Class Programs Offered by the
Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District
Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District provides presentations to school classes, home school, and after school, scout and 4-H groups. All of the
presentations have been correlated to Ohio’s New Learning Standards for Earth and Space Sciences. All programs are free of charge. Contact Dona Rhea at 740368-1921 or [email protected] to schedule a program in your classroom.
PrePre-K
Program
Tree Cookies
Soil Painting
Stream Studies
Enviroscape
Presentation Description
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Similarities and differences exist among
individuals of the same kinds of plants and
animals
Rocks and soil have properties that can help
identify them.
Objects and materials are described by their
properties
Students look at tree’s growth through its annual rings. Numerous tree
stumps are brought into the classroom for students to observe patterns of
change in the tree’s life as well as changes in the area where it grows.
Students will learn what trees need to live. Students are read “The Giving
Tree,” and get to make a tree cookie necklace to take home.
What is your favorite food that soil helps grow? Students discover that soil
grows a lot of food for us. Red, black, brown, and gray soil paints are
brought into the classroom for students to paint their favorite food that
soil helped grow. Students use chain links to assemble food chains.
Lets go to the stream. We will visit a nearby stream to find what lives in
that ecosystem and what these organisms need to survive. Highbanks
Metro Park in Lewis Center offers a great place to study land and water
animals and plants.
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•
There are many distinct environments in
Ohio that support different kinds of
organisms
Water pollution and human impact on the environment are visually
demonstrated through the Enviroscape model. Students will witness water
quality changes when rain and land pollutants mix.
•
Water can be observed as lakes, ponds,
rivers, streams, the ocean, rainfall, hail, sleet
or snow.
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•
Kindergarten
Program
Stream Studies
Program Description
Lets go to the stream. We will visit a nearby stream to find what lives in
that environment and what these organisms need to survive. Highbanks
Metro Park in Lewis Center offers a great place to study land and water
animals and plants.
•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Living things have physical traits and
behaviors, which influence their survival
First Grade
Program
Tree Cookies
Dry Stream
Enviroscape
Presentation Description
Students look at tree’s growth through its annual rings. Numerous tree
stumps are brought into the classroom for students to observe patterns of
change in the tree’s life as well as changes in the area where it grows.
Students will learn what trees need to live. Students are read “The Giving
Tree,” and get to make a tree cookie necklace to take home.
Using fabrics and netting, a stream setting is created on the classroom
floor. Stream bugs (macroinvertebrates), preserved in resin, are added to
the stream. Students learn about the macroinvertebrates and the water
quality indicators they represent as they find all of them.
•
Concepts of water pollution human impact on the environment are visually
demonstrated through the Enviroscape model. Students will witness water
quality changes when rain and land pollutants mix. They will learn how
organisms interact with one another and depend upon one another with
our precious water resource.
•
•
•
•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Living things survive only in environments
that meet their needs
Living things have basic needs, which are
met by obtaining materials from the physical
environment
Living things survive only in environments
that meet their needs
Living things have basic needs, which are
met by obtaining materials from the physical
environment
Living things survive only in environments
that meet their needs.
Second Grade
Program
Incredible Journey
Program Description
With the roll of the die, students simulate the movement of water within
the water cycle. All students become water drops, and move to stations
where water is used or held like soil, plants, rivers, clouds, oceans, lakes,
animals, ground water, and glaciers. At the conclusion of the game
students draw a story illustrating their movement (evaporation,
condensation) as a water drop.
•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Water is present in the air
Third Grade
Program
Soil Formation and Soil Layers
Soil Discovery
Program Description
Students explore the layers of soil and make soil layer cards using topsoil,
subsoil, and bedrock. Later, students will be given sandstone rock to rub
together to illustrate rocks weathering into minerals for soil formation.
Students are given sand, silt, and clay that lead to discovery of soil texture,
particle size, and ability of water to pass through the soil.
•
•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Earth's nonliving resources have specific
properties
Earth's nonliving resources have specific
properties
Fourth Grade
Program
The Sliding Soil
Enviroscape
Program Description
The concept of erosion is demonstrated with the soil erosion simulator.
Guided discussion on comparing weathering and erosion is held. Pictures
are shown to help illustrate good and bad things about erosion.
•
Concepts of water pollution, watershed, and human impact on the
environment are visually demonstrated through the Envirscape model.
Students will witness water quality changes when rain and land pollutants
mix. Local, state, and national watersheds are mapped and students have
to trace their school’s watershed all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. They
will learn how organisms interact with one another and depend upon one
another with our precious water resource.
•
•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Earth's surface has specific characteristics
and landforms that can be identified
The surface of Earth changes due to erosion
and deposition
Earth's surface has specific characteristics
and landforms that can be identified
Fifth Grade
Program
Program Description
Currently, none of the soil and water conservation programs align with the
5th grade science standards.
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Sixth Grade
Program
Soil Horizons
Learning the Soil Particles
Rock Cycle
Program Description
Soil formation is taught through hands-on simulations of rock weathering,
and discussion of other environmental forming factors
Real soil horizons are brought into the classroom and students make their
own soil horizon cards.
Students are given sand, silt, and clay that lead to discovery of soil texture,
particle size, permeability, and porosity through guided hands-on
activities.
This lesson involves students using themselves as minerals and rolling dice
for directions to rotate through specific earth processes to become
sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. A complete rock cycle is
simulated by each student.
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•
•
•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
Rocks, minerals and soils have common and
practical uses
Soil is unconsolidated material that contains
nutrient matter and weathered rock
Soil is unconsolidated material that contains
nutrient matter and weathered rock
Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary
rocks form in different ways.
Seventh Grade
Program
Incredible Journey
Groundwater Model
With Rain Simulator
Program Description
With the roll of the die, students simulate the movement of water within
the water cycle. All students become water molecules and move to
stations where water is used or held like soil, plants, rivers, clouds, oceans,
lakes, animals, ground water, and glaciers. As they move they identify the
states of water throughout the water cycle. At the conclusion of the game
students have to write a story describing their movement (freezing,
thawing, evaporating, and transpiring) as a water molecule.
This model is a good hands-on lesson to teach the hydrologic cycle,
movement of water (and contamination) through the spheres, and relating
water flow to geographic landforms. Your school’s topographic map is
brought to the students to determine the direction water enters and exits
school property.
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•
Ohio’s New Learning Standards
Content Statement Met
The hydrologic cycle illustrates the changing
states of water as it moves through the
lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and
atmosphere
The hydrologic cycle illustrates the changing
states of water as it moves through the
lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and
atmosphere
There are programs available for higher grade levels. Please call the office or e-mail Dona Rhea to request
programs for high school students. See the next page for a list of models and activity curriculums.
For more information contact Dona Rhea at 740-368-1921 or [email protected]
Models
Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District has subject models for loan to schools, home schools, scouts and 4-H groups. Training sessions with
“how to use” strategies for the loan models are available upon request. Dona Rhea from the Delaware SWCD can come to the school to conduct
the program using any of these models, or schools can use them on their own.
Model
Water Treatment Enviroscape
Groundwater Model
Enviroscape
Soil Erosion Simulator Model
Description
This model allows students to pump surface water from a river, treat it,
and go through an entire urban and rural community’s various needs for
water. Students then engage in wastewater treatment and release. Great
discussions on maintain and using the earth’s renewable resource, fresh
water.
The dynamics of water flowing far beneath our feet is shown as well as
how contaminated wells can affect the quality of water in other wells
miles away.
Concepts of water pollution, watershed, and human impact on the
environment are visually demonstrated through the Enviroscape model.
Students will witness water quality changes when rain and land pollutants
mix. Local, state, and national watersheds are mapped and students have
to trace their school’s watershed all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. They
will learn how organisms interact with one another and depend upon one
another with our precious water resource.
Demonstrated in this model is how the forces of rain affect different
landscapes in the environment. Students can hypothesize, run the
experiment, then compare the runoff from bare soil, mulch soil, and grass.
Grade
7 – 12
7 – 12
K–4
3–8
For more information contact Dona Rhea at 740-368-1921 or [email protected]