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This PowerPoint is intended use in Lesson 9. We encourage you to customize the slides to meet the needs of your students and to incorporate information specific to your watershed and community.

*NOTE - Slides 4 through 27 are review of the previous lessons.

For questions, please email Nanette Marcum-Dietrich at nanette.marcum-dietrich@millersville.edu

Funding Provided by:

This work was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration B-WET Grant NA21NMF4570498. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Usage Statement:

Individual teachers are welcome to use the "Shared Waters" curriculum for classroom purposes without seeking permission. However, the use of this curriculum for school professional development or by other professional development providers is prohibited without prior written consent from the authors. Any reproduction and sale of materials related to this curriculum is strictly prohibited.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kheXD1N5dWBtmmOworCup1YOUEKhYQn3?usp=sharing

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Protecting My Watershed

Lesson 9: Synthesis of Data

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Today I Will Learn…

How scientists use data
How to find patterns and connections in data
How to develop a scientific claim

Overview:

This is the lesson where the rubber meets the road -Mr. Showalter 4th grade teacher.

�

In this lesson, students will use the knowledge and scientific data collected during the unit to spot patterns and connections. Then, they'll use their data synthesis to identify an environmental problem in their local watershed and determine what might be causing it.

�

Let's summarize the key points from the previous lessons:

Lessons 1-2 expanded students' understanding of the water cycle and linked it to the concept of a watershed. They identified their own watershed and gained foundational knowledge about watersheds and located their watershed on a map. These lessons aimed to activate prior knowledge, give students a meaningful reason to learn about their environment and establish the basics for further exploration.

Lessons 3-6: From mapping pervious and impervious surfaces to modeling runoff with computer simulations to engineering an Earth filter, lessons 3-6 provided students with a clear understanding of how water and pollutants move through the watershed. To reinforce this knowledge, we'll revisit the map they created in lesson 3, which shows pervious and impervious surfaces in their local environment. (It's crucial to connect the movement of water and pollutants in their local watershed to the data they collected in lessons 7 and 8).

Lessons 7-8: Building on their understanding of water and how pollutants flow in the watershed, students conducted chemical and biological analyses of a nearby waterbody, generating real data they could analyze to draw conclusions about environmental health.

�

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Why is Earth called the ‘Blue Planet’?

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In this unit, you will learn about the water on Earth and how we can keep our water clean.

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Let’s review last lesson

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A watershed is an area of land and everything on that land, where all the water flows to the same place.

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usda.gov

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We live in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

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The water cycle does not move in only one direction

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71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water!

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Pervious

Impervious

Water soaks into the ground

Water cannot soak into the ground

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Infiltrate

Runoff

Water soaks into the ground

Water cannot soak into the ground

Healthy

Unhealthy

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Which land cover caused the highest amounts of runoff?

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Which land cover caused the highest amounts of runoff?

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Which land cover caused the least amounts of runoff?

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Which land cover caused the least amounts of runoff?

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Something we build, install, or plant, that protect the environment from pollution

Conservation Practice

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portlandoregon.gov

epa.gov

portland.gov

farmers.gov

Rain Garden

Porous Pavers

No Till

Cluster Housing

Green Roof

Vegetation Basin

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If water is clear, does that mean it is clean?

How can we tell if water is clean?

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Based on chemistry, how healthy was the stream we sampled?

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What are other ways besides chemistry we can see how healthy a body of water is?

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Macroinvertebrates!

AQUATIC: lives in the water

MACRO: large enough to see with your eyes

INVERTEBRATE: does NOT have a backbone

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Sensitive

Need super clean water to survive and thrive

Somewhat Sensitive

Can handle medium levels of pollution

Tolerant

Can survive in water that the other two groups cannot. But they would rather have clean water!

Water Health

nps.gov

These animals are bioindicators

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Excellent 👍☺

Many different species! A mix of all three categories.

Good ☺

Several different species, only 1 or 2 sensitive, mostly somewhat sensitive or tolerant macroinvertebrates.

Fair 😐

No sensitive macroinvertebrates, a few somewhat sensitive, but mostly tolerant macroinvertebrates.

Poor ☹

Low diversity. Mostly tolerant macroinvertebrates.

Water Health

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Based on the macroinvertebrate survey, how healthy was the stream we sampled?

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Today I Will Learn…

How scientists use data
How to find patterns and connections in data
How to develop a scientific claim

Overview:

This is the lesson where the rubber meets the road -Mr. Showalter 4th grade teacher.

�

In this lesson, students will use the knowledge and scientific data collected during the unit to spot patterns and connections. Then, they'll use their data synthesis to identify an environmental problem in their local watershed and determine what might be causing it.

�

Let's summarize the key points from the previous lessons:

Lessons 1-2 expanded students' understanding of the water cycle and linked it to the concept of a watershed. They identified their own watershed and gained foundational knowledge about watersheds and located their watershed on a map. These lessons aimed to activate prior knowledge, give students a meaningful reason to learn about their environment and establish the basics for further exploration.

Lessons 3-6: From mapping pervious and impervious surfaces to modeling runoff with computer simulations to engineering an Earth filter, lessons 3-6 provided students with a clear understanding of how water and pollutants move through the watershed. To reinforce this knowledge, we'll revisit the map they created in lesson 3, which shows pervious and impervious surfaces in their local environment. (It's crucial to connect the movement of water and pollutants in their local watershed to the data they collected in lessons 7 and 8).

Lessons 7-8: Building on their understanding of water and how pollutants flow in the watershed, students conducted chemical and biological analyses of a nearby waterbody, generating real data they could analyze to draw conclusions about environmental health.

�

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The Importance of Data and Multiple Perspectives

Write a caption or create a meme based on this picture

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Science is a community where scientists collaborate and share perspectives on data so the results are as reliable as possible

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Data Synthesis Process

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Step 1: Gather Data

Activity 2 (45 min): Synthesis of Data

The goal of this activity is to identify an environmental issue that your students can focus on for their action plan. After this activity, your students may decide:

The local watershed is HEALTHY- Patterns and/or connections in data suggest that the watershed is healthy.
A PROBLEM exists in the watershed- Patterns and/or connections in data suggest a detectable environmental issue in your local watershed.
Our findings are INCONCLUSIVE- Patterns and/or connections in data are conflicting across data sources.

�

To prepare for this lesson, you must do a bit of data synthesis on your own before leading students through the synthesis. Review the data from lessons 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8 to find any connections or patterns.

�Put students in small groups and give each group data from Lessons 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8. Explain to the students that today, we’re going to be scientists using our data to makes decisions about the health of our environment. For this activity, it is important to model a possible thinking process behind finding connections and/or patterns in data.

�

Data Synthesis Process:

Step 1. Gather Your Data: First, get in small groups. Each group will get a special packet with all of your data from Lessons 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8. Lay them out on your desk so everyone can see them.

�

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Step 2: The Big Picture

Remember our anchor chart from those lesson? This is our treasure map of data!

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Step 3: Focus on the Mission

Today’s mission is about connecting the dots. We are going to look closely at all our data to make a decision about the health of our watershed.

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Step 4: Think Like a Scientist

Pick 1 thing in your environment to focus on

With your team, talk about what you noticed in Lesson 1, Lesson 3, Lesson 5, Lesson 7, and Lesson 8.

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Step 5: Share Your Scientific Thinking

There is no right or wrong answer here. We’re exploring and using data to see what interesting stories we can uncover about our schoolyard and the health of our watershed

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Step 6: Discuss as a Class

Does our data show an environmental problem? ��Do we need more information?

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Step 7: Make a Claim

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Step 8: Prepare for Action

Now that we’ve found our environmental issue, we can start to create a plan to help or learn more.

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Exit Ticket

Answer the following prompts

Why is it important that scientists work together with other scientists?

What patterns did you see in the data?

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NOAA Award Number:

NA21NMF4570498

Thank you to Brad Showalter of Penn Manor School District for assistance with the creation of PowerPoint slides