Watershed Lesson 4th grade (Adapted from Project Wet c2011) Teaching Point: Wherever you live, you are living in a watershed, an area of land drained by a river and its tributaries. Water flows downhill through the watershed shaping the terrain as it erodes and transports matter along with it. Preserving open space corridors is not only vital for plant and animal habitat but also for us to have a healthy watershed that moves water through it effectively. Cross Cutting Concepts: Patterns, Cause and Effect, Systems NGSS: 4-ESS2-1 Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind, living organisms, gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller particles and move them around. 4-ESS2-1 Living things affect the physical characteristics of their region. Principles of Ecology: Nested Systems, Cycles, Dynamic Balance Time: 45-60 minutes Materials: Watershed maps, topo maps, Mount Diablo Regional Map, a basic drawing of a mainstream with primary and secondary tributaries. Images of landscapes with plenty of vegetation vs. those without and/or with human development and impervious scapes. Terms: Headwaters, ridgelines, tributaries, mouth, floodplain, catchment, spring, water cycle terms, aquifer/groundwater, erosion Architecture
Lesson Script
Set
We just hiked past Galindo Creek, up the Chupcan Canyon and are now close to the ridgeline. You probably noticed a difference between the canyon and the creek at the beginning of the hike. Where did the water come from to create the creek? (higher elevation, in this case at the ridgeline with the neighboring Genocchio property) Where will that creek water end up? (In the Suisun Bay)
Conduct the lesson at the amphitheater after the hike, closer to the headwaters. (1-2 mins)
Wherever you live, you are living in a watershed, an area of land drained by a river and its tributaries. Just as we pass through to explore Mangini Preserve, water moves through this watershed bringing life and leaving its mark each year.
Teach
There are many factors which influence the movement of water over the land. These include gravity, the amount of flow, the shape and composition of the terrain and the type/amount of vegetation.
(10-15 minutes)
Show maps and a poster of a watershed review key terms (headwaters, tributaries, main stem, stream, creek, riparian, ground water, floodplain, delta, boundary, divide…) CA watershed slides (conservation.ca.gov) Ask students to cup their hands and tell them this is going to model a watershed. What parts of the model are clearly the ridge lines and headwaters? Where might snow appear in your watershed? How about rain? Running down from the thumb side of your hands/wrists, how many tributaries do you see? To where do they drain? Ultimately where might that river in the crease of your hands flow? Are there any low spots in your hand that might catch water in the form of a lake or small pond? What would happen if your hand were covered in fine dust and we sprayed the ridgeline with a fine mist of “rain” where would that dust go?
Updated 7/24