FINDING THE HEALTHIEST STREAM OR RIVER OR LAKE IN AMERICA:

Building a New National Park


The Quest - An Introduction

Your group has been invited to plan the site of a new National Park that has the Healthiest Stream or River or Lake in America. You need to investigate what are the important factors that make a healthy stream for wildlife - birds, fish, plants, and other animals. You will then choose the best site for the park. Finally you will determine where this water site is located on map and what other features your National Park might have beside the water site.

What are you expected to learn?Science Objectives (grades 5-9)

1. Describe how the factors of dissolved oxygen, ph, temperature, and conductivity (total dissolved solids) affect the Health of America's Waters to support life.

2. Select a stream, river, or lake using data found on the Internet that has excellent scores on an Index of Water Quality.

3. Locate the river, stream, or lake on a map.

Assessment -How will you know you have accomplished your goal?


Write a team letter to Bruce Babbitt, the US Secretary of the Department of the Interior, explaining your choice of a water site for the next US National Park based on your analysis of the Water Quality Indices of America's Rivers, Streams and Lakes. Be sure to include the science data you have researched on the web to convince Mr. Babbitt. He may not understand dissolved oxygen and such, so explain your ideas clearly.  Your letter should be revised for organization of thought and edited for spelling and grammar. Your team members should be able to orally describe how the group determined which would be the best spot for a national park.

How Long Do We Have For This Project?
Time Allotted for this project: Two one-hour sessions.

Steps for the Quest

l. Divide your group into roles:

Scientist(s) - learn about the four factors of Water Quality

Geographer - place your water site on a map

Writer - write your team's letter

2. Get working: 

Scientists need to begin researching the Internet sites

TransAmerica Explorers "Health of America's Waters"

Internet Sites for Understanding Water Sampling

Learning about the Four Factors: Oxygen, Conductivity, PH, Temperature
 
 

Eighteen Water Sites in America
 
 

Jason Project -

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Science Information about Water Studies
 

Results of Water Studies in America

The writer needs to begin the letter using the proper inside addresses. As the scientist(s) find information about the four factors, begin explaining them to Mr. Babbitt so that he will understand how you made your choice.

The geographer needs to find maps that will be helpful to be attached to the team letter to Mr. Babbitt, pinpointing the team recommendation for the new national park. You may want to search in Yahooligans for a map.
 
 

All should save their work on their own disk.

3. After working for twenty minutes, call a team meeting to share results and new ideas to date. Make plans for the rest of the time allotted. All team members need to agree on the final site and be able to orally describe their reasons based on scientific information.

4. At the beginning of the second session, review the team progress toward accomplishing the goal and make plans for this work period.

Final Assessments - Rating Rubric
    5 - Top work      4 - Good work      3 - Fair work       2 - Poor work

__l.  My effort for both sessions
__2. The quality of our Scientific research about our water site
__3. The quality of our letter to Secretary Babbitt (well-written, edited, correct format for addressing)
__4. The accuracy of our map
__5. Our ability to use several resources to collect our research and then put the research into one convincing letter
__6. We used our time efficiently

5. When you turn in the team letter and map, on the back of the map, answer the following questions:

What was the easiest part of this quest? Why?

What was the hardest part of this quest? Why?

How does an Internet Quest compare with researching using books?
 

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