About Image Teacher Guide Environmental Concerns in the Community By Mary Howland, Beth Fensterwald, Steven Caringella Meet the Authors "How do we become aware of local environmental concerns and what can we do to make a difference?"  Overview  Understandings and Standards  Activities  Resources  Student Guide Powered By 3527 Mt. Diablo Blvd. #268 Lafayette, CA 94549 510.635.8033 Fax 866.383.4570 info@my-ecoach.com Contact Us Student Guide Sharing Information about Ourselves Make a web page about yourself - put up a picture, share what you like and don't like, and what you hope to learn from collaborating with the other classes. You will need: 1. Think.com - Web Site 2. Rubric for Evaluating Students - Handout Let's Write Some Poetry about Rivers Use the river pictures to help you think of ways to describe a river or a creek. What does a river make you think of? What do you see yourself doing in or near a river? Write a poem about a river. If you want, enter it in the River of Words Poetry Contest. You will need: 1. River Pictures - Web Site 2. River of Words Poetry Contest - Web Site 3. Rubric for evaluation of poetry activity - Handout 4. River Poem to Read - Handout Writing Articles for the Water Resources Gazette With your team you're going to write a newspaper about water resources that will be shared with the other classes. Each team member needs to pick a different article from the list below: 1. Article #1 – What is a watershed and how does it relate to the water cycle? 2. Article #2 – Watersheds and water resources in the geographic area that each team has chosen. 3. Article #3 – Sources of water pollution in each team’s geographic area and what can the people living in that area do to improve the water quality. 4. Article #4 – City government and wastewater management in each team’s area. What are the issues and concerns? 5. Article #5 – Water conservation – What is being done in each team’s area and what more can be done? You will need: 1. The Water Cycle - Web Site 2. Give Water a Hand - Web Site 3. U.S. Geological Survey - Web Site 4. Stream Monitoring - Web Site 5. Environmental Kids Club - Web Site 6. Drinking Water and Ground Water - Web Site 7. Waterwatch - Web Site 8. 15 Things to Help Your Watershed - Web Site 9. Map Our Watershed - Web Site 10. San Jose City Environmental Services - Web Site 11. Watershed Watch - Web Site 12. Milpitas Public Works Department - Web Site 13. Rubric for evaluation of activity - Handout 14. Organization Addresses for Letters - Handout 15. Writing a Business Letter - Handout A Watershed of our Own Do you know what a watershed is? You live in one! These activities will help prepare you for your BioSITE visits to Guadalupe Creek and the part it plays in the system of creeks and rivers that make up your watershed. You'll review the water cycle to know what keeps creeks and rivers flowing. These map lessons, playground activities and website visits will give you expert knowledge about this essential resource! You will need: 1. Watershed Vocabulary Dare - Charts and Graphs 2. South Bay Area Watershed Map - Web Site 3. Guadalupe Watershed Map Activity - Handout 4. Satellite Map - Web Site 5. Satellite Map Challenge Activity - Handout 6. Tributary Labels - Handout 7. Watershed Modeling Activity - Handout 8. Hydrologic Cycle 1 - Web Site 9. Hydrologic Cycle 2 - Web Site 10. What is a river? - Web Site 11. Rivers & People - Web Site 12. Watershed Vocabulary Dare - Charts and Graphs 13. Watershed Map Activity - Handout There's Air in That Water? Click the link below to open a page that will take you to the Children's Discovery Museum BioSITE page for some interesting activities. First you'll use a colorful map to find places along the Guadalupe river system that you are probably familiar with. You'll also inspect a special graph to learn how our streams hold oxygen in a dissolved state, permitting aquatic animals to breathe. You will need: 1. There's Air in That Water? - Web Site Becoming a Water Scientist We're getting close to going out to our study site on the Guadalupe creek for BioSITE to learn all about our creek. We will be using scientific equipment to measure the quality (how clean) the creek water is as we learn about the plants and animals that live in or near it. (You'll learn more about the equipment we'll be using later.) Some grown-ups do this for a living! They are called hydrologists (high-drol'-o-gists). Read about one in this activity to learn what they do and use the worksheet to guide your reading. You might want to be a hydrologist when you grow up! Click the link below. You will need: 1. Becoming a Water Scientist - Web Site Environmental Concerns in Our Community In this activity you will look, in groups, at the environment in your local community and discover what problems or concerns there are (too much littering, for example). You will talk to an adult family member at home, as well as do research in books, encyclopedias, and the internet to find out more information about the environmental problems that might exist. This information will be used in the next activity when you write your persuasive essays. Let's Write Persuasive Essays You will be using the notes that you and your group wrote from talking to adult members of your families, and from the research from the electronic and non-electronic resources, to write your own persuasive essay to convince citizens in the community to be aware, and even change, an aspect of the problem you will write about in the essay. You will need: 1. Research notes - other Let's Make Public Service Announcements In the same groups you were in for the research activity, you will brainstorm, storyboard (you'll find out what this is later) and produce a public service announcement for the enviornmental concern that your group researched. Your group will use a digital video camera, and Studio 8 video editing software to produce a 30-second public service announcement that will attempt to make citizens in the community more aware of, and even willing to change, environmental problems in your local community. You will need: 1. PSA examples - Web Site 2. More PSA examples - Web Site 3. More PSA examples - Web Site 4. Sample PSA lesson plan - Web Site 5. Student PSA Information - Web Site 6. Student-created PSAs - Web Site 7. More information on PSAs - Web Site 8. Video production in the classroom - Web Site