NGSS Standards addressed:

5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact. 

5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

ELS.C1.B.e Students develop and connect with their sense of place and well-being through observation, exploration, and questioning. 

Identify the natural and cultural parts that make up one’s community (e.g., natural and built environments, habitats, family, school, cultural diversity), identify relationships between parts, and the role and impact of humans in those systems. 

ELS.EN7.B.i Design and implement a plan to address a sustainability issue, weighing the pros and cons of proposed solutions. 

Essential Question: 

How do people in our community impact our stream?

Big Idea: The things that people do matter and make a difference in our environment.

Learning Target

 I can observe and  analyze human impact on the stream (Mahone).

Success Measures

Students will take notes and create sketches of what is observed, questions, and connections.

Essential Question:  How do people in our community impact our stream?

Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…): 

The things that people do matter and make a difference in our environment.

Location: Outdoors, meet in outdoor classroom, walk to Mahone River

Time Needed: 45 minutes

Materials Needed: white board and dry erase marker for the teacher; clipboards paper, and pencil for each student; students divided into groups and assigned to each adult

Set up ahead of time:  Teachers to become familiar with terminology of upstream, downstream, left and right bank

Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dressed for the weather. 

CONNECT

Circle-Up/Opening

Teacher

Outdoors

Gather in outdoor classroom

Forecast what time will look like:

We will meet in assigned groups with adult;

We will stay with our group and walk facing traffic in a two-by-two line to the Mahone River;

We will have discussion on the way there and on the way back;

We will make observations and collect data

Share learning target and what we’ll be looking at to assess learning:  I can observe and  analyze human impact on the stream (Mahone). 

Set safety and behavior expectations.

Walk and Talk (2 lines): Describe a time when you visited a stream. What did it look like? What did the land look like near the stream?

Describe what you think the Mahone will look like today. Give your reasoning for your thinking.

Teachers will lead the students on the walk to the river. At the destination, provide students with behavior, safety, and boundaries for observing near the stream.

EXPLORE

Inquiry

What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?

All

At the stream, quickly teach the strategy “I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me of” to observe the stream and the surroundings. Give students a few minutes to work with a partner to practice.

Have students share what they noticed.

Ask students to think about ways that they can observe potential human impact on the stream (for example, a land owner may be mowing the entire stream bank, or may be tilling land near by, or there may be a parking lot near the stream, or there may be litter in the stream or on its banks, perhaps humans are planting trees or putting in a rain garden)

Brief instruction on: upstream, downstream, left bank, right bank to help students to journal what they are observing.

Split up into 3 groups.  Each adult will take one group of students to move either upstream, downstream or remain at the location the whole group was it.

Teachers will watch the time to determine when the group should move to another location.

Formative Assessment

Note student engagement; use of I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of;” review student journal entries and prompt them on other things they notice, questions that they have, or connections that the can make.

ENGAGE

Reflection/Synthesis

At the designated time, and while interest is still high. Assemble the groups to walk back to school. Review safety rules.

Start a "Walk and Talk" back to the building on how the experiences helped them to learn about about the impact of humans on the stream. What were some positive impacts? Negative?

What questions do they have about human activities upstream from Wequiock Elementary?

What are some ways that students could find out more?

Formative Assessment: 

 Student journal entries contain accurate, detailed and labeled impacts on the stream.

Review and Closure

The teacher will review the learning target- I can observe, ask questions, and make connections with what I see in nature.

Learning Target:  Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): 

Learning Target:  I can observe how water moves over permeable and impermeable surfaces and discuss how humans impact the surface water quality.

Success Measures : 

Participate in a conversation, using evidence to describe how water moves over surfaces.

Provide examples of how humans impact the surface water quality through the ways that we live on and use the land.

Essential Question:  How do people in our community impact our stream?

Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…): 

The things that people do matter and make a difference in our environment.

Location: Outdoors in several locations: outdoor classroom, blacktop playground, entrance to the school, near the dumpster, near the driveway entrance

Time Needed: 45 minutes

Materials Needed:  powdered drink mix (such as Kool-Aid) (½ c or so in a plastic self-sealing bag for student pairs), spray bottles filled with water, student clipboard, paper, pencils

Set up ahead of time:  scoop powdered drink mix into plastic self-sealing bags, fill spray bottles with water, students are grouped and assigned as they were in the previous lesson

Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dressed for the weather

CONNECT

Circle-Up/Opening

Teacher

Outdoors

Discuss learning about the impact of humans on the Mahone based on last week’s observations and Google Maps lessons in classroom. Share the meaning of the terms permeable and impermeable.

Share learning target and what we’ll be looking at to assess learning:  I can observe how water moves over permeable and impermeable surfaces and discuss how humans impact the surface water quality.

 Forecast the experiences:

We will split into 3 groups to explore surfaces, 

Within your group, you will work with a partner, and 

We will regroup and discuss our findings

Set safety and behavior expectations.

One student in the pair gets the water bottle. The other gets the bag of drink mix.

EXPLORE

Inquiry

What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?

All

In the three groups, In small groups, be sure to have students explore human-made surfaces and natural surfaces.

Student will examine how water moves across these surfaces by sprinkling a bit of drink mix on the surface, gently spraying water on the drink mix, and observing the movement of the water. Be sure to have students try these steps on lawn areas, gardens, wood chips, pavement, and other surfaces. Ask students to think about how the results might be different at other times of the year (such as in the summer). 

Meet as a whole group at the front of the building. Collect spray bottles and bags of drink mix.

Formative Assessment

Listen to student conversations and observe how they take in surroundings.

Note students who are using the sentence stems; are able to notice evidence that animals are, or had been present, what they might have been doing; are able to form questions based on what they are noticing; and can make connections to prior learning, personal experiences  or other things.

ENGAGE

Reflection/Synthesis

Reconvene as a whole to share to talk about permeable and impermeable surfaces. What did they notice? Wonder? Were reminded of? What if the power was loose soil? Or toxic chemical instead of Kool-aid? How do these surfaces aid or prevent the spread of the run-off? 

Lead a discussion of the Essential Question: How do people in our community impact our stream? Prompt students to think about which surfaces are truly natural and which are human designed? Ask questions so that students understand that all surfaces are impermeable (for the most part) when the ground is frozen.

Formative Assessment: 

Note students who are using the sentence stems; are able to discuss the evidence of how how water runs-off or infiltrates surfaces are able to form questions based on what they are noticing; and can make connections to prior learning, personal experiences or other things.

Review and Closure

Review the learning target- I can observe how water moves over permeable and impermeable surfaces and discuss how humans impact the surface water quality.

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): 

I can discuss the different ways that people impact, and are impacted by, pollutants in water.

Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): 

Participate in conversations, using evidence to describe how water moves over surfaces.

Provide examples of how humans both impact the surface water quality and are impacted by the ways that we live on and use the land. Discuss why the perspectives that people have differ.

Essential Question:  How do people in our community impact our stream?

Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…):

The things that people do matter and make a difference in our environment.

Location: Indoors

Time Needed: 45 minutes

Materials Needed: powdered drink mix (such as Kool-Aid), hot chocolate drink mix, table salt, spray bottles filled with water, pencils, paper, clipboard, plastic tubs (12” x 15” or so), wide roll heavy duty aluminum foil, markers, aluminum cans

Set up ahead of time:  Fill spray bottles with water, set out plastic tubs on table (one per group) along with several clean empty aluminum cans, newspaper; assign students to groups of 4 or 5.

Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: This is an indoor inquiry.

CONNECT

Circle-Up/Opening

Teacher

Outdoors

This lesson is a modified version of .Watershed in a Box: https://www.disl.org/assets/uploads/education/teacher/Conf-seminar/naaee_2007_watershedBox.pdf

Greet students and have them sit at their assigned tables. Lead a discussion to review what they found out last time about the way water moves over permeable and impermeable surfaces.

State learning target: I can discuss the different ways that people impact, and are impacted by, pollutants in water.

Preview what will happen in the lesson:

We are going to build a watershed model;

We are going to observe the movement and collection of water in the model; 

We are going to observe the effects of run-off within the model;

We are going to record our thinking on our notepaper; and

We will close with a discussion.

Set behavior expectations.

EXPLORE

Inquiry

What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?

All

Guide students in making the model watershed:

1. Use a box cover or a shallow box to contain the runoff model. 

2. Create landforms by arranging crushed aluminum cans or crumpled paper to represent hills and landforms in the bottom of the box. Encourage your group to be creative. Remember, the highest points should be near the box walls. Leave a gully or valley in the middle of the box to represent a stream or river. 

3. Cover the landforms with a large piece of aluminum foil, shiny side up. Start in the middle of the box and gently press the foil into all of the hills and valleys, working your way towards the box walls. Push the edges of the foil up along the walls of the box and fold the foil over the edge of the box. Be careful not to tear the foil. 

4. Create a community--With a permanent marker, draw on the foil to outline the streams or rivers in your model. Next, draw houses, roads, farm fields, feedlots, stores or anything else that you want in your community. 

5. Ask what will happen. Ask the group what they think would happen if it rained. 

6. Make it rain. Using the spray bottle to represent a rain storm, spray water on the hillsides. Watch the water flow towards the rivers and streams.

7. Discuss what happened--where water flowed and collected; talk about why.

8. Add some pollution. Sprinkle table salt on the roads in the model. Share that this represents road salt.

9. Make it rain.

10. Discuss what happened. Where is the salt? Can you see it? Is it gone? How do you know? What might be the impact on humans? On the environment?

11. Use red powder to represent yard care chemicals and sprinkle it around the houses. 

12. Make it rain.

13. Discuss what happened. Where are the lawn chemicals? Can you see it? What might be the impact on humans? On the environment? 

14. Add snow (a scoop from outside) to your model.

15. Use hot cocoa mix to represent loose soil or manure, sprinkle red mix for lawn chemical, and salt on the roads. 

15. Make it rain.

16. Discuss what happened. Where is the soil/manure, salt, chemicals, snow? Can you see it? What might be the impact on humans? On the environment?

17. Ask students where it might help to have a buffer zone to stop the pollution.  Discuss how wetlands are natural filters of pollution. Give each group a few small pieces of sponge to place where they feel they would catch most of the pollution. 

18. Make it rain.

Listen to student conversations and observe students as they conduct investigations.

Note students who are using the sentence stems; are able to notice evidence that animals are, or had been present, what they might have been doing; are able to form questions based on what they are noticing; and can make connections to prior learning, personal experiences or other things.

Reflection/Synthesis

19. Discuss the perspectives of commercial fishermen, farmers, everyday citizens, ….. What could be done to meet the needs of all--sustainability.

Ask students to make connections to things that could be entering the Mahone? What is the impact from humans? How are humans impacted?

20. (optional) Dump the water from the model into a bucket. Remove the foil from the model and set it aside. Place a new piece of foil on the watershed. Ask the group to redesign the community to prevent water pollution. Sprinkle powdered drink mix in the appropriate areas. Let it rain. Was there an improvement?

Clean up the learning space. Put supplies away.

Review the Learning Target:  I can discuss the different ways that people impact, and are impacted by, pollutants in water.

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): 

I can find evidence of stormwater run-off and discuss the impact of the run-off in my community.

Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): 

Students will discuss evidence of run-off with peers; students will take notes; and students will consider possible impacts of the run-off to the community.

Essential Question:  How do people in our community impact our stream? 

Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…):

The things that people do matter and make a difference in our environment.

Location: Indoors and Outdoors on snow-covered area

Time Needed: 45 minutes

Materials Needed: One Watershed in a Box completely set up,  

Set up ahead of time:  Set up one Watershed in a Box (follow instructions in Lesson 3), map of the Niagara Escarpment projected on the Smartboard, find photos to project that show evidence of run-off: drip lines in lawns under roof edges, ice ponds, dumpster; internal downspouts, pencils, paper, clipboards

Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: Dressed for weather

Circle-Up/Opening

Indoors

Students will sit with groups from the last lesson.

The teacher will use one Watershed in a Box model as a guide to talk about what happened with water, snow and pollutants, surface water and groundwater. Discuss how some areas of the earth's crust allow water and pollution to quickly move through to the groundwater. Share that we live in such an area--the Niagara Escarpment. Show students a map of the Niagara Escarpment. 

Lead students in a discussion of human activities that could negatively impact the groundwater? What could humans do to help? One way is to reduce stormwater run-off. 

While the precipitation that we receive in the winter is usually not in liquid form, we can find evidence of run-off even now. Share impage of drip lines (frozen), ice ponds, dumpster; as well as internal downspouts.

Forecast the inquiry:

We will divide up into three groups and will visit multiple areas around our school. We are going to look for evidence of run-off and think about the impact it may have on the environment, groundwater, stream, and us.

In your notebook, you will create a T-chart with columns titled: "Evidence of Run-off" and "Solution."

We will come back to share our findings.

Inquiry

What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills and understanding of the learning target?

Outdoors

Students visit each area. Teachers remind students to use "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of..." as they make observations based on evidence, impacts, and solutions to minimize run-off at each site.

Formative Assessment

Listen to student conversations and take notice of their t-chart entries.

Reconvene as a whole to talk about where they found evidence of run-off, the impact that this run-off may have, and solutions. 

Discussion the Essential Question: How do people in our community impact our stream? How can we specifically impact the stream in a positive way based on what we observed today?

Formative Assessment: 

Listen for student engagement and sense of agency in being involved in this stewardship activity.

Review the learning target- I can find evidence of stormwater run-off and discuss the impact of the run-off in my community.

Learning Targets (As a result of this experience outdoors, the student will know and be able to do): 

I can identify solutions for stormwater run-off and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Success Measures (The student will know they are successful if they can): 

Essential Question: How do people in our community impact our stream?

Big Idea (I want my students to understand that…):

The things that people do matter and make a difference in our environment.

Location: Indoors

Time Needed: 60 minutes

Materials Needed: Computers with Internet access (at least one per two students), electronic handout with text sets for research, 3 sheets of chart paper for posters, clipboards, pencils

Set up ahead of time: None

Children are prepared and will bring outdoors: This is an indoor lesson

CONNECT

Circle-Up/Opening

Teacher

Indoors

Greet students and ask them to review their data from last week's observations of storm water run-off and possible solutions. The goal is to o consider areas where students can have the greatest impact and will be likely to get approval to proceed with a plan of action.

After some discussion, the students will likely determine that the roof of the outdoor classroom, as it is now, is a source of storm water run-off/

Share three best management practices (BMP) that environmental engineers often use to slowing the rate of storm water run-off from buildings:  rain barrel, rain garden, green roof. A BMP is an option that has been shown to be effective in collecting storm water from impermeable surfaces created by humans (roof tops, driveways, roads) and allowing it to slowly soak into the ground.

Today students will be exploring these BMPs so that they can propose recommendations to school leaders. If approved, the students will implement the BMP as a class stewardship project.

State the learning target: I can identify solutions for stormwater run-off and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Forecast the lesson:

Because all of the students are going to work together to propose one plan, they need to know the pros and cons of each option. 

To learn about each, students will be divided into three groups to read and consider each option. The links that they will need are on an electronic resource list. 

As a group students will divide up the reading of the texts and will synthesize the information in a chart with a bit of text and images to be presented to their peers who did not research their BMP. 

Near the end of the session, each group will present the findings for consideration by the class as the BMP (or combination of BMPs) that will be taken forward to the other stakeholders (principal, building maintenance leader, district office, etc).

Set behavior expectations.

EXPLORE

Inquiry

What inquiry will students be involved in to develop skills/understanding of the learning target?

All

Indoors

Divide students into three groups (the same as Lesson 4, each group takes on one BMP: rain garden, rain barrel, or green roof). Students in each group will work in pairs to read and take notes on the pros and cons of the BMP that they are researching.

Teachers work with each of group to provide encouragement and support as they pair up to take notes from the text sets.

After about 15 minutes, have pairs come together with the entire BMP group to discuss the main points that they wish to share on the group's chart.  Each team will appoint 2 students to chart the ideas and 2-3 to present the ideas to the whole class.

Provide 10 minutes for group presentations and questions.

Have students come to consensus on the option to take forward.

Formative Assessment

While researching, are students able to use "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of.." to describe their analysis of text, video and images? Are they able to infer some of the pros and cons if they are not explicitly stated? Can they synthesize this on poster for peers?

During the presentation, are students able to evaluate BMPs for the outdoor classroom as as most beneficial with the fewest drawbacks?

ENGAGE

Reflection/Synthesis

Formative Assessment: 

Listen to student contributions to the conversation; read student responses.

Review and Closure

Review the learning target-I can identify solutions for stormwater run-off and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of each.

Celebrate the work of this unit and their plans to take their chosen Best Management Practices for stormwater run-off forward to school principal and maintenance leader.