San Francisco Bay Watershed Curriculum A Collection of Activities and Action Projects About the San Francisco Bay Watershed for Middle and High School Students Save The Bay’s San Francisco Bay Watershed Curriculum TABLE OF CONTENTS User’s GuideGuide................................................................................................................iii Welcome to Your Watershed The Bay and You, A Watershed Jounal........................................................................1 The San Francisco Bay’s Watershed in Your Hand....................................................7 Wetlands in a Pan, A Watershed Model Demonstrating the Functions of Wetlands..................10 WhenRain Hits the Land, Experimenting with Runoff..................................................16 The Bay Starts Here! Understanding Your Watershed....................................................28 Mapping Your Watershed, Exploring Maps of California...............................................38 Three Ways to be 3D, Understanding Topographic Maps............................................44 It Goes with the Flow...........................................................................................53 Geology of the San Francisco Bay and Its Wealth of Resources Peanut Butter and Jelly Geology, A Study of Faults and Geologic Activity.............................68 Liquefaction in Action, Bay Fill and Earthquakes: The Hidden Dangers............................77 Dirt All Around, A Study of Erosion and Sedimentation.................................................82 “What Happened Here Before,” Creating a Bay Timeline...........................................92 A Healthy Bay is a Wealthy Bay, Natural Resources and the Environment.........................104 The Evolution and Ecology of Life in the San Francisco Bay Life in the Bay, Getting to Know the Bay’s Plants and Animals..........................................126 Plant and Animal List, An illustrated guide to the bay’s Plants and Animals........................133 Help Wanted, Understanding Niche.......................................................................145 Adapted for Survival? Designing a Bird Adapted to Its Habitat.......................................149 Save The Bay’s San Francisco Bay Watershed Curriculum i Survival or Extinction? The Evolution of Bay Animals and Their Limiting Factors................157 Earth Day Birthday Party, Analyzing Population Growth.............................................162 Creature Double Feature, Native vs. Non-Native Species in San Francisco Bay....................172 Salmon Challenge, Salmon Evolution and Obstacles to Survival......................................186 History of Human Impacts on San Francisco Bay Saving The Bay, The History of a Movement..............................................................197 The Great Hydraulic Mining Debate, The Sawyer Decision of 1884...............................206 Water Water Everywhere...Not, The Competition for California’s Water Supply.................215 Airport Debate, Town Hall Meeting Style.................................................................223 Action Projects: How Can We Save The Bay? Explaining the Flow...........................................................................................236 Wetland and Watershed Art, Creating Art to Educate Others........................................237 Schoolyard Report Card, Surveying Your Schoolyard..................................................240 Fish, The Bay, and You, Seafood Consumption Information Project..................................248 Urban Creek Survey, Exploring Your Own Backyard...................................................255 Keeping an Eye on Our Creeks, Water Quality Monitoring..........................................260 Growing Natives, Native Plant Propagation in the Classroom.........................................267 Appendix Glossary .......................................................................................................A-1 California Content Standards Matrix................................................................A-5 California’s Content Standards and the Bay........................................................A-6 Save The Bay’s Watershed Education Program...................................................A-21 Additional Resources......................................................................................A-28 ii Save The Bay’s San Francisco Bay Watershed Curriculum Save The Bay’s San Francisco Bay Watershershed Curriculum USER’S GUIDE 1. How does this curriculum fit into your classroom? This curriculum is designed as a tool to help you bring the San Francisco Bay into your classroom. There are, of course, many different ways to use this guide. Here are some of our suggestions: • Use individual activities to cover content standards within the subject you are teaching: Every activity in this guide is designed to stand on its own so that you can pick and choose the activities that best suit the needs of your students. Whether you teach Science, History, or Language Arts, you can use this curriculum to help you cover the content standards while teaching about the Bay. For example, if you are teaching your students how to do a research project, you could use “Life In the Bay, Getting to Know the Bay’s Plants and Animals” from this curriculum. Use the Content Standards Matrix, and the Excerpts from the California Content Standards, located in the appendix, to help you choose activities that will fulfill content standards for your class. Note that the content standards are excerpts from a larger text, and may appear out of sequence. • Use the San Francisco Bay as a theme across the disciplines: Create a month-long, semester-long, or even year-long unit around wetlands and watersheds, featuring the San Francisco Bay. This curriculum features activities for many different subject areas including Science, History, Geography, Language Arts, Math, and Art. Use the action projects at the end of the curriculum to enhance the unit and to connect classroom learning with the “real world.” • Use the San Francisco Bay as a vehicle for project-based learning: All the activities in this curricu- lum can be used to supplement a series of field trips and action projects around the Bay. The final section features six possible action projects. For more information about field trips and action projects, please contact the education department of Save The Bay at 510-452-9261. 2. How is the curriculum organized? This curriculum is organized into five sections. Each section covers a different theme that relates to San Francisco Bay. You will find a table of contents for each section on the back of each section divider. The sections are the following: • Welcome to Your Watershed: Introduces students to the concepts of wetlands and watersheds and gives them a sense of their own place within the San Francisco Bay watershed. • Geology of the San Francisco Bay and its Wealth of Resources: Covers some of the basic geologic forces that have helped shape the Bay Area as well as how geology relates to the area’s resources. • The Evolution and Ecology of Life in the San Francisco Bay: Introduces students to the Bay’s plants and animals and covers several important factors of the Bay’s ecology today. • The History of Human Impacts on the Bay: Involves students in decisions that have impacted the Bay from the Gold Rush to the present. • How Can We Save The Bay? Gives ideas for how students can get involved in projects that monitor, restore, and educate others about the Bay. Save The Bay’s San Francisco Bay Watershed Curriculum iii 3. How are the Activities Organized? Each activity is divided into two sections: teacher’s pages and student pages. Look for the following symbols at the top of each section: The teacher’s pages describe each activity and tell you everything you need to know about how to present the activity to your class, including an overview, background information, timing, materials and a detailed procedure. The teacher pages also outline the content standards covered by the activity. The student pages that accompany most activities are designed to be photocopied and handed out to students. They include an introduction, background information, materials and procedure when applicable, and any articles or resources that accompany the activity. iv Save The Bay’s San Francisco Bay Watershed Curriculum The Bay and You A Watershed Journal Overview This activity is meant to be integrated throughout your unit on the San Francisco Bay’s Watershed. Students make a journal at the beginning of the unit and write journal entries throughout the unit. Materials For each student: • Copies of Student Pages • 30 - 50 pieces of reused 8 ½” X 11” paper (one-sided paper) – for insides of journal • Approximately 9” X 12” mat board, foam core, or cardboard (not corrugated) – for back cover perspective and tightly reasoned argument, • Approximately 9” X 12” front covers demonstrating students’ awareness of the (cut from reused posters or heavy duty audience and purpose. They also combine paper) the rhetorical strategies of narration, • Hole punches persuasion, and description to produce texts • Thick, big rubber bands of at least 1,500 words each. Modify journal • Sticks or pencils – approximately 8” assignments to meet these standards for long different grade levels. • Large ziploc bags for journal storage Journal writing can also address other standards, which are used for the