WOULD YOU DRINK THIS?

 

Mary Canny

Johnson Elementary School

Johnson, Kansas

 

Overview:

Students need to realize that if they live upstream in a watershed they have a responsibility to the people downstream to take care of the water they use and send in on as good or better shape than it reached them.

 

Grade Level: K-9

 

Outcome:

The student will know what a water basin and a watershed is and how their activities might effect people downstream.

 

Geographic Themes:

Location, Place, Human/Environment Interaction, Movement, and Regions

 

Kansas Social Studies Standards Benchmarks, 8-K:

The student will understand the roles of government and civic ideals and practices in the local school and community, Kansas, the U.S., and different nations in the world.

 

The student will use problem solving and decision making strategies to propose ways of addressing issues situations in the local school and cummunity, Kansas, the U.S., and different nations of the world.

 

National Geography Standards, 5-8:

#1	How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
#3	The geographically informed person knows and understands how to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface.
#14	The geographically informed person knows and understands how human actions modify the physical environment.
#18	The geographically informed person knows and understands how to apply geography and interpret the present and plan for the future.

 

Performances:

1. The student will identify the rivers and river basins in Kansas.
2. The student will identify the ways in which he or she might affect the quality of water downstream for others.

Vocabulary

Atrazine	Point pollution
Conservation	River basin
Fecal coliform bacteria	Sediment
Non-ponit pollution	Watershed
Downstream	Tributary

 

Materials Needed:

• Kansas outline map for each student
• Overhead of Kansas River Systems
• large container of clear, clean water
• eyedroppers
• assorted food colors
• cocoa powder, instant tea or coffee
• A River Ran Wild, by Lynne Cherry

   

• Procedures:

  1.	Handout unlabeled map of Kansas River Systems.
  2.	On overhead of Kansas River Systems, have students label as many rivers as they can.
  3.	Label rivers and river systems, each system in a different color.
  4.	Read A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry to class. Discuss how and why the river changed.
  5.	Discuss pollution. a. b. the main types of water pollution in Kansas rivers. the main sources of water pollution in Kansas rivers and their geographical locations.
  6.	Select a town on the upper end of the Republican River System. Discuss where this town is located in the system and how it might effect towns that are downstream.
  7.	Brainstorm the effect different situations would have on water quality downstream: golf course farmer with poor conservation practices feed lots city storm drains pig farms farmers using atrazine factories municipal waste disposals
  8.	Have a student sample the clear pure water.
  9.	Have each student or cooperative group choose a role to play from the list of pollution sources in number 7. Give each student or group an eye dropper of food color to represent different types of pollution. Cocoa, tea, or coffee could be used for soil erosion.
  10.	Line the students up in a row. As the container of water travels downstream each student or group will just one of their "polluter". When the water reaches the last student, ask the first student who tasted the water if they would like to taste the water now.
  11.	Discuss how what people do upstream effects those downstream. Just a drop adds up as it travels downstream.

 

Assessment:

1. Check for accuracy of labeling Kansas River Systems map.
2. Assessment of involvement in class discussion: attentive and participates.
3. Written answers to the following question

1. a. b. c.

   How are people downstream effected by upstream sources of pollution? Where else in the world could this be a problem? Do watersheds follow political boundaries? What problems could this cause?

Extensions:

1. Invite an agricultural extension agent to talk about soil conservation practices.
2. Investigate point and non-point pollution sources.
3. Visit a waste treatment plant or invite a representative to visit your class.
4. Visit a water treatment plant or invite a representative to visit your class.
5. Invite a county extension agent to talk about water wells, pesticides and insecticides.
6. Invite a cattle feed lot owner or a hog farmer to talk about their waste treatment practices and EPA guidelines.
7. Investigate the difference between surface water and ground water. Experiment building filtering systems and compare test results. Use a clip from Apollo 13 to inspire students creative uses of everyday items.
8. Invite a crop consultant talk about their role in helping with the control of pollutants on farm ground.

Resources:

Cherry, Lynne. A River Ran Wild, (1992). Harcourt, Brace and Company, Orlando, Florida.

District Chief, U.S. Geological Survey
4821 Quail Crest Place
Lawrence, Kansas 66049

Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Bureau of Water - Non point Source Section
Forbes Field, Building 283
Topeka, Kansas 66620-0001

"Non point Source Pollution in Kansas"
Cooperative Extension Service
KSU, Manhattan, KS, 66502

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Soil Conservation Service
Washington, D.C.

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FHSU Geoscience | Kansas Geographic Alliance

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e-mail: pphillip@fhsu.edu

 

irc staff / jh 03/16/98 (updated kn 06/21/99)

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