More Than Just a Lake! TOPIC Great Lake drainage basins AUDIENCE Grades 1-6; 10-30 students SETTING By creating a map of the rivers flowing into your Great Lake, Large, open indoor space is learn how rivers form a watershed. required GOAL To understand the concept of a drainage basin or watershed, and how that concept relates to the BACKGROUND around the lake as gravity pulls water local Great Lake watershed. All lakes and rivers have a set area to the lowest point. Water draining of land that water drains into them to the lowest common point is the OBJECTIVES • Students will understand the from, called the “watershed” or simplest definition of a watershed. defining role that rivers have “drainage basin.” Drainage basins are in watershed activity important environmentally because 2. Introduction to the model • Students will be able to state whether they live inside or whatever happens within the basin of watershed outside the drainage basin of the lake can happen to the lake itself. Students gather around the “shore” their Great Lake Toxic substances spilled or placed of the lake. Explain that the blue • Older students will be able to identify the river drainage on the land or in watershed rivers yarn represents rivers. With younger basin in which they live can end up in the lake. See the Great students, demonstrate how one river Lakes Watershed Fact Sheets for ad- might look on the map as it flows MATERIALS ditional information about your local into your Great Lake. • Large floor map of your Great Lake (or an outline on the watershed. floor made with masking tape, 3. Laying out the rivers large enough for an entire PROCEDURE Give each pair of students a piece of classroom to sit around). • 10-15 short lengths (2-3 feet) blue yarn. Younger students place of blue yarn 1. All water flows downhill their “river” somewhere on the map • Ball of yarn colored other than The physical properties of water on where it flows into the lake. Make blue, at least 50 feet long Earth are the driving force behind • Long raincoat sure that they do end up at the lake. • Towel watersheds. In liquid form, water Ask some students questions about • Spray bottle filled with water always flows downhill. The following their rivers, e.g. “Any waterfalls?” or • Maps of Minnesota, Wiscon- sin, Michigan, Ontario, Illinois, activity demonstrates this principle. “How’s the fishing?” Indiana, Ohio, New York, The educator dons a raincoat to Pennsylvania, or a detailed represent the land around the lake. Older students should be given a North American atlas Standing on a towel, invite a student river card (see river names at end of to act as the rain and spray the rain- lesson). Students will have to use a coat. Ask all other students to make Great Lake map, highway map, or a prediction about where the water an atlas in order to locate their river. will end up. Students them observe Once a student, or a pair of students, the “rain” as it falls on the “land.” has found their river, they should Where did the water travel? (Down “map” it--by placing their blue yarn your raincoat/downhill) This happens Hydrology Lake Effects—The Lake Superior Curriculum Guide COSEE Greatest of the Great Lakes—A Medley of Model Lessons E7 ©The Lake Superior Center, 1998. in connection to the map, to model ing something on the ground here the actual river flow to the lake. affect the Great Lakes? If not, what would it affect? 4. The boundary Once all the rivers are in place, ex- EXTENSIONS plain that the students will now cre- • Give older students a map of the ate an imaginary line. Standing near actual rivers of the closest Great one of the “rivers,” ask “If a raindrop Lake basin and have them dupli- falls here, where will it go/drain?” (To cate the tributaries and branches the lake). Then standing away from of the rivers that flow into their the river, ask the same question (it Great Lake. goes somewhere else, like Hudson • Discuss associated environmental Bay or down the Mississippi). So issues, such as the concept of an there is a line that separates the places “airshed” (the area from which where water will fall and drain into the lake draws airflow and thus the Great Lake from the places where air pollutants) and the potential water will fall and drain somewhere demand for pumping water out else. Use a ball of yarn to mark this of the Great Lakes for the arid boundary; walk around the lake with southwest. the yarn asking students to hold the • Use the Great Lakes Watershed yarn at the top of their rivers. Fact Sheet to create comparisons, mathematical studies, etc. 5. Implications • Discuss how the people in their For the younger students explain that town or city use the water in their they have created a model of what everyday lives. a watershed looks like. Show them • The class can become experts on a picture of the actual watershed; a nearby river or stream that is discuss how their model is similar to part of their Great Lake water- the actual. Ask the students if their shed. This could be done through school falls inside or outside of their research, talking to local scientists Great Lake’s watershed. or water related organizations and taking a trip to visit the stream. With the older students, explain that their map marks a close approxima- ASSESSMENT tion of the drainage basin of the • Ask students if they live in a Great Lake nearest them. Is their Great Lakes watershed. school inside or outside the drain- • Ask students what other water- age basin? If outside the basin, what shed they live in. drainage basin is it in? Could dump- Lake Effects—The Lake Superior Curriculum Guide More Than Just a Lake! ©The Lake Superior Center, 1998. E8 COSEE Greatest of the Great Lakes—A Medley of Model Lessons Lake Superior Watershed Fact Sheet Lake Length--350 mi (563 km) Lake Breadth--160 mi (257 km) Lake Depth--483 ft (147 m) average • 1333 ft (405 m) maximum Volume--2900 cubic mi (12,100 cubic km) Enough to cover North, Central, and South America with one foot of water. Water Surface--31,700 square miles (81,103 square km) Watershed Area--81,000 square miles (209,000 square km) % of watershed covered by lake--39% Shoreline length--2726 mi (4385 km) Water Retention Time--approximately 191 years Average Water Temperature--approximately 40° F (4.4° C) Average Winter Ice Cover--60% Number of Tributaries--336 TRIBUTARIES 1. Nipigon (ONT) 2. Aguasabon (ONT) 3. St. Louis (MN) 4. Kaministikwia (ONT) 5. Michipicoten (ONT) 6. Pic (ONT) 7. Ontonagon (MI) 8. Montreal (ONT) 9. Tahquamenon (MI) 10. Sturgeon (MI) 11. Bad (WI) 12. Pigeon (MN/ONT) 13. Little Pic (ONT) 14. Batchawana (ONT) 15. Presque Isle (MI) 16. Montreal (WI/MI) 17. Black (MI) 18. Bois Brule (WI) 19. Iron (MI) 20. Sand (WI) 21. Baptism (MN) 22. Knife (MN) 23. Cranberry (WI) 24. French (MN) 25. Lester (MN) More Than Just a Lake! Lake Effects—The Lake Superior Curriculum Guide COSEE Greatest of the Great Lakes—A Medley of Model Lessons E9 ©The Lake Superior Center, 1998. Lake Michigan Watershed Fact Sheet Lake Length--307 mi (494 km) Lake Breadth--118 mi (190 km) Lake Depth--279 ft (80 m) average • 925 ft (282 m) maximum Volume--1180 cubic mi (4920 cubic km) Water Surface--22,300 square miles (57,800 square km) Watershed Area--45,600 square miles (118,000 square km) % of watershed covered by lake--49% Shoreline length--1600 mi (2575 km) Water Retention Time--approximately 99 years Average Water Temperature--approximately 66° F (19.1° C) Summer, 36.4° F (2.47° C) Winter Average Winter Ice Cover--less than 50% Number of Tributaries--511 TRIBUTARIES 1. Manistique (MI) 2. Escanaba (MI) 3. Menominee (MI/WI) 4. Fox (WI) 5. St. Joseph (MI/IN) 6. Kalamazoo (MI) 7. Grand (MI) 8. Muskegon (MI) 9. Pere Marquette (MI) 10. Manistee (MI) 11. Root (WI) 12. Oconto (WI) 13. Peshtigo (WI) 14. Bear (MI) 15. Galena (IN) 16. Paw Paw (MI) 17. Black (MI) 18. Pigeon (WI) 19. Little Suamico (WI) 20. Pensaukee (WI) 21. Betsie (MI) 22. West Twin (WI) 23. East Twin (WI) 24. Kewaunee (WI) 25. Pike (WI) Lake Effects—The Lake Superior Curriculum Guide More Than Just a Lake! ©The Lake Superior Center, 1998. E10 COSEE Greatest of the Great Lakes—A Medley of Model Lessons Lake Erie Watershed Fact Sheet Lake Length--241 mi (388 km) Lake Breadth--57 mi (92 km) Lake Depth--62 ft (19 m) average • 210 ft (64 m) maximum Volume--116 cubic mi (484 cubic km) Water Surface--9910 square miles (25,700 square km) Watershed Area--30,140 square miles (78,000 square km) % of watershed covered by lake--33% Shoreline length--871 mi (1402 km) Water Retention Time--approximately 2.6 years Average Water Temperature--approximately 71.8° F (22.1° C) Summer, 35.9° F (2.16° C) Winter Average Winter Ice Cover--100% Number of Tributaries--842 TRIBUTARIES 1. Black (MI) 2. Thames (ONT) 3. St. Clair (MI/ONT) 4. Belle (MI) 5. Clinton (MI) 6. Rogue (MI) 7. Huron (MI) 8. Raisin (MI) 9. Maumee (OH/IN) 10. Sandusky (OH) 11. Cuyahoga (OH) 12. Grand (OH) 13. Ashtabula (OH) 14. Buffalo (NY) 15. Portage (OH) 16. Toussaint (OH) 17. Vermillion (OH) 18. Black (OH) 19. Detroit (MI) 20. Rocky (OH) 21.