Water: Middle School
Education & TrainingEducator ResourcesMiddle SchoolActivities: "Join a Stream Team!"Activities: "Join a Stream Team!"
For Grades 6 - 8
Join a Stream Team! (Full Article)(PDF) (2 pp, 620K)
Join a Stream Team! (Activity Sheets)(PDF) (10 pp, 1MB)
Exercises:
Exercise I. Take Out the Trash
Exercise II. Environmental Conflicts
Exercise III. Adopt-A-Stream
Exercise IV. Macroinverte-whats?
Exercise V. Macroinverte-whats? Part 2: The Saga Continues
Objectives:
Activities offer students the opportunity to learn about multiple facets of waterbodies and pollution, including aquatic life (indicator species), local concerns, and public outreach through research, teamwork, and role-playing exercises.
Time Required:
Individual exercises are designed to be approximately 1/2 hour to 45 minutes long. Exercise III is not designed as an in-class activity but can be used to build on one of the other exercises.
Curricular Standards and Skills:
Science:
- stream monitoring
- macroinvertebrates
- water quality
- species characterization
Social Studies:
- understanding people's behavior
- working with community groups
Language Arts:
- public speaking
- research
Thinking Skills:
- anticipating potential problems
Vocabulary:
- conservation area
- estuary
- eutrophication
- indicator species
- macroinvertebrates
- sediment
- soil erosion
- stakeholder
- water resources
- water quality
- watershed
- wetland
- volunteer monitoring
- coordinator
Web sites:
The Shenandoah River [BROKEN]
Five Steps to Stream Adoption by the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation
Why Study the Stream-Bottom Macroinvertebrates? by the Isaac Walton League
Macroinvertebrate Key by the Isaac Walton League
Macroinvertebrate Identification Key Directions by the Isaac Walton League
Practice Samples and Answer Pages by the Isaac Walton League