Lesson Plan

Explore Your Watershed

A river flows through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Grade Level:: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
Subject:: Science
Lesson Duration:: 60 Minutes

Objective

After completing this program, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students will be able to:
1. Explain what a watershed is and how the landscape dictates the watershed boundary.
2. Explore how watersheds work and their value.
3. Describe point and non-point pollution sources and how each impacts a watershed.

Background

Water is life. Every living thing depends on water: people, plants, animals and trees. Water is easy for most of us in this country to get. We turn on the faucet and out comes water. Water covers three quarters of the earth’s surface. While it sounds like we have a lot of water, most of our water is in the oceans and ocean water is too salty for us to use. All living things need fresh water. Only about three percent of the water on Earth is fresh water. Since some of that fresh water is frozen in the ice caps and some is too far underground to use, only about one percent of the fresh water on earth is available to us. Therefore, water is limited and precious.

We use water in many ways. Farmers use water to irrigate crops. Ranchers use water for their ani-mals. In our daily lives, we use water for a variety of things including drinking, washing hands, brushing our teeth, cooking, and bathing. We also use water for recreation.