Blue River : © Hemera–Thinkstock Photos © Hemera–Thinkstock

Blue River : © Hemera–Thinkstock Photos © Hemera–Thinkstock :

“You can never step into the same river twice . . .” photo credit photo

n Grade Level Part III Upper Elementary, Middle School • Copies of Graph It! (one per two 3 n Subject Areas ▼ Summary students) Geography, Earth Science, Students participate in a whole- Environmental Science Making Connections body exercise to simulate the Students will likely have heard the term n Duration movement of water through a “watershed,” but may not understand how Preparation time: 15 minutes river and its watershed. Activity time: Part I: 30 minutes; Part water flows through a watershed and how that II: 30 minutes; Part III: 30 minutes flow differs in spring, summer, fall and winter or as a result of local weather. n Setting Outdoors or classroom (depending on Objectives Background number of students) Students will: Often referred to as drainages, basins or catch- n Skills • describe the major components of a ments, watersheds are the gathering ground of Analyzing information (comparing, watershed. a river system. A watershed is an area of land contrasting); Interpreting; Presenting • demonstrate the movement of water that drains water toward a common river. The (demonstrating) through a river and its watershed. boundaries of watersheds can be identified n Charting the Course • compare and contrast the amount of on a map by tracing a line along the highest “River Talk” introduces watersheds, water flowing through a river and its elevations (often a ridge) between two drain- their parts and functions. Through watershed based on climate (seasonal age areas. Large watersheds often contain “Seeing Watersheds,” students map variations) and weather (precipitation). many smaller watersheds. watershed boundaries and water flow. • create a hydrograph based on simulation Beginning at the highest elevations of a water- In “Blue River,” students demonstrate data. how water flows in a watershed. shed, runoff (water from rain, melting snow In “Back to the Future,” students Materials and ice) collects to form rivulets that merge analyze and interpret streamflow into small headwater streams. As headwater data. “Color Me a Watershed” Parts I and II streams flow downhill from the sides of illustrates how watershed changes • Copy of Blue River Watershed 3 the watershed, they gather more water and over time affect runoff. “Sum of the • 200-500 pony beads, pea gravel, beans, Parts” explores the concept, “We all eventually join to become tributary streams. marbles or similar objects (depending live downstream.” In “8-4-1, One for These tributaries flow into the main stem of on the number of students) All,” students demonstrate how water a river that, with exceptions such as closed users work cooperatively. Finally in • Large bucket or other large container to basins, eventually flows to the sea. “Make-a-Mural,” students create a collect beads or other objects mural depicting their own watershed. • One-gallon pails or similar containers During winter, precipitation is stored as n Vocabulary (one for each headwaters stream) snow in snowpack (accumulated snow that watershed, headwaters, tributary, • Signs on sticks with pictures representing is condensed and compressed by its own main stem, runoff, snowpack, snow, rain, sun and each of the seasons weight). In some mountainous areas, snow- rivulet, drainage, basin, closed basin, (optional) pack can build higher than 20 feet. Very little floodplain, downstream, spring, • Four chairs water will flow into streams at this time; what ground water, spring melt, streamflow, • Length of rope or string flow there is generally comes from ground gaging station, hydrograph, catchment water, springs or periodic snowmelts.

With the arrival of spring and warmer Weather events, such as rain storms or times A watershed, also called a basin, temperatures, the snowpack begins to melt. of low precipitation, and hot temperatures can drainage or catchment, is an area For several weeks this water—often referred change river flow. When these natural events of land drained by a river and its to as the “spring melt” or “spring runoff”— occur, hydrologists using monitoring equip- tributaries to a common outlet, saturates the ground and fills streams. ment track how a rain event in a tributary can which may be a closed basin, a Streamflow will depend on how much snow change main stem river flow downstream. larger stream, a lake, wetland, is present and how fast the temperature rises. Procedure estuary or the ocean. If enough runs off at once, flooding can occur ▼ Warm Up (A closed basin is a water body at low elevations in the river’s floodplain (low • Write on the board the following from which water leaves only area along a river’s channel). quotation: “You can never step into the through evaporation or percola- Rivers rise as the temperature warms and same river twice . . . ” tion; there is no surface outlet melted snowpack accumulates downstream. • Ask students if they believe it is a true from this pond or depression, Springs and ground water that have been statement and to explain their answer. such as the Great Salt Lake, recharged by melted snow, discharge into • Provide the following definition of a Utah.) Within its boundaries, a streams that are also replenished by summer watershed. watershed includes all of the land, rainstorms. • Write the following statement on air, soil, surface and ground water, In fall, as temperatures cool and precipitation the board as an interpretation of plants and animals, mountains diminishes, streamflows decrease until the saying: If a watershed drains and deserts, cities and farms and winter arrives, bringing with it precipitation water toward a common river, people, including their culture, in the form of snow. The cycle repeats. that river is constantly changing stories and traditions. because the water that flows into it

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is an example of a closed basin. photo credit: © Bring Chase / Dreamstime.com

is constantly changing. line starting at the river headwaters 2. Explain to students that they will • Tell students that they will have an and connecting the remaining now simulate the flow of water opportunity to test this idea. tributaries as the main stem winds through a watershed during the downhill. Explain that these new seasons. Tell students that they will ▼ The Activity students represent the river and that all do each simulation for one minute. Part I tributaries flow toward it and connect. Then, begin the following scenarios: 1. Ideally, assemble students on Have everyone touch fingertips. (Optional: Make large signs with a gently sloping hill to help 6. At the top of each headwater stream, symbols for snow, rain, sun and each reinforce the idea that water flows place a bucket of beads. of the seasons. Attach these signs from higher to lower elevations. 7. At the bottom of the main stem, to sticks and hold these signs up to If a hill is unavailable, students can place an empty large bucket or other indicate each scenario. This is especially assemble on gymnasium bleachers container to receive the beads. helpful for large groups.) If necessary, or a similar location. On flat land 8. Tie the rope or string from the ask a student to be the timekeeper you can create two signs: “High large bucket to each of the four announcing when to start and when Point” and “Low Point.” Place High chairs. Explain to students that this to stop passing beads. When the Point at the headwaters and Low rope shows the watershed boundary timekeeper announces the end of Point at the mouth. and everything within the rope is one minute, all students must stop 2. Assemble students in a branching part of this watershed; everything passing beads. Students may hold onto formation to simulate streams in a outside of the rope is part of different the beads in their hands and use in the watershed. (See Teacher Resource watershed(s). next simulation. Page—Blue River Watershed). 3. After each simulation, designate a If students have conducted the Part II student to count the number of beads activity, “Seeing Watersheds,” they 1. To help students understand what in the large bucket at the mouth of may recognize they are forming the will happen during this activity, the main stem. Record this data on Blue River, its headwaters and four instruct students at the top of the the Graph It! Student Copy Page. tributaries. headwaters streams to pick up one Beads from this bucket may then 3. Headwaters streams: At the top of bead and hand it to the person be returned to the containers at the the hill, have two or three students below them. Have students continue headwaters of the main stem form a short line (fingertip to to pass the bead “downstream” until it and tributaries. fingertip, close enough to easily pass travels down through the tributaries, 4. Winter: When the timer announces beads) leading down the slope. This the main stem and is deposited in “Go,” students begin to pass forms the headwaters for the Blue the bucket, representing the ocean, beads slowly (they could count to River. Have students at headwaters for at the bottom. PLEASE INSTRUCT three before passing the bead on) each of the four tributaries stand on a STUDENTS TO ONLY PICK UP ONE downstream to simulate the very low chair. BEAD AT A TIME. GRABBING A flows typical of streams in winter. 4. Tributary streams: Starting at the FISTFUL OF BEADS WILL STOP Remember, during this cold time of headwaters, assemble a line of THE SIMULATION AS THIS WILL year, precipitation is stored in its frozen students leading down slope to CORRUPT THE DATA. form, snowpack. After one minute and represent each of the four tributary each simulation, record the number streams. These tributaries should of beads on the Graph It! Student touch fingertips and “flow” toward Copy Page. each other, but not connect as a whole yet. 5. Main stem of river: Ask students what element of a watershed is still missing. How will all the headwaters and tributaries join? Have the remainder of the students line up fingertip to fingertip in an S-shaped

5. Spring: Spring melt! Temperatures Part III ▼ Project WET Reading Corner rise and begin to melt the winter 1. Discuss with students the flow of Castaldo, Nancy F. 2006. River Wild: An snowpack. Have students pass beads water recorded at the mouth of the Activity Guide to North American Rivers. quickly. “Tributary streams” and the river for each season. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press. “main stem” students will need to pass 2. Remind them that streamflow Learn about rivers using hands-on beads as fast as they can. Inevitably (amount of water passing through) activities and suggestions for some beads will be dropped or spilled. is measured at several spots along community projects. Don’t worry. They represent the a river, called gaging stations Collier, Michael. 2008. Over the Rivers: An flooding which occurs when a stream (measuring stations). This data is Aerial View of Geology. New York, NY: Mikaya channel exceeds its capacity. then represented in hydrographs Press. 6. Summer: The winter snowpack has (charts). Aerial photographs of some of the melted and run off; streamflows 3. A hydrograph records the streamflow largest river systems in the United States decrease. Instruct students to slow at one spot on the river over a period give students a feel for the magnitude down and pass beads at a leisurely of time in cubic feet per second (cfs) and potential impact these rivers can pace. Instruct “tributary” and “main or cubic meters per second (cms). have on American life. stem” students to pick up beads that 4. Students can view data from gaging dropped during flooding and pass stations in their own watershed by Ganeri, Anita. 2009. The World’s Most Amazing them downstream. This represents visiting the USGS website, http:// Rivers. Chicago, IL: Raintree Publishers. floodwaters receding and flows waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt. This book looks at 10 different rivers that returning to normal. 5. Have students record the data from are the highest, longest, widest and most 7. Summer Storm: Simulate an their simulation and complete the unusual in the world. isolated summer storm by quickly hydrograph on the Student Copy Harrison, David L. 2002. Rivers: Nature’s passing beads through one headwater Page—Graph It! Hydrographs can Wondrous Waterways. Honesdale, PA: Boyds stream for 20 seconds. What did this show streamflow averages, including Mill Press. do to the flow in the main stem? Many daily, weekly, monthly or yearly Starting in the mountains, take a journey people are surprised to learn that a calculations, depending on the data on a river as it goes to the sea, including storm can drop significant amounts of collected and the period of time over information on the water cycle, pollu- rain in one part of a watershed while which it was obtained. tion, etc. other parts remain dry. 6. Have students work in pairs to 8. Fall: Streams generally have low complete their hydrograph. Lewis, Meriwether and William Clark. flows during the fall months. Have 1805. The Journals of Lewis and Clark (200th students pass beads slowly, but not ▼ Wrap Up Anniversary Edition). New York, NY: Signet quite as slowly as the winter pace • Have students describe their location Classics. (counting to one or two instead of in the watershed simulation. Based on Historical account written by Lewis three). their experience, what is the function and Clark of their travels to find the 9. Weather Event: Simulate different of a headwaters stream? What is the headwaters of the Missouri River and weather events in different parts of importance of a tributary? What is the the Pacific Ocean. the watershed, such as heavy rains role of the main stem in the watershed? Nirgiotis, Nicholas. 1993. West by Waterway: or hot and dry conditions. Observe • Have students review the hydrograph Rivers and U.S. Expansion. London, UK: how these conditions affect the flow in they produced. How do the seasons Franklin Watts. the main stem. Can these conditions be and weather influence the flow of water Read the history of the westward expan- related to local weather or recent flood? through the watershed? sion across the United States by traveling on river waterways.

Project WET Foundation. 1999. Big Rivers. Extensions Teacher Resources Bozeman, MT: Project WET Foundation. Have students create other scenarios on Books Illustrated children’s booklet discussing the river affecting water flow. For example, Jason Academy. 2004. Earth Science: River some of the largest river watersheds in construct a dam on a tributary stream by Systems Teacher & Student Manual and the United States. placing a bucket between students. Capture CD-Rom. Needham Heights, MA: Jason Available by download only: http://store. water in the dam during the spring runoff Academy. projectwet.org/index.php/big-rivers- and release it later in the summer. Discuss Project WET Foundation. 2005. Discover a download.html. how dams are used to capture water during Watershed: The Missouri Educators Guide. periods of high flow and then release it Tillman, Ned. 2009. The Chesapeake Bozeman, MT: Project WET Foundation. slowly for purposes such as irrigation and Watershed. Baltimore, MD: Chesapeake Book hydroelectric power generation throughout Project WET Foundation. 2005. Discover a Company. the rest of the year. Watershed: The Colorado Educators Guide. The author takes us back to his Bozeman, MT: Project WET Foundation. childhood memories of the Chesapeake Have students use a different colored bead and as a scientist, shares his knowledge for each tributary to assess their individual Journals of the area and ways to use it wisely. contributions to the river. Bodzin, Alec and Louise Shive. 2004. For example, how does a rain event involving “Watershed Investigations.” Science Scope, 27 Twain, Mark. 1953. The Adventures of a single tributary affect the river? How do hot (7), 21-23. Huckleberry Finn. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead and dry conditions in primary or secondary & Co.^ Endreny, Anna Henderson. 2010. “Urban 5th tributaries affect the main stem? Teenager Huckleberry Finn and the Graders Conceptions during a Place-Based escaping slave, Jim, travel the Mississippi Have students draw a map of the watershed Inquiry Unit on Watersheds.” Journal of River meeting many unusual people on they created. Have them mark and name Research in Science Teaching, 47 (5), 501-517. their journey. their location during the activity. Websites Walker, Sally M. 2002. Life in an Estuary. Have students write a river song or chant to United States Environmental Protection Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Co. sing during this activity as they pass beads Agency. Surf Your Watershed. By entering Study the plants and animals found in through their watershed. location parameters, students and teachers the Chesapeake Bay where rivers meet Have students return to the saying, can see the watershed in which they live. oceans and human impact affects all life “You can never step into the same www.epa.gov/surf. Accessed December 13, there. river twice . . .” Tell them that a Greek 2010. philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, wrote ^Listed on one or more state reading lists. United States Geological Survey. Science in these words about 2,500 years ago. Remind Your Watershed. Using maps, students and students that this is not the complete Assessment teachers can see their local watershed and quotation. Based on their recent experi- Have students: find items of interest that pertain to it.http:// ence, ask them how they would complete • explain the parts of a river system water.usgs.gov/wsc/. Accessed December 13, it. Write their suggestions on the board. Tell (Part I, steps 3-5). 2010. them that the complete quotation reads, “You • describe the movement of water through can never step into the same river twice; for a watershed during each season (Part II, new waters are always flowing onto you.” Ask steps 2-8; Wrap Up). students how this supports the simulation; • describe how local weather can affect that is, through the water cycle from rain, stream systems in a watershed (Part II, snow or sleet, new waters flow through the step 9; Wrap Up). headwaters to the tributaries, refreshing the • create a hydrograph based on data from main stem or river. the Blue River simulation through the seasons (Part II, steps 3-8; Part III, steps 5-6).

Blue River © 2002, 2011 Project WET Foundation Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide, Generation 2.0 © 2011 Project WET Foundation 139 3 Blue River—Blue River Watershed Teacher Resource Page PART I and II (1 of 1)

Assemble students as shown below for Parts I and II.

Blue River © 2002, 2011 Project WET Foundation 140 Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide, Generation 2.0 © 2011 Project WET Foundation Blue River—Graph It! Student Copy Page PART III (1 of 2) 3 How is water measured in a river?

The amount of water in a river changes daily, seasonally and year to year. Hydrologists measure the river’s streamflow (amount of water passing through) at gaging stations (flow measuring stations) and make hydrographs (charts). A discharge hydrograph records the streamflow at one spot on the river over a period of time in cubic feet per second (cfs). Rainfall amounts and data from stream gaging stations help hydrologists plan for the needs of water users within a watershed, including: drinking water; water for crops and livestock; manufacturing and shipping products; fish and wildlife; and recreation.

Directions: photo credit: © iStockphoto–Thinkstock Photos In the chart below, record the streamflow Stream gages are used to measure the depth of water in a for each season from the simulation. specific location.

Imagine that this is a seasonal average and that each bead equals 10 cfs.

DATA Season # of beads # of beads X 10 cfs = total cfs

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

Graph your results below. In which season is the greatest streamflow? The least? Why? Record your data on the graph below for each of the seasons:

500 5000 Beads / = cfs Min

450 4500 Beads / = cfs Min

400 4000 Beads / = cfs Min

350 3500 Beads / = cfs Min

300 3000 Beads / = cfs Min

250 2500 Beads / = cfs Min

200 2000 Beads / = cfs Min

150 1500 Beads / = cfs Min

50 500 Beads / = cfs Min

Hydrograph for Winter Spring Summer Fall YOUR Blue River

To see a hydrograph with data from a gaging station on a river in your watershed, go to: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt.