8.4D.3

Specific Objectives:

1. Students will be able to describe what an orthographic photo is and why it is useful.
2. Students will be able to explain in simple terms what GIS is and how it can be used to interpret data.
3. Students will be able to explain what remote sensing is and why it can be useful in understanding coastal watersheds.
4. Students will be able to identify land uses and explain how they relate to the overall watershed health.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Mapping Your Watershed adapted from the TIDES “Mapping Watershed, Habitat & Uses”lessons from the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
  • OCEP Remote Sensing and GIS: An introduction to the world of Mapping Your Watershed PowerPoint
• Mapping the Connection—This topic guide in OCEP Module 2 focuses on how watersheds are connected to the ocean.

Assessment:

• Check maps for understanding, clarity and usefulness. Remind students their maps are only useful if another person can pick it up and interpret it or they can use it weeks later and still understand what was being displayed.
• Challenge students to calculate area of each habitat type shown on their maps
• Have students work on an inquiry project using their data from their maps as a jumping off point or background for the study

Impacts—Melting Ice

Summary: One indicator of climate change is the increased melting of ice on sea and on land. Students view scientific data showing the extent of ice in the Arctic to see how the amounts have changed over time. They then conduct an experiment to find out how melting sea ice and melting land ice might have impacts on surrounding water levels.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Cause and Effect, Structure and Function
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • PS1.A – Structure and Properties of Matter
  • ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes
• Science Practices
  • Using mathematics and computational thinking

Goals:

1. Scientists measure sea ice mass and glacial ice mass to see patterns and changes over time
2. Increasing rates of melting ice on land and sea are an indicator of global climate change
3. Melting land-based ice contributes to sea level rise, while melting sea ice does not

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

• 5-PS1-2. Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Learn that ice formations on land will cause a rise in sea level when they melt, whereas ice formations on water will not cause a significant rise in sea level when they melt.
2. Demonstrate that ice is less dense than water.
3. Demonstrate that ice displaces water equal to the mass of the ice.

Activity Links and Resources:

• EPA’s Sea Level: On the Rise, part 2—Students create a model representing sea ice and land ice and measure the effects on the water level when the ice melts. This activity can be performed by student groups.
  • Weigh the water and ice in each container prior to the experiment. At the end of the experiment, pour out the water and re-weigh the water. The weight should be the same due to conservation of mass.
• How has Arctic sea extent changed over past decades? Graphic visualizations show changes in sea ice cover.
  • Climate Central Video—How Do We Know: Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice
  • NASA video: Arctic Sea Ice is the Thinnest and Youngest it has been in 60 years

Assessment:

• How has sea ice extent in the Arctic changed over time?
• How will melting Arctic sea ice affect sea level?
• How could melting glaciers and ice on Greenland and Antarctica affect sea level?

 

RETIRED LINK:

• NOAA’s Global Science Investigator—View an animation of September minimum Arctic sea ice extent for each year from 1979–2004.

Impacts—Melting Ice

Summary: One indicator of climate change is the increased melting of sea ice and glaciers on land. While many people hold a common misconception that the melting of sea ice will increase sea level, sea ice melting actually contributes very little to sea level rise. In contrast, melting land ice could contribute to sea level rise. In this activity, students conduct an experiment to demonstrate which masses of melting ice pose contribute most to sea level rise and why. Then they learn how the absence of ice promotes further melting through a positive feedback loop.

Concepts to teach:

• Crosscutting Concepts
  • Cause and Effect, Structure and Function
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
  • ESS2.A – Earth Materials and Systems
  • ESS2.C – The roles of water in Earth’s surface processes
• Science Practices
  • Planning and carrying out investigations, Analyzing and interpreting data

Goals:

1. Increasing rates of melting ice on land and sea are an indicator of global climate change
2. Melting land-based ice contributes to sea level rise, while melting sea ice does not
3. Ice melt results in darker sea and land surfaces, which further absorb heat and cause a warming feedback loop

Standards: NGSS Performance Expectations

• HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
• HS-ESS2-5. Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to:

1. Describe the effects melting sea ice and land ice have (or do not have) on sea level.
2. Demonstrate that ice is less dense than water.
3. Demonstrate that ice displaces water equal to the mass of the ice.
4. Describe the Albedo Climate Feedback Mechanism.

Activity Links and Resources:

• EPA’s Sea Level: On the Rise, part 2—Students create a model representing sea ice and land ice and measure the effects on the water level when the ice melts. This activity can be performed by student groups.
• How has Arctic sea extent changed over past decades? Graphic visualizations show changes in sea ice cover.
  • Climate Central Video—How Do We Know: Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice
  • NASA video: Arctic Sea Ice is the Thinnest and Youngest it has been in 60 years
  • Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Volumes 1979-2012 from Andy Lee Robinson. More graphics here
• Investigating Albedo—In this lesson from the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University, students conduct a simple classroom experiment that demonstrates how the color of a surface influences its ability to reflect or absorb heat.
  • Reading: Albedo Climate Feedback Mechanism: Melting ice on land or sea result in darker surfaces that absorb light and induces further melting.
  • Online Activity: How does land cover affect global temperature?

Assessment:

• Why do scientists track sea ice extent in the Arctic?
• How will melting Arctic sea ice affect sea level?
• How will melting glaciers and ice on Greenland and Antarctica affect sea level?
• Discuss the implications the albedo feedback mechanism has on ice melt.

 

RETIRED LINK:

• NOAA’s Global Science Investigator—View an animation of September minimum Arctic sea ice extent for each year from 1979–2004.

Human Impacts—Nonpoint Source Pollution

Summary: Nonpoint source pollution (NSP) comes from many diffuse sources, and is a leading cause of water quality problems in the U.S.. In this topic guide, students identify different types of NSP and their effects on water quality.

Concepts to teach: Nonpoint source pollution, runoff, point source pollution, toxins, biomagnification, eutrophication

Goals: Students learn about many sources and impacts of nonpoint source pollution and their impact on local and distant waters. They identify how personal behavior and community practices can contribute to nonpoint source pollution.

Standards:
S.06.3S.1, S.06.3S.2
S.07.3S.1, S.07.3S.2, 7.3S.3
S.08.3S.1, S.08.3S.2

SS.08.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

1. Identify the difference between point and nonpoint source pollution, and give examples of each.
2. Conduct an inquiry to determine the effects of a type of nonpoint source pollution on water quality.
3. Describe how local nonpoint source pollution affects ocean health.

Activity Links and Resources:

• Nonpoint Source Pollution tutorial—This extensive resource from the NOAA ocean service education pages provides definitions, history, methods used to detect nonpoint source pollutants, and ways to assess and reduce their damaging effects on the environment.
• StreamWebs—This OSU Extension student stewardship network provides open-source, web-based tools for watershed data management, analysis and networking for teachers and students. Use the provided data sheets and protocols to determine the extent to which nonpoint source pollution and other human impacts may affect local stream health. Compare data within a stream, and to other student studies posted on the StreamWebs website.
  • Water Quality Data: Measure and compare temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity in nearby stream(s).
  • Macroinvertebrate Data: Assess stream health based on the types and numbers of macroinvertebrates found.
• Classroom inquiry—The EPA Brochure “Ideas for Science Fair Projects on Surface Water Quality Topics” lists several simple inquiry projects for a classroom or student groups to undertake. Topics include:
  • Fertilizers and algal growth
  • Effect of stream health on macroinvertebrate diversity
  • The effect of “first flush” on water quality
  • The effect of buffers on water quality
  • Cleaners and their effect on water quality
• US Environmental Protection Agency’s Articles and Activities for Middle School Students—A collection of classroom materials relating to an issue of nonpoint source pollution in the U.S.. Most use case studies used are from regions outside the Pacific Northwest.
  • After the Storm—30 minute video co-produced by EPA and The Weather Channel, with supporting resources
• Excess nutrients
  • Traveling Nitrogen game from NESTA Windows to the Universe, designed for Grades 5-9.
  • Nutrients in the Nation’s Waters article from USGS
• NOAA Ocean Explorer curriculum
  • Nonpoint source pollution graphic

Assessment:

• Publish water quality data on the StreamWebs website and compare findings to results found by other classrooms.
• Reflective assessment ideas included in the Traveling Nitrogen activity.
• Describe how local water quality issues affect ocean health.