More Lesson Plans – Water Quality
Topic Key
Monitoring Water Quality
Public Health & Water Quality
Testing Parameters
Threats to Water Quality
Water Quality Concepts
An Educator’s Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience
"Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) are learner-centered experiences that actively engage students in building knowledge and meaning through hands-on investigation of local environmental issues." This guide is designed to help educators plan, evaluate, and sustain MWEEs.
Source: Chesapeake Bay Trust / Chesapeake Bay Foundation / NOAA
Bayouside Classroom
"Welcome to LUMCON’s Bayouside Classroom, where students learn about estuaries and watersheds while collecting scientific data. Our goals are to help teachers train their students as young scientists and promote stewardship through awareness that local environments function as part of larger, connected ecosystems."
These resources focus on water quality. For more information about Bayouside Classroom, click here.
Source: LUMCON
Estuary Education Resources
"Why teach about estuaries? This suite of estuary education resources help educators bring estuarine science into the classroom through hands-on learning, experiments, fieldwork, and data explorations. These specially designed lessons, activities, data explorations, animations and videos can be used independently or as a supplement to existing curricula and can be adapted to meet any grade level."
Source: NOAA
Monitoring Estuarine Water Quality
"Estuaries are critically important ecosystems, yet they are also some of the most impacted by human activities. In this module, students will use real data to investigate the water quality characteristics of an estuary (water temperature, salinity and oxygen), the relationship between these parameters, and the effect that water quality has on estuarine organisms. Explore the Water Quality activity and download the Teacher’s Guide."
Source: NOAA
StreamWebs Field and Classroom Watershed Investigation Curriculum
"The StreamWebs Field and Classroom Watershed Investigation curriculum is designed to help formal and nonformal educators use StreamWebs as a platform to conduct meaningful, field-based, student-driven investigations that continue in the classroom. The desired outcomes are to provide science inquiry-based opportunities for students to work collaboratively in the field in ways similar to scientists; to understand that science doesn’t only happen in a lab or classroom; to design their own investigative question and research plan; to collect data; to learn how to look for patterns and changes in their data; to make logical conclusions based upon their data; to answer or refine their investigative question and/or research plan; and to understand what the data indicate for their stream over time."
Source: Oregon State University / Oregon Sea Grant
Water Quality Degredation in the Ocean
"Students investigate causes of water quality degradation and analyze the relationship between harmful algal blooms, toxic algae, and dead zones. They explore water quality "success stories" and actions to improve water quality."
Source: National Geographic