Rivers Unit Part 2: Water Quality

Part 2 Explores Water Quality and works students through a river study with lab report extension if interested. 4 lessons of about 50 minutes and chances to explore and collect data on a local waterway are provided. A 15 page work bundle has students learn and collect data about physical, chemical, and biological features of a river including an extensive section on benthic macroinvertebrates. This is a fantastic section, especially if you have a local stream that you can collect data from.

This PowerPoint begins with instructions for setting up a nutrient pollution demonstration that will be investigated at the end of the unit unit. The PowerPoint then has students record some physical, chemical, and biological components of water quality on their homework / classwork sheet. Students then set-up a spreadsheet in journal to conduct a water quality study at a local waterway. I have a small stream behind my school which works very well. An example of what the data should look like is provided. Some chemical data / expectations for testing a water bodies chemical data is provided. Info for collecting a cross section of river depth is provided. The stream I use isn't deep so the activity works well. PPM (Parts per million is addressed) Students also must find one tiny red dot in a sea of yellow dots representing on part per million. A chemical data collection spreadsheet is shown with some common chemical test.

The PowerPoint then begins to cover biological data such ass benthic macro-invertebrates in class I, II, and III. Students see pictures of common class I with text. They next participate in a cd 50/50 challenge. Old Cd's are passed out to the students and used as visual tokens. Pictures of two benthic macro-invertebrates are shown with the cd up or down. Students need to guess correctly by having their cd face up or face down. If they guess correctly they get to keep their cd, if they guess incorrectly they lose it for the class I invertebrates. Students then learn the common class II, and III in similar fashion. This process involves the kids throughout. A few relevant video links are provided. A sheet is provided in the activities folder to help you. Some focus on terrestrial insects is also provided. After the students have gone through three cd 50/50 challenges, they partake in a 1-20 name that benthic macro-invertebrate quiz. The answers are provided after the quiz. The question is previewed one last time before the answer is revealed. A link and instructions to determine taxa richness and health of a water way by collecting benthic macro-invertebrates is provided. A short vernal pool set of slides and visitation / organisms you may encounter is also provided. Hopefully your seasons / area has some vernal pools to investigate.

This is a fantastic unit, especially if you have  a local waterway and can conduct some water quality testing. 

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