RiverWeb WQS Lesson Plans

This RiverWeb WQS module is a multi-disciplinary unit that allows students to utilize a variety of tools to investigate the interaction of variables within a watershed. The module, when used in its entirety, could take up to 4 weeks. The module consists of the following parts.

Graphs

Practice with time series graphs and scatter plots to provide the necessary skills and strategies to use when interpreting graphs.

• Generic Graph Questions
• Scatter plots

Water

Understanding the properties of water offers a variety of "wet" labs to investigate water quality concepts.

• Explore properties
• STELLA pan water cycle
• Water quality testing GLOBE

RiverWeb

The RiverWeb WQS Jigsaw has four parts.

• Pre-Lab Activity - Further exploration of water quality using RiverWeb terminology.
• RiverWeb Tour - A step-by step introduction to the tools used in RiverWeb. This will take at least 30 minutes.
• Jigsaw - Students will investigate how land use affects the quality of water within a watershed. They will use time series graphs and scatter plots to explore relationships between variables a land use as well as within a watershed. Students will first be grouped according to land use, then by a specific water quality indicator, then finally re-grouped into their original land use. The end result is a concept map displaying the relationships between land-use and water quality.
• Teacher Guide
• Student Activity
• Jigsaw Charts
• Assessments - There are two types of assessments: a formative assessment in the form of a water cycle CLOZE activity, and a summative assessment containing both multiple choice questions and brief constructed responses. This may be used as a pretest, posttest or both.
• Water Cycle Concept Map - CLOZE
• Test
• Rubric