Playdough watershed pollution
- Lesson Plan
- Powerpoint
- Video
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Description:
What happens in a watershed stays in a watershed- that’s right we all live downstream. Students learn about some unique plants and animals of the Great Basin and how pollution in a watershed can affect their survival. This lesson comes after the Playdough Landforms and Playdough Watershed activities.
Time:
30 minutes
Grade Level:
1, 2, 3
Next Generation Science Standards:
Utah Core Standards:
1.4.2
Living things change and depend upon their environment to satisfy their basic needs.
2.2.1
Classify living and nonliving things in an environment.
2.4.1
Develop, communicate, and justify an explanation as to why a habitat is or is not suitable for a specific organism.
2.4.2
Identify basic needs of living things (plants and animals) and their abilities to meet their needs.
Materials you will need
- Previously made play-dough watershed models that have dried from Playdough Watershed activity.
- 4 spray bottles
- Rainbow sugar sprinkles
Do ahead
- Have a few teaspoons of sprinkles ready in containers for each student group.
Pre-activity Background Information
- Remind students about their Great Basin watersheds (the model they made, and the one they live in).
- Ask students to name some special plants and animals that live in this ecosystem and watershed.
- Share with students the PowerPoint through slide #3, showing them the 3 pictures of different types of pollution. Ask what the students notice about each picture. Do not comment on the student’s answers.
- Then show the 3 pictures all side by side. Ask the students what the pictures have in common. When someone brings up pollution or litter, ask “can someone explain what that word means?”
- Pollution- when gases, smoke, chemicals, or trash are introduced into the environment in large doses that makes it harmful for humans, animals, and plants.
- Littering- throwing your garbage somewhere instead of putting it in a trash can.
- Ask students to think about how pollution may move through a watershed and how pollution may affect plants and animals in a watershed. Tell them, we will now use our models from the last activity to find out!
Activity Directions
- Place students back into their groups from the previous lessons.
- Give each student their dry models from the previous activity (Great Basin Watershed).
- Place the sprinkles and a spray bottle with water at each group.
- Tell students to put 5 rainbow sprinkles at the top of their previously flattened mountain. Ask students what these sprinkles can represent? Pollution! What kind of pollution could the sprinkles represent? (Litter, plastic pollution, chemical pollution, soil pollution, air pollution, etc.)
- Explain that they will add more rain to their models by misting the models. Have students Think-Pair-Share what they predict will happen to their models when the water rains on the pollution.
- Have students take turns adding precipitation to their models by misting their model.
- Students should see the sprinkles dissolve and the color spread with the water into the watershed.
- Discusses how the pollution from the mountain travels to affects the landforms, specifically the rivers and lakes.
- The pollution from the mountain was carried through rivers and streams into the lakes.
- Could it also be in the soil? Can it affect the animals and plants in the rivers and lakes, and also on land?
- Use the rest of the PowerPoint slides #5-12 to learn about plants and animals in the Great Basin ecosystem. Use the notes to discuss a few pollution scenarios for the plants and animals.
- End with a few ideas of how students can help reduce pollution in their cities.
- Pick up litter and throw it away or recycle it.
- Reduce, reuse, and recycle as often as you can.
- Be careful what you pour on the grass or in your yard.
- Turn off lights when they are not needed and walk or ride a bicycle instead of taking a car, electricity, and cars cause air pollution.
| Attachment | Size |
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 GBO Printable Version | 125.31 KB |
Slide notes:
Slides 1-5: No notes
6. This tree is found high up in the mountains in the Great Basin. They need lots of sun to grow and can grow in very rocky soil. The bristlecone pine is the oldest living tree on earth. They can be up to 5,000 years old. What if pollution started at the top of the watershed? What might happen if this tree?
7. Big horn sheep prefer high elevation without many plants so they can see predators coming. They can live on steep ledges on a mountain because their split hooves allow them to have good balance and grip. Bighorn Sheep usually eat grasses, shrubs, and other small plants. How would pollution in the watershed affect the big horn? What might happen if sheep drank polluted water? What if it ate someone's litter?
8. Sagebrush dominates the Great Basin desert by covering almost half of the land. It can be found at lower to mid-elevations (down at the bottom or middle of a mountain). Many animals need sagebrush to survive. Have you ever seen this plant before? Sagebrush can be affected by litter or pollution left just near it, or from polluted rainwater washed down from higher up to the basin where it lives. What might happen to the sagebrush if a big storm filled the area with polluted water?
9. The Black-tailed Jack Rabbit needs an ecosystem with sagebrush. They use it for shelter and food. They have long ears to help them stay cool in the hot desert and long legs to help them run away from predators like coyotes, owls, snakes. What might happen to this rabbit if all the sagebrush was dead from pollution so it couldn’t eat it?
10. This lizard likes to bask in the sun to warm up and retreats to a warm burrow at night. The Great Basin gets very cold in the winter, so these reptiles go into hibernation. They mostly eat ants or other small insects. The horned lizard has strong armor to protect it from its enemies. It has pointed scales, as well as horns behind its head. What would happen if this lizard was drinking out of a creek with bad chemicals in it?
11. Sage grouse rely on sagebrush to survive. They eat it for nutrients and use sagebrush clearings for mating dances. This bird inflates its chest which makes a unique sound to attract females. (You may want to watch a video of their mating dance for a good chuckle). What might happen if a sage grouse was looking for food and it accidentally ate a piece of litter that someone left behind?
This is not to show to your class, it is a good background video to watch as a teacher before doing the activity.