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How do we define clean water? How clean does water have to be to drink? To swim in?

How does the Platte get polluted?

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Taking action in India

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Wetlands are not just soggy land unsuitable for farming. They are valuable ecosystems in their own right. They also purify water before it reaches the sea, which is of enormous importance for marine life, fishermen and aquaculturalists. Draining wetlands can have a devastating impact.

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Loss of wildlife habitat and repercussions

Ducks unlimited video about loss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFGMoFIjKRM (2:22, The importance of wetlands as a habitat and an ecosystem. Who relies on wetlands? What actions can be taken to restore and protect wetlands?)

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Kid friendly  (2 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WlmGyN9VXs

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Designed wetlands

Cool edutopia video for ideas for teachers (8 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY_eHUnoS6A&t=53s

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Understanding the effect of the world’s availability to potable water has on the human population.  Determine if water is a renewable or non-renewable resource.

Examine the causes of water pollution, the scarcity of water, and the commercialization of this natural resource and explains the effect(s)these causes have on the human population.

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How might the quality of water be controlled with human actions and preserved for future use ?

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How do wetlands response to more pollution due to increasing human impacts? Is there a breaking point? 

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How do wetlands response to more pollution due to increasing human impacts? Is there a breaking point? 

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Can the purification of water be measured below the wetlands?

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Can the purification of water be measured below the wetlands?

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I think the Dr. Rust led me to a great PBL! How do forest fires affect river quality?

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I think the Dr. Rust led me to a great PBL! How do forest fires affect river quality?

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Since we are having a big problem in my area because of industrial waste pollution, a possible PBL will be: How can industrial waste be turned into a useful resource if is a non hazardous waste? And if it is, how can it be properly disposed off instead of being dumped into rivers that are killing fish and aquatic life in general?

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Since we are having a big problem in my area because of industrial waste pollution, a possible PBL will be: How can industrial waste be turned into a useful resource if is a non hazardous waste? And if it is, how can it be properly disposed off instead of being dumped into rivers that are killing fish and aquatic life in general?

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How does the pollution of our local sewer system affect our neighborhoods during heavy rain storms?

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How does the pollution of our local sewer system affect our neighborhoods during heavy rain storms?

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2018 Summer Institute, Day 3: Water Pollution & RemediationWednesday, June 6, 2018 Survey

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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On 4th grade Colorado Academic Standars, there is a standard about the interaction and interdependence between and among living and nonliving components of ecosystems.
B
How does human made nonliving components (trash) affect the ecosystem of living organisms along the Platte river?

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South Platte Water Renewal Partners Community Open House 

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South Platte Water Renewal Partners Community Open House 

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Wednesday, June 6, 3-7:00 p.m. 2900 S. Platte River Drive, Englewood
Community Members are invited to attend a Community Open House at the South Platte Water Renewal Partners facility on Wednesday, June 6 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. located at 2900 S. Platte River Drive in Englewood. This is an opportunity to learn about the water renewal process and how we can all be stewards of the South Platte River watershed.
The Open House will include educational stations, children’s activities, special guests (Denver Zoo), tours, demonstrations, “touch-a-truck” station, food, and more! The event is free and open to the public. Limited parking is also available. Hog dogs, chips, and lemonade will be served. Guided bus tours of the facility will be provided. To register, please go to Signup Genius or register at the event. Learn more about the event at www.spwaterrenewalpartners.org.

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USGS infographic that illustrates how scarce available freshwater is (only 1.2% of all water on our planet)!

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The distribution of water on, in, and above the Earth

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The World’s Water - Distribution of Earth’s WaterThe Earth is a watery place. But just how much water exists on, in, and above our planet? About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your dog.This bar chart shows how almost all of Earth’s water is saline and is found in the oceans. Of the small amount that is actually freshwater, only a relatively small portion is available to sustain human, plant, and animal life.In the first bar, notice how only 2.5% of Earth’s water is freshwater - the amount needed for life to survive.The middle bar shows the breakdown of freshwater. Almost all of it is locked up in ice and in the ground. Only a little more than 1.2% of all freshwater is surface water, which serves most of life’s needs.The right bar shows the breakdown of surface freshwater. Most of this water is locked up in ice, and another 20.9% is found in lakes. Rivers make up 0.49% of surface freshwater. Although rivers account for only a small amount of freshwater, this is where humans get a large portion of their water from.► Find out more about Earth’s water:How Much Water is There on Earth?Where is Earth’s Water?The Water Cycle for Schools and KidsThe Fundamentals of the Water Cycle► More photos about Earth’s water:All of Earth’s Water in a single sphere!

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Activity: Can You Spare a Drop? Measuring Fresh Water

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Activity: Can You Spare a Drop? Measuring Fresh Water

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Students remove measured amounts of water from a five-gallon bucket, simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth.

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Summary: Students remove measured amounts of water from a five-gallon bucket, simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth.
You Need:

50 minutes

5-gallon bucket

2-cup transparent measuring cup

1-cup transparent measuring cup

1 eyedropper

Download:

Procedure

Advance Preparation

Before class starts, fill the 5-gallon bucket with water. Have the other materials nearby in a place where the whole class can observe.

Note: Be sure to wipe water off the floor if spills occur during this activity.

Part 1

Explain to students that the water in the 5-gallon bucket represents all the water on Earth. Ask them to name the kinds of water that exist in, on or around Earth. They should be able to name rivers, lakes, oceans, clouds or water vapor, ice caps, groundwater, water held in soil, and water held in plants and animals. Provide hints so that all types of water are mentioned.

Ask two students to come up and help with the demonstration. Ask one of them to remove two cups of water from the bucket, using a measuring cup. Have the student hold that amount so everyone in the class can see it.

What does the water in the cup represent?

What does the water in the bucket represent?
Saltwater. Explain that the saltwater is not usable by humans because drinking it would make us very sick.

Move the bucket aside. Ask the first student to pour 1/2 cup of water into the one-cup measurer held by the other student.

What does the 1-1/2 cups still left in the two-cup measurer represent?
Polar ice caps. Explain that this water is unavailable for our use because it is frozen.

Set this cup aside. The first student can return to his or her seat.

Ask the class what the 1/2 cup of water represents.
Groundwater, surface water (e.g. lakes, rivers, wetlands), and water vapor in the atmosphere.

Have the class guess how much water should be removed from the cup to represent only the surface water on Earth. After a few guesses, pull out the eyedropper from your pocket and draw some water into it. Place one drop of water into the hand of a few students. Explain that one drop of water out of a whole 5-gallon bucket represents the water that is available to us and other animals for drinking.

Allow the class to think about this for a minute.

Then explain to them that the total amount of water on the planet is not going to change. Even though water moves around on the planet and changes from one kind to another, we will never have any more than we have right now.

Part 2 - Discuss the Results

Spend some time discussing the activity with the class. The following questions are a good place to start:

Were you surprised at how little water is available for human use?

Would you call water a scarce or abundant resource? Why?

What do we need/use water for?

Why can't we drink saltwater?

The number of people who need to use Earth's freshwater keeps increasing. If the amount of freshwater cannot change, but there are more people who need it, what does that mean? What might happen?

Can people and animals live without clean freshwater?

What is the main cause of the increased demand for freshwater?

Ask students to think about the term water quality. Find out from them what they think it means. If they get stuck, have them think about it in terms of low water quality or high water quality: would they want to drink, wash, swim or cook with low quality water or high quality water? Have them come up with as many descriptions as they can for what might be low quality and high quality water.

Source
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences - Adapted with permission from the Girls in Science Program. Original source content: Hands On Save Our Streams - The Save Our Streams Teacher's Manual, Chapter One, Watersheds, Water Water Everywhere and Not A Drop to Spare, Water Supply Activity, The Izaak Walton League of America.

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Activity: Can You Spare a Drop? Measuring Fresh Water

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Summary: Students remove measured amounts of water from a five-gallon bucket, simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth. You Need: 50 minutes 5-gallon bucket 2-cup transparent measuring cup 1-cup transparent measuring cup 1 eyedropper Download: Before class starts, fill the 5-gallon bucket with water.

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I think it wold be fun to do the outside activity with my focal student because he loves being outside and coloring. He can move around and I can add a scavenger hunt for him to move around and find the plants.

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http://www.englewoodco.gov/Home/Components/News/News/5040/21?backlist=%2F

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Can start at 1:34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v09KnqiYi-c

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https://sciencing.com/acid-rain-affect-buildings-statues-22062.html

https://www.nps.gov/nama/blogs/acid-rains-slow-dissolve.htm

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/acid-rain-and-our-ecosystem-20824120/

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Ideas from group: Use cooking oil for car/boat pollution; pH strips (or probes) to watch pH change with pollution addition; "Clean-up": How will you dispose of final container? Could you engineer a water filter or design a system to clean up the water?

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Who Polluted the Platte/Potomac Supply List and Activity Guide

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Who Polluted the Platte/Potomac Supply List and Activity Guide

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This activity was adapted from a PBS Kids activity

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I have several populations. I have my G/T kids and I have my STEM/Shop classes. These are more heterogeneous groups and includes low performing kids with a less than positive attitude toward schoo. Yesterday we saw a number of items that Dimitri created in his shop. It occurs to me that I can have these students design and build instruments and apparatus in my class. If these are then used for authentic demonstrations or data gathering in the science class and the students can have the experience of having the artifacts they create used for real science.

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Marsh/wetland

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Visual day today

Great application of vocabulary in learning, while learning.

Drawing, observation, touch and tear apart the wetland plant pieces.

Field guide is readable

PSA team work, accountability, conversation. Turn and talks, share outs.

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Today's activity in the constructed wetland was a terrific application of vocabulary in the real world. It was also a great opportunity to apply the observation portion of the scientific method, which can be particularly beneficial for students who might struggle with reading and writing in a more traditional classroom setting. Also provides a brain break for elementary students, which is something my focal students definitely benefit from.

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Today's morning activity would be amazing for all my students including my focal students. It is hands on and gets students moving. It is very visual so instead of just talking about how humans cause pollution, my ELL student will see a visual of what happens to the water after pollution. I am excited to adapt this to Kindergarten and use this activity to hit the standard about how humans impact the environment.

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landscaper, botanist, preservationist

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David Sobel wrote a book on this focused on elementary school students. https://www.heinemann.com/products/e00042.aspx
He also wrote a book on PBL.

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Received a BA from Williams College and an MEd from Antioch University New England. He was co-founder of the Harrisville Children's Center in Harrisville, New Hampshire, and has served as a publicly elected school board member in both Nelson and Harrisville, New Hampshire. He has served as a staff development and science curriculum consultant to schools in New Hampshire and Vermont and has been a guest speaker and workshop leader for a variety of school and environmental organizations. He serves on the editorial board of the Holistic Education Review and is the author of Children's Special Places and many articles on children and nature. He is currently at work on two books on developmental psychology and ecoliteracy.

Academic achievement is important, but the sole function of a school shouldn't be to turn out good test-takers. Schools should also be developing the skills of civic participation, and students should be exploring their communities and helping to make them better, healthier places to live. If it's only academics, you diminish the virtue and potential that school can achieve.

View David's presentation at AUNE's Spring Speaker Series event, "Not Your Father's School", a discussion on innovation in New Hampshire education:

Educational History

MEd, Antioch University New England

BA, English, Williams College

Publications

Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years.
The current crisis in geography education has spawned several new books on mapmaking, many of which advocate either recitation and drill or a conceptual top-down model that ignores children's interests. Maintaining that there is no substitute for hands-on experience, David Sobel places the initial emphasis on local projects-projects that begin in students' own backyards and communities, projects that provide a sense of place. His book identifies each stage of development, presenting relevant theoretical issues and several appropriate projects. In the beginning, students stay close to home, mapping their known world. Gradually, they move on to their neighborhood, developing a sense of place, scope, and perspective. Eventually, once students are older, they explore the nation, the world, even the solar system, creating raised relief maps and contour maps to develop visual literacy and spatial reasoning skills.

Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education Beyond.
Ecophobia speaks to teachers, parents, and others interested in nurturing in children the ability to understand and care deeply for nature from an early age. This expanded version of one of Orion's most popular articles includes descriptions of developmentally appropriate environmental education activities and a list of related children's books.

Know nukes : controversy in the classroom.
Classroom activities are presented to help teachers introduce general controversial issues and specific issues on nuclear power in their high school science, social studies, and English classes. Objectives are to help students understand the various techniques of persuasion; the relationship between bias, persuasion, and fact; how these techniques can serve as foundations for critical thinking; and their own assumptions regarding what is true about nuclear energy. Lessons provide clear directions and are presented in a format that includes worksheets, quizzes, and illustrations.

(LH)Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms & Communities.
The most comprehensive review of place-based education ; its pedagogy and its practice ; yet to appear, by the author of the highly influential book Beyond Ecophobia. Through academic research, practical examples, and step-by-step strategies drawn from classrooms throughout the United States, Sobel celebrates teachers who emphasize the connection of school, community, and environment. Place-Based Education uses the local community and environment as the starting place for curriculum learning, strengthening community bonds, appreciation for the natural world, and a commitment to citizen engagement.

Children's Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood
An examination of the secret world of children that shows how important special places are to a child's development.From the ages of five to twelve, the middle years of childhood, young people explore their surroundings and find or construct private spaces. In these secret places, children develop and control environments of their own and enjoy freedom from the rules of the adult world. Children's Special Places enters these hidden worlds, reveals their importance to children's development and emotional health, and shows educators, parents, and other adults how they can foster a bond between young people and nature that is important to maturation.

Childhood and Nature
Public discussions of global climate change and other threats to the planet are making children more aware of environmental issues. As increasing numbers of kids come to school wishing to take action, educators want to know how to teach in a way that fosters a love of nature and an understanding of the complexity and seriousness of these issues.

In Childhood and Nature, noted educator David Sobel makes the case that meaningful connections with the natural world don't begin in the rainforest or arctic, but in our own backyards and communities. Based on his observations of recurrent play themes around the world, Sobel articulates seven design principles that can guide teachers in structuring learning experiences for children. Place-based education projects that make effective use of the principles are detailed throughout the book. And while engaged in these projects, students learn language arts, math, science, social studies, as well as essential problem-solving and social skills through involvement with nature and their communities.

The pressures of test preparation, standards, and curriculum frameworks often reduce the study of nature and the environment to a set of facts and general concepts. However, as Childhood and Nature demonstrates, linking curriculum with an engagement in the real world not only provides students with the thinking skills needed for whatever test comes their way, but also helps them grow into responsible citizens and stewards of the earth.

Professional Affiliations

Grand Challenge 3: Cutting Edge STEM Content in K-12 Classrooms, University of New Hampshire NSF project Advisory Board, 2007.

Doctoral Committee for Science Education Doctoral student at University of New Hampshire, 2006-present.

Ashuelot Valley Ecological Observatory, Keene, NH, Board of Directors, 2006-present.

Place-based Education Initiative in Michigan Advisory Board, Great Lakes Fisheries Trust, Lansing, Michigan, 2006 to present.

Four Corners Outdoor Education Center, NSF project Advisory Board, 2003-present.

Academic Focus

Developmentally appropriate environmental education, place-based education, inquiry science, mapmaking with children, cognitive development and developmental theory, school improvement, children and nature, and parenting with nature.

Presentations

December 08, Professional Development and Design Charette, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina.

November 08, Orchard School Annual Meeting Talk, Alstead, New Hampshire.

November 08, Internship Supervision and Middle School Faculty Workshops, Wheeler School, Providence, Rhode Island.

November 08, Prof. Devel Workshop, Childhood and Nature Design Principles, Mass Audubon educational staff, Lincoln, Massachusetts.

November 08, Children and Nature Research Symposium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

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Received a BA from Williams College and an MEd from Antioch University New England. He was co-founder of the Harrisville Children's Center in Harrisville, New Hampshire, and has served as a publicly elected school board member in both Nelson and Harrisville, New Hampshire.

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Water pollution, decide how to clean, etc.

ADi (argument driven inquiry) on a question, on a focus. To help push that design towards logical reasoning.

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Student E and A would need specific vocabulary taught with pictures. For the activity of water pollution they would be able to understand that the water is polluted but they may struggle to apply it to their everyday.   They would need to have a questions individually or as partners to draw out their understanding.  It seems like the heavy vocabulary that would need to be frontloaded that these would activities would need to take place over time.
Drawing would appeal to E as she is a perfectionist but very visual. A. might need to take photographs or find photographs to match the vocab.

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My focal students loves art so the wetlands assignment would fit in well.  I could get my focal student to draw but he would struggle to correctly identify the plants in a large manual. I thought about having a list of plants in the location ahead of time. Students could draw the pictures and then use their field guide to look up the list of pants that I provided to see if it is a match. This would help them find success a bit easier then just expecting them to go through the book themselves with no guidance.

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I feel like I"m saying the same thing about my focal students each day - but for today I think the Platte River activity was great, and would be fun to do in class. For students that are more quiet and/or struggle with listening, I would give all students copies of the story and have them read along. I might have students switch off reading so they all need to be actively engaged. For students that are more advance, I might ask them to write their own story, and/or create a way to make a filter to clean the water. I'd have students illustrate a cartoon or story that like to draw

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Using the Next Gen standards HS-ESS2-5 Students will plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes. I us today activities to have my students conduct research on one of the tribal lakes. Students would draw a map of their site input the latitude and longitude  into the GLOBE protocol.
By working with GLOBE I could use cross-teaching (math and art) in the lessons.

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environmental engineer, natural resource managers and technicians, environmental educators, bird/wildlife advocates, policymakers, city planning

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environmental engineer, natural resource managers and technicians, environmental educators, bird/wildlife advocates, policymakers, city planning

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This fieldwork lesson would be a significant activity to follow a lesson I am going to incorporate next year. This is a great way for my low level readers to express concepts.

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Scientific sketching isn't about making a pretty picture! It's about looking at something so closely you notice something new.

About This Guide

Below, you'll find guidance related to using scientific sketching for observation, including:

Using sketching to capture changes over time, details, and for meaning making

Tips on how to get students sketching in the classroom

An example story from a real classroom

Because we know teachers appreciate seeing the results of using these strategies, we've also created an example gallery containing student work.

Opportunities for Sketching for Observation

After you've done an Introduction to Sketching activity, and maybe a few Sketching Exercises, your students are ready to put their skills to work. There are many ways for sketching to help students figure something out during an investigation. Sketching is data collection, just in picture form.

Sketching over time
Sketching the same thing over the course of several days or weeks will create a useful record for analysis. A few examples:

Seeds germinating and growing into a plant

Decomposition in action (e.g. an apple core)

Animals that metamorphose or go through discrete life stages (e.g. mealworms into beetles)

Shadows changing over the course of a day

Terrariums growing and changing over time

An experimental design that changes over time so that students have a record of specific changes, e.g. water level in differently-sized containers after 1, 2, and 3 days of evaporation.

Sketching for detail
Sketching requires close attention and helps students see things they might otherwise miss. Use detail sketching when the details are actually helpful for understanding a science concept. A few examples:

Sketch an animal (e.g. crayfish) to pay attention to all of its different and specialized body parts, as part of a lesson on adaptations.

Sketch a rock to pay attention to its colors and texture in order to identify its component minerals.

Place two objects side by side to notice specific differences, like leaves from different trees or two lemons, in order to study genetic variation.

Sketch specific tools you will use over and over in a series of investigations to pay attention to all of its specific parts and how they work, (plunger, battery holder, alligator clips, scales, etc).

Sketching and meaning making
Create space for students to describe their observations, questions and explanations, alongside their sketch.

Use a scaffold with space for explicit sketching and short answer thinking.

The sketching space helps guide students to targeted observations of the materials.

The open-ended nature of the questions can make more of your students' thinking visible on paper.

How to Make it Happen

Make sure to give students a foundation in scientific sketching before you expect them to sketch during a science investigation.

Remind students that scientific sketching is not about making a pretty picture. It's about recording accurate information.

Depending on what you are asking them to sketch, offer students a starting point or technique that will help them approach the particular item. Find some suggestions on our sketching exercises page.

When appropriate, give them graphic organizers like this one.

Notes from the Classroom

Anoushka led her third graders through a decomposition investigation. They observed pieces of pumpkin, apple, bread, tin foil, burrito, and paper plate over the course of eight weeks. She gave her students graphic organizers to record their observations. They used a separate page for each item. The page included eight squares for sketching the item each week. It also included a space for them to record their initial observations and predictions.

When it came time to write final observations and conclusions, students could compare one item across eight weeks, or one moment in time across all the items. They wrote comments like, "I wonder if the holes in the foil were caused by microorganisms," or: "I noticed that the pumpkin's sprout is growing."

Use science notebooks to make your classroom experiments both hands-on and minds-on.

Tips for integrating academic conversations into science time.

The science notebook is a useful tool for both data stages: collection and analysis.

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Join today for fun fall events and free Eclipse Shades. Use promo code ECLIPSE23.

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Scientific sketching is about looking at something so closely you notice something new.

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Si

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Removing dissolved metals using a wetland

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Removing dissolved metals using a wetland

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Design a wetland, including specific plants and flow control, to study the ability of the wetland to remove metals by measuring the metal concentration after certain times.

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A focal student in mind would enjoy the drawing aspect of the wetlands activity. She enjoys drawing and it brings her comfort. At times it is difficult to get her to talk because she is a bit shy. Allowing her to draw her findings would make class engaging for her.

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I would love to do a huge PBL project on water to incorporate ALL of the things I have learned here! I think the water pollution problem could be associated to any river close to your community to incorporate the "Who polluted the Potomac?" activity. I loved it. Then when you have the nasty water sitting in front of the classroom pose the question... How do you clean it now? This could lead in so many different directions.

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Architect, civil engineer

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What are important factors needed in order for plant and fish species to survive and live well in a body of water? What happensto plants and animal when pollutants are introduced to those bodies of water

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What are important factors needed in order for plant and fish species to survive and live well in a body of water? What happensto plants and animal when pollutants are introduced to those bodies of water

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I am thinking about not just one student, but my entire  1st period class. They are pretty bright students who at times think they have the answer to everything. This lesson could put them to the test of working with others and coming up with a plan . By giving them a problem  and watching them work in teams to complete their projects, would be truly a award for them, because of the different altitudes that is involved in their research.

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Focal student 1 and 2 would really benefit from the all of the hands on work we did today.  Specifically the drawing aspect so these students who typically struggle with the writing component can visually show their knowledge.
Focal student 3 would struggle with the water pollution portion of the day. I envision a lot of chiming in and shouting out that would eliminate others think time. To accommodate for this, I think it would be a good idea to give them the task of handing out the materials and even recording the data and findings that the class observes.

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My focal students could do the outside activity on their own and I know they love art to this is right up their alley.  Fresh air and art yeah!

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My focal students could do the outside activity on their own and I know they love art to this is right up their alley.  Fresh air and art yeah!

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Land manager
Civil Eng.
Health services

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Many of the students that I chose to focus on would have been very satisfied today. There I would probably have a few more written reflections like we talked about with the water pollution talk. It helps my students to be able to write and practice using their new language before they start to communicate verbally.

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I would like to incorporate some type of technology into the activity to identify the native plants. I might even have student V, who would not participate in the drawing, to design an app to identify plants or sketch using a tablet. 

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I would like to incorporate some type of technology into the activity to identify the native plants. I might even have student V, who would not participate in the drawing, to design an app to identify plants or sketch using a tablet. 

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Since the water pollution activity was a story telling type of large group activity. I think that my student with low reading and vocab would excel. My shy student would be asked to do an item that perhaps they can relate to. I might ask my highly advanced student to help me modify the power point presentation to the Arkansas River.

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Water quality manager, ecologist, biologist, etc.

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Water quality manager, ecologist, biologist, etc.

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My students will greatly benefit from having the hands on experience of researching, preparing a presentation, design and construct a wetland  area in our school, so they can help mitigate or re-mediate the problem that we are having with classroom flooding during rainy episodes in our area. Thisi can 

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My students will greatly benefit from having the hands on experience of researching, preparing a presentation, design and construct a wetland  area in our school, so they can help mitigate or re-mediate the problem that we are having with classroom flooding during rainy episodes in our area. Thisi can 

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It would be awesome to have 2 or more schools working on the same PBL project and then have the students interact via zoom or other online platform and share their experiences, questions and troubleshooting.

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Field Guide to Colorado's Wetland Plants

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Field Guide to Colorado's Wetland Plants

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More information on wetlands can be found on the Colorado Wetland Information page.  To help identify plants in the field, you can download the Colorado Wetlands free app book companion that lets you search by plant color and location.

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Article: “Building” a Future in Science with Construction-Based Toys

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Article: “Building” a Future in Science with Construction-Based Toys

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Spatial skills higher among those who played with construction-based toys and video games in childhood

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Childhood play experiences strongly shape a person's spatial skills, according to a new CIRES-led study-those skills can be critical to success in fields like science and engineering. Young adults who played with construction-based toys such as Legos, or with certain types of video games outperformed other peers in tests of spatial reasoning-like the skill needed to mentally rotate objects. And most notably, the new research found that gender differences in spatial skills disappear when the researchers considered the impact of childhood play.

"The human brain is malleable and trainable," said Anne Gold, lead author and director of CIRES Education & Outreach. "By providing spatial training to K-12 children, and providing spatially demanding toys before schooling starts, we can give them the opportunity to develop skills important in fields like science, technology, engineering and math."

The team, who published their work today in the Geological Society of America's journal, Geosphere, surveyed hundreds of undergraduate students and found a huge spread in their spatial skills-students scored between 6 and 75 percent correct responses on a written, spatial-knowledge test. This poses a problem: It's difficult to teach a college-level class with so much variability in skill level. Gold and her colleagues sought to explain this contrast because most geologists need strong spatial skills to be successful.

"All of these students completed a K-12 education. If spatial skills were taught in grade school, we wouldn't see this significant spread of skills across the university classroom," said Gold. "Something must be happening earlier in childhood or outside of school that makes some kids better spatial thinkers."

She and colleagues from the University of Colorado Boulder and Carleton College in Minnesota gave written tests to 345 university undergraduates enrolled in geology courses at CU Boulder. Students tackled multiple-choice questions that required them to mentally rotate obscure shapes, for example, or visualize an object's cross section.

The researchers dissected the influence of several factors on spatial skills scores, including: college major, childhood play patterns, standardized test scores, number of science courses taken, and gender. They found that childhood play patterns made a huge difference: Spatial skill scores were significantly higher among students who engaged with construction-based toys, and certain video games.

Other studies have shown the influence of childhood play on spatial skills, but Gold's team is the first to show how the gender difference well described in the literature is mediated through childhood play. Overall, male students performed better than female students on the test, but the young women and men who played with construction-based toys and video games performed equally well. In other words, when researchers controlled for the impact of childhood play patterns, gender differences disappeared.

The new research highlights the need for more access to spatial training and experiences for girls and women-or for anyone who desires success in a STEM career. In addition to providing spatially engaging toys to young children, Gold also suggests offering spatial trainings in grade school or even adulthood. She has preliminary evidence that people can improve their skills with spatial training, whether they lacked spatial skills in the first place or have just gotten rusty over the years.

"What you choose to do over your life can affect your spatial reasoning," said Gold. "It doesn't need to be video games or Legos specifically-but you should engage in something that's spatially demanding. It can really make a difference."

Authors of "Spatial skills in undergraduate students-Influence of gender, motivation, academic training, and childhood play" published in Geosphere are: Anne Gold (CIRES), Philip Pendergast (Institute of Behavioral Science, CU Boulder), Carol Ormand (Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College), David Budd (Department of Geological Sciences, CU Boulder), Jennifer Stempien (Department of Geological Sciences, CU Boulder), Karl Mueller (Department of Geological Sciences, CU Boulder), Katherine Kravitz (Department of Geological Sciences, CU Boulder).

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"Building" a Future in Science with Construction-Based Toys

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Childhood play experiences strongly shape a person's spatial skills, according to a new CIRES-led study-those skills can be critical to success in fields like science and engineering. Young adults who played with construction-based toys such as Legos, or with certain types of video games outperformed other peers in tests of spatial reasoning-like the skill needed to mentally rotate objects.

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Grade 3:

Std.1.PS.1: Matter exists in different states such as solids, liquids, and gases and can change from one state to another by heating and cooling

Grade 4:

Std.2.LS.3:There is interaction and interdependence between and among living and nonliving components of systems

Std.3.ESS.1:Earth is part of the solar system, which includes the Sun, Moon, and other bodies that orbit the Sun in predictable patterns that lead to observable paths of objects in the sky as seen from Earth

Connection: “orbits in predictable pattern in space influence seasons- connect seasons with discussion of weather changes/patterns

Grade 5:

Std.3.ESS.3:Weather conditions change because of the uneven heating of Earth’s surface by the Sun’s energy.  Weather changes are measured by differences in temperature, air pressure, wind and water in the atmosphere and type of precipitation

Grade 6:

Std.1.PS.4.:Distinguish among, explain, and apply the relationships among mass, weight, volume, and density

Std.2.LS.1:Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms, populations, and entire species

Grade 7:

Std.1.PS.1:Mixtures of substances can be separated based on their properties such as solubility, boiling points, magnetic properties, and densities

-could connect to talking about greenhouse gases

Std.2.LS.4: Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are important processes by which energy is acquired and utilized by organisms

Grade 8:

Std.1.PS.4: Recognize that waves such as electromagnetic, sound, seismic, and water have common characteristics and unique properties

Std.2.LS.1:Human activities can deliberately or inadvertently alter ecosystems and their resiliency

Std.3.ESS.1:Weather is a result of complex interactions of Earth's atmosphere, land and water, that are driven by energy from the sun, and can be predicted and described through complex models

Std.3.ESS.2:Earth has a variety of climates defined by average temperature, precipitation, humidity, air pressure, and wind that have changed over time in a particular location

Std.3.ESS.4: The relative positions and motions of Earth, Moon, and Sun can be used to explain observable effects such as seasons, eclipses, and Moon phases

High School:

Std.1.PS.2.Matter has definite structure that determines characteristic physical and chemical properties

Std.1.PS.5. Energy exists in many  forms such as mechanical, chemical, electrical, radiant, thermal, and nuclear, that can be quantified and experimentally determined

Std.2.LS.2: The size and persistence of populations depend on their interactions with each other and on the abiotic factors in an ecosystem

Std.2.LS.9: Evolution occurs as the heritable characteristics of populations change across generations and can lead populations to become better adapted to their environment

Std.3.ESS.4: Climate is the result of energy transfer among interactions of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere

Std.3.ESS.6:The interaction of Earth's surface with water, air, gravity, and biological activity causes physical and chemical changes

Std.3.ESS.7: Natural hazards have local, national and global impacts such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and thunderstorms

NGSS Performance Expectations:

3-ESS2-1 Earth's Systems

Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.

Grade: 3

3-ESS2-2 Earth's Systems

Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Grade: 3

3-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity

Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.*

Grade 3

4-PS3-2 Energy

Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

Grade: 4

4-ESS2-2 Earth's Systems

Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.

Grade 4

5-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Grade: 5

5-ESS1-2 Earth's Place in the Universe

Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.

Performance Expectation

Grade: 5

5-ESS2-1 Earth's Systems

Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

Grade:5

5-ESS2-2 Earth's Systems

Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

Grade:5

MS-PS1-4 Matter and its Interactions

Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.

Middle School (6-8)

MS-PS4-2 Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.

Middle School (6-8

MS-ESS2-5 Earth's Systems

Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.

Middle School (6-8)

MS-ESS2-6 Earth's Systems

Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.

Middle School (6-8)

MS-ESS3-2 Earth and Human Activity

Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.

Middle School (6-8)

MS-ESS3-5 Earth and Human Activity

Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

Middle School (6-8)

HS-LS2-6 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

High School (9-12)

HS-ESS2-3 Earth's Systems

Develop a model based on evidence of Earth’s interior to describe the cycling of matter by thermal convection:

High School (9-12)

HS-ESS2-4 Earth's Systems

Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.

High School (9-12)

HS-ESS2-5 Earth's Systems

Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.

High School (9-12)

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How does agriculture affect the water quality of the Rio Grande River?

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Statistics: Incorporate technology to demonstrate how environmental changes are impacted by population growth.  We would utilize Landsat images and Gapminder.org (interactive statistics bank)to demonstrate the changes over time of student-selected regions of the world.
Number sense/Patterns: Math in nature! After introducing Fibonacci numbers to students, we could take a field trip outside to explore our surroundings to find Fibonacci.

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Focal student 1 would be difficult to engage in the drawing component. I do see him becoming engaged with the pollution activity, but not the wetlands drawing theme. Focal student 2 would be total drama over how gross the water is getting and wouldn't touch it to save her soul.

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The activities today were hands on activities so I think my students would have all been willing to participate. One modification I would make would be to gather the information for the plants they would be identifying and teach them how to identify those plants. Then I would have them find those specific plants and identify them rather than search through the book to find them.

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I have listed some PBL ideas to make today's activities more mathy for my classroom :)
I have been working on a "Math in Nature" PBL that allows students to get outside to look for sequences and patterns. I really enjoyed the afternoon activity today, and it reminded me of this PBL! I think Student J would be engaged with the little field trip outside. He would probably leave his headphones in his backpack because this would be something different from a 'typical' day in class. There would also be potential for this to really pull him in!