Walk-In for (today’s date)• Copy the question and answer in sentences:

• Why do pictures of watersheds always seem to have mountains and a river in them?

What Affects Your Watershed?

Imagine…

• You have just been given a piece of property that borders a river!

• Your property has something built on it already. The item on it is on the card you will receive.

Your task…

• Draw the river in the BOTTOM THIRD of your paper. Color it blue.

• Draw the item from your card on the land. Include other relevant things that go with your item. LABEL YOUR DRAWING WITH WHAT WAS ON THE CARD.

• Example: You have a fast-food restaurant! You can also include a parking lot, dumpster and trash cans as part of your picture.

Now lay out the river!

• Have everyone in your assigned groups lay their papers on the floor, with the river portion along the bottom of the paper.

• Look at all the different uses of the land.

Discuss…

• Discuss with people nearby you how each place uses the water.

• Which things make the water quality worse?• Do any things make the water quality better?• Does water quality depend on where you are

along the river?

Clean Up…

• Put your river cards back in the baggie. Return to the demo table.

• Put your river picture into the recycle basket, or store it in your science folder.

• Return to your seat for discussion and reflection.

Write these reflections…

• Streets with houses – Slanted rooves make water fall in only certain areas, not over all of the ground.

• Shopping centers/parking lots – buildings and pavement prevent water from reaching the ground.

Reflections continued…

• Roads – oil from cars gets mixed with water, so polluted water goes into drains.

• Parks, forests, grassy areas – good since nothing stops water from being absorbed (although trees/leaves can slow it down).

• Fertilizer on lawns/fields – adds dangerous chemicals to the groundwater and runoff.

How Do We Affect Our Watershed?

• In your notebook, write a paragraph about what can affect a watershed. Think about the presence of:

- rooves of houses, buildings- trees, grass- trash, plastic bottles and bags- pavement, cars, parking lots