Science - Earth Systems

• Jordan River field trip: Water Quality (part 3 of 4)
  The goal of this lesson is for students to understand basic abiotic and biotic indicators of water quality. Students will measure water quality variables and collect aquatic insects in order to assess the “quality” of different sources of water. Students will compare and contrast relative quality of water from different sources and discuss possible causes of watershed impairment.
• Missing Macroinvertebrates - Stream Side Science
  In this exercise, students will collect macroinvertebrates from a stream site, sort and identify them, and use their findings to identify current and past impacts to the quality of the water. They will also make predictions of how the impacts to the water quality contributed to the localized extinction of some types of macroinvertebrates.
• TGLL Environmental Systems- Concept Mapping
  

  This lesson provides students with a high level conceptual problem using a box and arrow diagraph that directly makes them address issues of feedback (negative and positive), inter-correlated variables and responses, temporal variation, spatial variation, and experimental design. It is meant for high school upperclassmen in the related Earth Sciences. The problem is centered around how air pollution affects snow pack, which would be measured through testing runoff in a stream.

  Objectives

  1. Make objective observations about different plant communities along transect.
  2. Make predictions and inferences based on previous knowledge of ecology.
  3. Explain observations using scientific terminology.
  4. Make predictions about changes in plant communities based on different global climate change
• Water Management - Stream Side Science
  In this exercise, students will be assigned roles as community members, develop questions and positions, and participate in a mock “community meeting” to discuss the development of a water use plan that addresses water shortages, distribution, and water quality.
• When Things Heat Up - Stream Side Science
  In this exercise, students will measure the temperature and dissolved oxygen of a stream (or use their findings from the activity What's in the Water?) and discuss what this information can tell us about possible pollution problems.
• Where's the Water? - Stream Side Science
  Students will use 10 liters (approximately 2.5 gallons) of water to represent all the water on the earth. They will be given the percentage for each water source in relation to the total amount, and asked to divide the 10 liters of water to demonstrate this.

• Virtual Pond Dip
  Discover what lives in a drop of pond water by exploring A Virtual Pond Dip.