We all live Down Stream...

This final activity involves making a class river.  The students were given the scenario that they have just been given a section of land right on the river that and unlimited income!  They can build anything that they want to on the water.  What would you build?


Students draw a plan of what they would put on this property...

A hotel and amusement park....
A school and hotel

Next, they go back and add pollutions that may happen from the construction, the buildings, the land use...as well as ways they could fix it. (Notice the Riparian buffer???)  We had a great discussion about whether their picture caused a lot of pollution or minimal...

Finally, they laid them all out and created a class river.


This goes along nicely with one of my favorite VA DOE activities...A River Runs through it.  This version actually has land use scenarios written for students to illustrate.  I do this lesson every year in my class.
And Riparian Buffers - a hands on lesson where you actually build a watershed with and without grass.  We will start this in my class shortly so I will post on this in the future.

Another great website:  http://www.watersheds.org/kids/  has activities, videos and simulations from the Missouri watersheds.


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