What is a watershed?
Rain falling to the earth soaks in the ground or moves to streams.  As the streams develop channels, land areas are defined.  A watershed is the land that drains into the flowing (lotic) streams and the stable (lentic) lakes.

"Puzzled" by Watersheds...
Try the "Build-a-Stream" Activity

Concepts: watershed, pollution, interconnectivity

Preparation: On paper or poster board, draw equal-sized squares with a section of a connecting waterway on each square. Draw arrows in the waterway to indicate direction of water flow. Write sequential letters in the corner of each block (see example above). Cut apart the laminate squares.

Directions: Give small groups of students one square. Tell them you would like their help in developing the land. Give them examples of things they could place on their squares, i.e. playground, shopping areas, industry, piers, bridges. Allow 10 minutes for the students to design their land "parcel." Remind them if they want to include vegetation, they will need to put it on their drawing. As the drawing session concludes, ask each group to share their land parcel with the entire group. As each group finishes its presentation, take the squares and reconstruct the original waterway. Once the stream is recreated, generate discussion on the possible impact of the different choices and decisions concerning land or watershed use on the waterway.

How Buggy Can You Be...
Try the Imitation Stream Activity

Concepts: fresh water, insects, insecto life stages, diversity, food chain, habitat, watershed, stream monitoring. Your students will enjoy becoming familiar with stream macroinvertebrates and classifying the stream's water quality using this organisms as indicators.

Preparation:Photocopy and laminate pictures of macroinvertebrates. Cut out each "critter" and tape or velcro to the back of rocks such as the way the macroinvertebrates would be found in the real stream. Mark a trail outside, preferably downhill with three sites with six or seven pre-labeled rocks. Develop a tally sheet for pollution tolerance.

Directions: Students walk down the imitation stream, lifting the rocks, and determining the identity of each of the organisms under the rocks at each of the three sites. They should mark the number and type of each species found on a tally sheet. Points are assigned on the basis of the pollution tolerance of each species. On the basis of the tally sheet, determine the quality of the stream based on the number of macroinvertebrates that exist that are intolerant of heavily polluted streams. Once the activity is complete, generate discussion concerning the impact different water quality has on the food chain, stream health, and types of acquatic life that can exist in the stream.