What this unit is about…
Stormwater runs down our gutters, sidewalks, streets, and parking lots, carrying with it all that is left on these impermeable surfaces into storm drains and into the sea. But, it also runs through forests, meadows, and wetlands, each plant-rich ecosystem filtering and even purifying the water on its way. Urban planners are incorporating this understanding into stream restorations and green-spaces in cities throughout the Salish Sea watershed. In this unit, students will review the water cycle, learn the parts of a watershed, and the effects of erosion and pollution, then learn ways of purifying these waters before they enter our streams and estuaries to safeguard these ecosystems for marine life and us.
Next Generation Science Standards in this unit:
3-ESS3-1 Engineering solutions to reduce the impacts of polluted stormwater.
4-ESS2-1 Observations of effects of weathering by glaciers
4-ESS2-2 Analyzing Earth’s features by creating watershed maps
5-ESS2-1. Model geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere interactions.
5-ESS3-1. How communities use science to protect Earth’s resources and environment.
3-5-ETS1-1 Engineering a stormwater filtration solution within constraints of materials and time.
3-5-ETS1-2 Compare engineered stormwater solutions for which best solves the problem.
MS-LS2-3 Model cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
MS-ETS1-1, 2, 3, and 4 Engineering a stormwater filtration solution within constraints of materials and time then comparing for which best meets the constraints of the problem.
MS-PS1-2. Water quality testing using chemical reactions for presence of nutrients and pH levels
MS-ESS2-4. Model the water cycle by creating a cloud in a jar and dancing.
MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
The Sequence
After you have registered for the curriculum, preparing the unit is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Review the unit plan, and customize it to suit your needs
This unit plan is flexible, adaptable, and in Word format to ensure that your experience can be tailored geographically to your local watershed and community, and to your particular teaching objectives and needs. Use the plan like a map- it has directions, resources, learning targets and performance expectations, and more to guide every step of the way, but the adventure you and your students share is your own.
Review and customize the slideshow
This slideshow presents helpful background information, including links to online resources and videos. With helpful presenter notes, it also acts as a guide as you progress. As with the unit plan, you may want to customize certain slides to make them even more relevant and local. For this reason, it is in PowerPoint. Save a copy and make the change you see fit.
Review, customize, and print the accompanying student journal
This editable Word document is your students’ place to wonder, record observations, take notes, diagram, and plan and record scientific investigation or engineering processes. It is also a place to celebrate hard work with well-deserved stamps on the back page. Review and customize the journal to reflect the changes you’ve made in your unit plan and slideshow.
HOW TO PRINT
In Microsoft Word, click on the Layout menu, then the arrow to expand the Page Set Up options. Click Margins and select “Book Fold” in the drop down menu by Multiple pages. Print in landscape orientation on 8.5 x 14” (legal) paper with two staples along the center fold. Note: the font is Helvetica. Changing the font can change alignment of journal pages.
Utilize the materials below for additional student resources throughout the unit.
Additional Resources & Materials
Assessments
Every unit has its own pre- and post-assessments for tracking the progress and growth that students make throughout the curriculum. Links to these (and additional formative assessments!) are also provided in the unit plan.
STORMWATER POST-ASSESSMENT
STORMWATER PRE-ASSESSMENT
WONDER
Give your students a visual or sensory experience that provides a chance to wonder at a watershed or a particular aspect of it. This may be a hands-on outdoor activity, an observational field trip, or an in-classroom presentation or video. Find some ideas and resources in the link below (or come up with your own!).
Essential question
After the experience of “wonder,” it is time to give the Stormwater Student Journal to each student. Let them get acquainted with it, and then read Explore the Salish Sea Chapter 2, Why the Salish Sea is Special. Here is a time to write thoughts, ideas, and questions inspired by their reading into their journals. After students have read and written, invite an open discussion with the class. Develop an essential question around what is most important in this chapter. Your essential question should relate to how the watershed affects the health of sea life.
Background research
Once you have established an essential question, the information-gathering begins...or continues! The Explore the Salish Sea book is a great place to start, there are some additional resources in the link below, and you may find many more of your own. Of course, you’ll come back to this step throughout the process, as your questions and claims will require support.
put science to work
Identify variables, design a procedure, carry out an investigation, analyze data, and see where active discovery leads. Will there be answers? Solutions? More questions to test? It may even be back to the drawing board to start all over again. The scientific process is never linear (and it never ends), but there is always an adventure! Read through this UC Berkeley weblink for teaching Science, then print the scientific process chart for students or to post in your classroom. Find the resources to guide your students’ own scientific process in the Slideshow and Student Journal.
communicate your findings
This is a crucial part of the scientific process! It is the part where the results of all your hard work can make a difference. This may be a difference in the choices a few citizens make each day to help the sea or a new bill on the Senate floor that changes the way our whole state helps the whales. Click on the button above to return to the Real Process of Science website’s online tool for students to build the story of their scientific process.
Photo courtesy of Garth Lenz
Click the button below to go to the Box folder of all the documents for this unit in one place.
Ideas for improvement? Share ideas and resources with our Education Coordinator, Mira, at mdlutz@ucdavis.edu.