Stream ecosystems and human impact

This is going to be a blog that is more about personal thoughts and organizing ideas that I have come across on the web for lesson planning in my high school Earth science course. I figure that this can be a better way to keep track of internet resources that I come across as I can provide some meta data and thoughts on the sites as I come across them. Since I'm doing this mostly for myself, there is going to be quite a bit of stream-of-consciousness in the writing.

I'm going to start with an inquiry based lesson that I came across on stream health. This was posted at: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/mudcreek/contents

This lesson starts off with a think-pair-share engagement activity involving the identification of two pictures per groups of a natural stream and an urban stream. This would be a good warm-up as it gets the students thinking about what they can look for in each type of stream, leading into the next activity.

For exploration the students are to get some background on a stream including mapping and nearby construction. They will then be taken to the field and allowed to observe and fill out an observation sheet. I like this portion quite a bit because the observation is structured, but open-ended (in the sense that the students write only what they observe no matter how detailed). There is a decent amount of differentiated learning that goes on with this type of activity, while still providing some amount of scaffolding and guidance so that the students are not just lost and confused. It actually reminds me quite a bit of some of my college-level ecology courses.

This is also a good lesson on general science. A scientist needs to be a keen observer of their surroundings, both in developing questions (building a problem and hypothesis) and collecting their data.

I'd expect this portion to take the rest of a block (90 min) class period to complete. By the time that the warm-up is completed and discussed along with providing instructions, getting to the creek, carrying out the activity, and getting back the period should be about over.

I'd likely work the explanation portion into the next day. I'd want the students to spend some time before class developing questions and considering possible reasons for their findings. The lesson provides information and images that I could use to help them along. I would want their to be a fair amount of group discussion in developing an explanation. I'd add a portion where each student provides the explanation in their own words to turn in.

The creators of the lesson provided some optional elaboration exercises.

The first elaboration exercise involved the physical description of the stream - including habitat diversity, shapes, and substrates. It provides sample data to either do this in class or methods to do this in the field.

The second elaboration looks at chemical indicators such as pH, DO, TDS, and turbidity. Again, it provides sample data and field methods.

The third elaboration looks at biological indicator species. It uses a dichotomous key to either identify invertebrates from photos or in the field.

My concern with these elaboration exercises are that they require a background that a typical 9th grader does not have. They have likely little experience with biology, chemistry, or ecology. These activities would therefore require quite a bit of time to introduce and analyze. They may also not line up too well with the NCSCOS for Earth science. On the other hand, these are excellent opportunities to excel for a more advanced or motivated student. They could also be used as follow-up activities in Honors ENS, biology, or chem.

Come to think of it, it would be pretty neat to tie all of the courses together and have all science students evaluate stream health. They could build a bit more of their knowledge of stream ecology each year.

For the evaluation portion of this lesson, there are a number of "essential" questions that go into the assessment for this lesson. I touched on some of this a bit in the explanation portion. There are some group work and writing opportunities here to follow up with this lesson.

These last two notes are important to bring up to students.

Connecting to real life: Our actions have clear consequences on stream health (the ability for a stream to support life). Apart from the wildlife and natural aspect of the issue, NC streams feed our reservoirs. Poor stream health leads to poor quality drinking water.

Potential jobs: There are jobs that work in stream remediation. Environmental engineers, park rangers, people working in construction, etc. should all be familiar with this type of study.

Overall this looks like a lesson that I would want to use. Based on the aerials of my high school, there are a few ponds nearby. Around here you don't have a pond without a stream.