1-5 Water Pathways
Activity Overview
Background
Objectives
Water pathways describe the various paths water may take through the hydrologic cycle. Some of these paths can be destructive, causing erosion and
increasing pollution in a watershed, while other paths allow the water to be
filtered and more effectively recharge aquifers.
Students depict the hydrologic cycle on
their school grounds in the past, at present, and in the future.
Students will:
• Draw the hydrologic cycle on their
school ground.
• Compare the schoolyard’s current
hydrologic cycle with the schoolyard’s
past hydrologic cycle.
• Design a possible future landscape
for their schoolyard and predict how
the hydrologic cycle will change.
Subjects Covered
Social Studies, Environmental Education,
Science, and art
Grades
3 through 8
Activity Time
30-60 minutes
Recall the processes that make up the water cycle: evaporation and transpiration, condensation, precipitation, surface flow, infiltration, interception,
and groundwater flow. These processes occur both in natural environments
and constructed environments, but in different ways and to varying degrees.
Surface flow occurs more rapidly in constructed environments, where water
flows across asphalt and impervious materials. Below the surface, the flow
is also faster than natural groundwater flow as water meets little resistance
in pipes and sewers. Furthermore, constructed environments can limit or
altogether eliminate some processes. Where impervious surfaces dominate
the landscape, infiltration volumes decrease and surface flow, or runoff,
volumes increase so that groundwater flow volumes decrease. Where there
are no plants to transpire, transpiration volumes decrease (Evaporation
volumes may increase to compensate for this decrease.). Replacing natural
environments with constructed ones reconfigures the balance of the water
cycle processes.
Materials
Markers, large sheets of paper, land history activity sheets, water cycle diagram
State Standards
Social Studies:
Identify major changes in the local
community that have been caused by
human beings, explain their probable
effects on the community and the
environment (A.4.8)
Conduct a historical study to analyze
the use of the local environment in a
Wisconsin community and to explain
the effect of this use on the environment
(A.8.4)
Science:
Construct simple models of what is happening to materials (D.4.5)
Using the science themes, find patterns
and cycles (E.4.6)
Describe the use of the earth’s resources by humans in both past and current
cultures (E.8.6)
Develop explanations for the connections among living and non-living things
in various environments (F.4.4)
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Discovering Species, Habitats & Cycles 1-5
1-5 Water Pathways
Show how organisms both depend on
and contribute to the balance or imbalance of populations and/or ecosystems
(F.8.8)
Illustrate the impact that science and
technology have had, both good and
bad, on systems, environment, and
quality of life (G.8.3)
Identify local issues that are helped by
science and technology and explain how
science and technology can also cause
a problem (H.4.2)
Environmental Education:
Describe natural and human-built ecosystems in Wisconsin (B.4.5)
Draw a simple hydrologic cycle (B.4.7)
Determine the cause of different types
of pollution (B.4.12)
Explain and cite examples of how humans shape the environment (B.8.10)
Identify major water pollutants and their
sources (B.8.18)
Identify environmental problems and
issues (C.4.1)
Apply ideas of past, present, and future
to specific environmental issues (C.4.2)
Identify proposed solutions to the issue
(C.4.5)
Define and provide examples of environmental issues (C.8.1)
Develop a plan, either individually or in
a group, to preserve the local environment (D.4.6)
Develop a plan for improving or maintaining some part of the local environment (D.8.6)
Art and Design:
Know that art is a basic way of thinking
and communicating about the world
(A.4.6)
Identify ways in which art is basic to
thinking and communicating about the
world (A.8.6)
Communicate basic ideas by producing visual communication forms useful
in everyday life, such as sketches,
diagrams, graphs, plans, and models
(E.4.4)
Activity Description
1.Review the parts of the water cycle. (See ‘Water 101’ for additional background).
2.Imagine what the site on which your school stands looked like before
development. Draw a picture of the site and depict the water cycle
processes. (Students could do this individually, or work in groups to
complete the drawing). Using the diagram above, estimate the percent
of impervious cover on the school site. Using that estimate, also estimate
the amount of water that is lost as runoff and the percentage that is infiltrated. Fill in table.
3.Draw a second picture of your school site today and depict the water
cycle processes. Be sure to show how development changed the way
that water flows across, through, and from the site. Show changes in the
direction, speed, and volume of water. Make estimates and fill in table.
4.If your school plants a rain garden or replaces a blacktop with a playing
field, water will flow across, through, and from your school site in new
and different ways. Draw a picture of what this might look like and
depict the water cycle processes, as you did before. Make estimates and
fill in table.
5.Discuss about the similarities and differences between the hydrologic
cycles in the three different drawings and compare the estimated percentages in the data table. Discussion questions:
• What is the purpose of constructing water pathways like drainage
ditches and storm sewers?
• What are the consequences? • How do constructed water pathways help people and/or the environment?
• How do they hurt the environment? • What is the purpose of planting a rain garden or a lawn? • What are the consequences? Extensions
•Draw a picture of your school site, making necessary landscape modifications to achieve 50% more infiltration than what is now estimated on the
school site.
•Assign a different “goal” percentage of infiltration to each group of students. Have each group modify the school site drawing to meet this goal.
•Discuss the pros and cons of making the school site more natural.
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Discovering Species, Habitats & Cycles 1-5
1-5 Water Pathways
Communicate complex ideas by producing visual communication forms useful
in everyday life, such as, sketches,
diagrams, graphs, plans, and models
(E.8.4)
Know that visual images are important
tools for thinking and communicating
(G.8.1)
Additional Resources
Websites
•U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Science School. Diagram of
hydrologic cycle and graphic of the distribution of water on earth:
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html
•neoK12. Online videoclips, hydrologic cycle vocabulary games and
diagram labeling practice. http://www.neok12.com/quiz/WATCYC01
•EPA’s introductory video clip about parts of the hydrologic cycle.
http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html
Assessments
•Correctly identify parts of the hydrologic cycle on their schoolyard
drawings.
•Identify two similarities and two differences between their past and current
schoolyard drawings.
•Develop two landscape improvements for the schoolyard in the future
drawing that would decrease runoff.
© Earth Partnership • University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum
Discovering Species, Habitats & Cycles 1-5
Water Pathways Data Collection Sheet
Name________________________________________ Date________________________________________
% Impervious Surface
% Runoff
% Infiltrated
Past
Present
Future
© Earth Partnership • University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum
Discovering Species, Habitats & Cycles 1-5