Mathematics Grade Prototype Curriculum Guide

Organizing Topic — Investigating Natural Resources

Standards of Learning

4.1 The student will plan and conduct investigations in which

a) distinctions are made among observations, conclusions, inferences, and predictions;

b) hypotheses are formulated based on cause-and-effect relationships;

c) variables that must be held constant in an experimental situation are defined.

4.8 The student will investigate and understand important Virginia natural resources. Key concepts include

a) watershed and water resources;

b) animals and plants;

c) minerals, rocks, ores, and energy sources; and

d) forests, soil, and land.

Essential Understandings, Correlation to Textbooks and

Knowledge, and Skills Other Instructional Materials

The students should be able to

compare and contrast natural and man-made resources;

distinguish among rivers, lakes, and bays; describe characteristics of each; and name an example of each in Virginia;

create and interpret a model of a watershed. Evaluate the statement “We all live downstream.”;

identify watershed addresses;

recognize the importance of Virginia’s mineral resources, including coal, limestone, granite, and sand and gravel;

appraise the importance of natural and cultivated forests in Virginia;

describe a variety of soil and land uses important in Virginia.

Watersheds

Organizing Topic Investigating Natural Resources

Overview Students create and interpret a model of a watershed.

Related Standards of Learning 4.8a

Objectives

The students should be able to

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  create and interpret a model of a watershed;
  
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  evaluate the statement “We all live downstream.”
  

Materials needed

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  Attached map
  
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  Aluminum foil
  
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  Shallow, rectangular pan (can be foil, Styrofoam®, or metal)
  
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  Food coloring or powdered drink mix
  
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  Soil
  
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  Spray bottle
  
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  Rocks or blocks
  

Instructional activity

Content/Teacher Notes

This is an introductory lesson to watersheds. There are numerous resources about watersheds in Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay (see the list under Resources for some of these). Many of the organizations listed in the Resource section provide valuable professional development opportunities for teachers in Virginia. Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE), which are included in the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, are an important part of the science environmental education experience. Virginia is part of this Chesapeake 2000 Agreement and tracks the implementation of MWEE in Virginia’s school divisions. More information about the definition of an MWEE and how it ties into the science curriculum can be found at http://www.chesapeakebay.net/pubs/subcommittee/cesc/c2k.pdf.

A watershed, also called a “drainage basin,” is a geographic area in which all water drains eventually into a common body of water. Water traveling over land can carry soil sediments, dissolved minerals, livestock and pet waste, fertilizers, pesticides, and other pollutants, including trash and litter. Each watershed has unique features and potential sources of pollution.

In Virginia, the major regional watershed systems lead to the Chesapeake Bay, the North Carolina sounds, the Atlantic Ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico (via the Mississippi River). A map is attached that shows the Virginia boundaries of these watersheds.

Introduction

1. Students may wonder where water goes after it flows down the street during a heavy rainstorm. Discuss the concept of a watershed and how water travels over and through the land. Provide some examples of how individuals and businesses use water and how their actions might affect water running off the land. Don’t forget to include sewage treatment plants, homes, commercial and residential developments, farms, and factories. Help the students make the connection between people living in the watershed and the impact that they have upon water quality; especially, non-point-source pollution. Non-point-source pollutants are those that cannot be traced to a single source (e.g., runoff from fertilizer, air pollutants, fuel runoff).
2. Discuss the speed at which water flows and how moving water changes the land. You may wish to refer to the branches on a tree, or the veins in a leaf, or the human nervous system to depict how bodies of water “branch out.” The smaller branches are analogous to streams branching into larger ones, such as rivers, and so forth. Explain that watersheds can be open or closed depending on where the water drains. In closed systems, there is no outlet for the water, so it leaves the system naturally by evaporation or by seeping into the ground to become groundwater. In open watershed systems, such as those found in Virginia, water eventually flows into outlet rivers or a bay and ultimately into the sea.

Procedure

1. Have students work in small groups to make a model of a watershed, as follows:

2. Tear off a piece of foil to fit inside the shallow, rectangular pan. Crumble another piece of foil to make dips and gullies to represent streams and rivers.

3. At one end of the foil, make a larger basin or pocket. This will be a bay or ocean and will collect water that runs off from the tributaries.

4. Put blocks or rocks in the corners of one side of the pan to make mountains, and shape the foil over the blocks.

5. Pile soil at the upper end of your watershed near the mountains on top of the raised sections of foil. You can make the mountain end higher by putting a book under the pan to prop it up. The cracks and dips represent bodies of water.

6. Squeeze a few drops of food coloring in the soil to represent a source of pollution.

7. Make it rain over the mountains with a spray bottle.

8. Watch how the water runs off of the land into the tributaries and then to the bay or ocean, carrying the pollution with it.

Observations and Conclusions

1. Discuss with students how the water travels through the watershed:

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  Where does erosion occur?
  
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  How does the flow of water through the watershed affect choices for building sites?
  
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  What happens to the “pollutants”? Where do they end up?
  
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  What factors may lead to increased pollutants, such as runoff from sediments, industrial wastes, phosphates and nitrates from agricultural sources, sewage, and residential runoff including pesticides?
  
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  What are some ways to reduce or prevent these non-point-source pollutants? How could you slow down water so it would filter the runoff?
  
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  How does water conservation help water quality?