RiverLink

Lesson Plans for Middle School Grades 6-8

Natural Disasters
AfterMath pg. 289

By calculating economic loss that results from flooding in a specific area, students investigate how people are affected by floods and other weather events.

• Duration: prep time=30 minutes/ activity time=50 minutes
• Setting: classroom
  

Water as a Shared Resource
    Common Water pg. 232

Students analyze the results of a simulation to understand that water is a shared resource and is managed. 

• Duration: prep time=50 minutes/ activity time: 50 minutes
• Setting: Outdoors or an area with non-slippery floors such as cement (may involve large quantities of spilled water).

 Watersheds
Branching Out! pg. 129

Students build a model landscape to investigate how water flows through and connects watersheds.

• Duration: prep time=50 minutes/ activity time=two 50 minute periods
• Setting: classroom

Groundwater
The Pucker Effect pg. 338

Students observe how ground water transports pollutants, and simulate ground water testing to discover the source of contamination. 

• Duration: prep time=90 minutes/ activity time=two 50 minute periods
• Setting: classroom

 Human Roles and Interactions
Rivers: Lifelines of the Land

This lesson introduces students to river ecology and addresses the societal and environmental impacts associated with dams and their construction.  By understanding dams and their effects on the environment, students will propose the construction or abolition of a dam in their hometown or other geographic area.  They will think objectively and critically about real issues affecting the future of rivers (Source: National Geographic). 

• Duration: activity time=2-3 hours
• Setting: classroom

 Water Conservation
Every Drop Counts pg. 307 (6PthP Grade)

Students identify and implement water conservation habits to learn how this essential resource can be shared with other water users of today and tomorrow. 

• Setting: Classroom and home
• Duration: prep time=50 minutes/ activity time: one week

 Water Resource Careers
Wet-Work Shuffle pg.360

Students learn about different water resource occupations and place them in a sequence-from water’s source, to its delivery into homes, to its return to the source.

• Setting: Classroom
• Duration: prep time=30 minutes/ activity time=50 minutes

Public Process
Whose Problem Is It? pg. 429

Students analyze the scope and duration of a variety of water related issues to understand the relationship between local and global issues.

• Setting: classroom
• Duration: prep time=20 minutes/ activity time=50 minutes

 Activism/Community Awareness
Water Actions pg. 12

Investigating, analyzing and participating in projects that address water resource issues give students a sense of accomplishment and provide motivation to help manage and protect water.

• Setting: classroom and community
• Duration: prep time=varies/ activity time=varies