Materials:
Topographic map-Quinnipiac River Valley
Clear plastic the size of the map
Cardboard the size of the map
Dry Erase markers
Thumbtacks
Procedure
1. Place the clear plastic sheet over the topographic map and tack it on the cardboard with the thumbtacks.
2. Find your school on the map and mark it with the markers.
3. Find any body of water-stream, lake, marsh, rivers, and oceans closest to the school and mark them blue on the map.
4. Use the contour lines to find the highest and lowest points around your school. Mark the hilltops with X’s.
5. Using the hilltops as reference points draw arrows on the map to show the flow of runoff away from your school.
6. Find the highest ground between two waterbodies. Draw a line along the highest points (the X’s) around your watershed including it’s bottom end or mouth. What is the water body that drains your watershed?
Discussion
1. How big is your watershed?
2. What surfaces does runoff in your watershed go over?
3. What substances would runoff pick up in your watershed?
- The watershed expert will use this as a resource to make choices about land use in the watershed. The expert will also think of ways that your community might affect water quality in your watershed.
- Also provide your watershed experts with the materials to create a model watershed to experiment how water moves through a watershed.
Adapted from Consider the Source produced by the Connecticut Water Works Association