Guidelines for teaching

Branching-Out Activity.

Objectives

Students will:

  • Learn what a watershed is
  • Predict where water will flow in a watershed
  • Understand how land use can impact a watershed

Warm up

1. Have students brainstorm: what is a watershed? Break the word into its components, “water” and “shed”. Picture something that can shed water.

Tell students to repeat after you and copy your hand motions. Hold your hands straight out in front of you in line with your shoulders, with palms down. Say, “A watershed is a land area that drains water to a low point or river” As you say this, move your hands slowly together and down until they meet to form a “V” with palms facing down.

Repeat a couple of times, louder each time.

Tell students that water not only washes over the land’s surface as surface water but that water also enters into the ground to become groundwater!

Activity.

1.Pair students up quickly by pointing to two people who are near one another.

2.Hand each pair of students a board and a piece of 7 ½ by 11 paper.

3. Instruct students to:

Crumple a piece of paper as tight as you can. Gently pull out the corners and tape these to the board. Ask the students, “What have you created?”

(a landform, a mountain,a watershed model, etc…)

Where is the highest point? This is called the summit. Trace the ridge lines with a brown marker. Now imagine a rainstorm raining on your watershed model. Where would the water go? Draw all of the low places where water would flow or collect with a blue marker. These are called drainages.

Now, using the legend, draw where you would locate your town, your garbage dump, your farms, your roads, a mine, etc…

4.After everyone has done this, hand out a spray bottle to each pair of students. They can make it rain on their landform and notice what happens to the water.

5.Leave enough time to have them discuss their observations. Did the water flow where you thought it would? After watching the way water moved through your watershed, would you locate your farms, town, dump in a different place? Why?

Look around at some of the other watersheds.

Clean-up

1. Have students un-tape their papers and place them in the recycling box.

2. Put markers into the bucket.

3. Place spray bottles in the box.

4. Stack boards.

Docent

Fill the spray bottles with water so they are ready for use next time.

Please return Branching –Out activity materials to office.