THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

Sustainable Economic Development

Lesson Overview In this lesson students will come to a more complete understanding of watersheds, water conservation and sustainable economic development by studying one of New Brunswick’s many beautiful river systems. Students will research the types of economic development that take place within a specific watershed area in New Brunswick. They will prepare a research report that will propose sustainable economic activities that protect the watershed.

Grade Level Grades 9 - 12 (secondary school) Time Required Two to three 60 minute classes. Curriculum Connection (Province/Territory and course) Atlantic Provinces Curriculum for Social Studies: Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (CAMET): New Brunswick New Brunswick Physical Geography 110 and Canadian Geography 120

Additional Resources, Materials and Equipment Required • Student Activity Sheet #1: What is a Watershed? (attached) • Student Activity Sheet #2: Research Report on a New Brunswick River (attached) • Assessment rubric (attached) • Computer lab, LCD and internet access Websites: Canadian Atlas Online Watersheds theme http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=watersheds&sub=watersh eds_flow_canadaswatersheds&lang=En Canadian Atlas Online Watershed Awareness theme http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=%20watershedawareness &lang=En Atlas of Canada: Interactive map of various drainage basins of Canada. http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/hydrology/drainagebasins

Atlas of Canada: Explanation of what is a watershed. http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/hydrology/watershed/1

Government of New Brunswick: New Brunswick Watersheds http://www.gnb.ca/0009/0371/0013/index-e.asp

Watershed Atlas: How watershed areas are created http://www.watershedatlas.org/fs_indexwater.html

Royal Bank of Canada Bluewater Project: A wide-ranging, multi-year program to help foster a culture of water stewardship, so that people have clean fresh water today and tomorrow http://bluewater.rbc.com/

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE NEW BRUNSWICK – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

Main Objective Students will develop a deeper appreciation for the watersheds of New Brunswick. They will be able to make clear connections between water as a natural resource and economic activities.

Learning Outcomes By the end of the lesson, students will: • become more familiar with the Canadian Atlas Online ; • use the internet to plan and organize a geographic research project on watersheds and water conservation; • systematically locate and gather geographic information from a variety of primary and secondary sources; • recognize the importance of Canada’s freshwater resources to human settlement and economic activity; • formulate a geographic perspective of how physical systems such as watershed areas affect human economic development.

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE NEW BRUNSWICK – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

The Lesson

The Lesson Teacher Activity Student Activity Introduction Distribute Student Activity Sheet #1: What is a Read Student Activity Watershed? . Clarify the definition of a watershed. Sheet #1: What is a Watershed?. List a number of rural and urban economic activities that exist within the school’s watershed Contribute to the area. Next, ask students to add to the list. economic activity list. Offer an example of one economic activity and Participate in the discuss the various aspects of its connection to discussion session. the watershed, water conservation and economic sustainability.

Lesson Assign students to work in pairs and instruct them Review information from Development to go online to the Canadian Atlas Online the Canadian Atlas Watersheds theme. Instruct students to review Online Watersheds the Drainage basin and Rivers sections. theme.

Distribute the Student Activity Sheet #2: Choose a watershed and Research Report on a New Brunswick River . engage in online Review the instructions with students and answer research. questions as required. Allow students time to

complete their research and assist them as necessary. Conclusion Ask students to share their reports with the class. Share the report with the class.

Lead a round table discussion on the topics of: economic activity, watersheds, conservation and Discuss new information. sustainability. Lesson Extension • Geocache your Watershed: http://www.ec.gc.ca/geocache/default.asp?lang=En&n=E923094B-1 Assessment of Student Learning Reports will be evaluated using the Assessment Rubric (attached). Further Reading • Watersheds of Canada poster-map • Protect Your Watershed: An interactive guide to taking action http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/ watersheds • The Source of life Canada’s watershed protection action guide http://192.168.1.8/magazine/jun11/watershed_protection_guide.asp

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE NEW BRUNSWICK – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

Link to Canadian National Standards for Geography Essential Element #5: Environment and Society • Use and sustainability of resources

Geographic Skill #1: Asking geographic questions • Plan and organize a geographic research project

Geographic Skill #2: Acquiring geographic information • Systematically locate and gather geographic information from a variety of primary and secondary sources.

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE NEW BRUNSWICK – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

Student Activity Sheet #1: What is a ‘Watershed?

Source: http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/hydrology/watershed/1 A watershed is an area where all surface water drains into the same body of water (river, lake, or ocean). Surface water consists of the tiny trickles of water flowing on the surface of the Earth that develop into larger streams and eventually combine to form rivers and lakes. Rivers are organized into networks, each with its own recharge area upstream, and drainage channel and mouth downstream. Networks are ordered from ocean to main rivers to secondary rivers to streams, which correspond to ocean watersheds, river watersheds, sub- watersheds, sub-sub-watersheds, and so forth. The boundary of a watershed is called a watershed divide. In a watershed, water flows from high to low, from upstream to downstream. Watershed recharge is a function of precipitation, soil and bedrock permeability, absorption of water in the soil by plant roots, and evapotranspiration. As part of the latter process, plants return moisture to the atmosphere by transpiration, and the water eventually returns to Earth in the form of precipitation (for example, as rain, snow or hail). The easiest way to describe the network of rivers and lakes on a small-scale map is to show the watersheds. In Canada, there is a detailed hierarchy of watersheds, ranging from the largest (drainage into oceans and their equivalents), down to the smallest ramification.

Location and Main Rivers of Ocean Watersheds The Pacific Ocean watershed drains the area west of the Rocky Mountains. The Fraser, Yukon and Columbia rivers are the largest rivers draining this region. It is separated from all other drainage areas by the continental divide . This is defined as the north-south line along the western Cordillera that separates rivers flowing ultimately into the Pacific Ocean from those flowing into other oceans.

The Arctic Ocean watershed is the area flowing directly into the Arctic Ocean or into the channels of the Arctic Islands. Hudson Bay, James Bay and Ungava Bay are considered to be part of the Arctic Ocean but, for most purposes, their drainage area is usually considered as a separate entity. The Mackenzie River dominates the Arctic Ocean watershed.

The Hudson Bay watershed is a huge area that captures about 30% of total Canadian runoff. Many of its river systems, such as the Nelson and Churchill rivers (of Manitoba), drain eastward from the continental divide to Hudson Bay. As well, many large rivers drain from the south and east into Hudson Bay or James Bay. The extensive areas of drainage into Ungava Bay and Foxe Basin are also considered to be part of the Hudson Bay drainage area.

The Atlantic Ocean watershed is dominated by the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence system, but there are other significant watersheds, such as those of the Churchill River (of Labrador) and the Saint John River in New Brunswick.

The Gulf of Mexico watershed occupies in Canada a small portion of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. The waters drain south into the Mississippi system, which ultimately drains into the Gulf of Mexico. (The Gulf is part of the Atlantic Ocean but, because of the Mississippi, it is often studied as a separate entity). Finally, parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan have closed watersheds or areas of internal drainage: these are river systems that do not drain into any ocean.

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE NEW BRUNSWICK – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

Student Activity Sheet #2:

Research Report on a New Brunswick River

Task #1 Instructions: Research one of the watershed areas below and create an 800 to 1000 word report on the economic activity within the watershed area. Be sure to:

• Give an overview of the rural and urban economic activity. • Address in more detail one of the businesses that rely heavily on the water of the watershed. • Provide ideas for businesses in this area to adopt economic development practices that also protect the watershed. Highlight businesses that are taking steps to protect the watershed. • Attach an appendix to the report. The appendix should include as many of the following as possible: various maps, a sketch map of the watershed, pictures of areas within the watershed, a satellite image, list of industries and commercial business, information about the business focused on, economic tables, graphs, charts, etc. There are two main discharge basins : the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the east and north and the to the south. The major rivers are the Saint John and the Miramichi.

Gulf of St. Lawrence Watershed Rivers: Bay of Fundy Watershed Rivers

• River • • Green River • • Jacquet River • • • Musquash River • • • • Point Wolfe River • • Shepody River • • Saint Croix River • River • Saint John River • • Salmon River • Rivière du Nord • • Tracadie River • Tantramar River

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_New_Brunswick

Note: Some of these rivers are shared with the United States. Also many of these rivers have smaller rivers that feed into them so you may want to include this in your research for your project.

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINE NEW BRUNSWICK – GRADE 9-12 www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas

Assessment Rubric

Student: ______Score ______X 5 = ______/100

Category Excellent 4 Good 3 Satisfactory 2 Needs Improvement 1 Quality of Information Information clearly Information clearly Information has little Information clearly relates to relates to the main relates to the main or nothing to do with the main topic. It topic. It provides topic. No details the main topic. includes several 1-2 supporting and/or examples supporting details details and/or are given. and/or examples. examples. Organization Information is Information is Information is The information very organized organized with organized, but appears to be with well well constructed paragraphs are not disorganized. constructed paragraphs. well constructed. paragraphs and subheadings. Diagrams and Diagrams and Diagrams and Diagrams and Diagrams and Illustrations illustrations are illustrations are illustrations are illustrations are not neat, accurate, accurate and all to neat and accurate accurate OR do not and add to the the reader and sometimes add add to the reader’s reader’s understands of the to the reader’s understanding of the understanding of topic. understanding of topic. the topic. the topic. Sources All sources All sources All sources Some sources are (information and (information and (information and not accurately graphics) are graphics) are graphics) are documented. accurately accurately accurately documented in documented, but a documented, but the desired few are not in the many are not in format. desired format. the desired format. Appendix Presents six or Presents four to Presents two to Presents two or less more pieces of six pieces of four pieces of pieces of information. information. Gives information. Uses information. Very Excellent quality good and accurate only several facts. little information and watershed information. incomplete. graphic.