JMJ
Walk Your Watershed Assessment Activity, due 6/9/15, will count as a test grade
1. Take a walk around your neighborhood starting with your home. Pay attention to the way
the land slopes. Describe how the water drains from your home into your neighborhood. See
how your home affects your neighbors and how your neighbors affect you.
2. Go a little further away from home, see how many and what kinds of storm drainage systems
you can identify.
3. Continue out a few streets or go to a favorite park or wild area near your home. What do you
notice about the condition of the watershed there?
4. Use the attached tally sheet and questions to evaluate the health of your neighborhood
watershed.
5. List the types of storm drainage systems in your neighborhood or make a photographic
record, identify the different types in a PowerPoint or on a poster (part 2 above).
6. Describe the general condition of the watershed close to home (part 1 above) and in your
general neighborhood/park/wild area (part 3 above). Use words but you may accompany
them with pictures or sketches.
7. Present your findings – Turn in the completed tally sheet AND
1) Write and type a page or two and upload it to GoogleClassroom OR
2) Make a PowerPoint and upload it to GoogleClassrom OR
3) Make a small poster describing your discoveries.
Rubric
4
Complete
3
Tally Sheet - answers
Detailed,
thoughtful
answers
Minimal but
thoughtful
answers
Record of Storm Drainage
Systems in area
Detailed,
thoughtful
descriptions
Minimal but
thoughtful
descriptions
Adequate
descriptions
Description of the general
condition of the watershed
and your home’s effect on the
watershed and the effect of
your neighbors on your home
Written
report/PowerPoint/Poster
Detailed,
thoughtful
descriptions
Minimal but
thoughtful
descriptions
Adequate
descriptions
Neatness
Excellent
Well done
presentation,
interesting
1 or 2
mistakes
Very Good
Adequate
presentation,
Grammar, spelling
Detailed,
superior
presentation
No mistakes
Tally Sheet - tally
Total: _____________/28,
__________________%
2
Partially
done
Adequate
answers
3 to 5
mistakes
Good
1
0
Not done
One word
answers or
incomplete
sentences
One word
descriptions
or
incomplete
sentences
One word
descriptions
or
incomplete
sentences
Minimal
presentation
No answers
5 to 10
mistakes
Could be
neater
More than
10 mistakes
Could really
be neater
No
descriptions
No
descriptions
No
presentation
Walk Your Watershed
Take a walk and discover more about the watershed you live in. Take about a half-hour
walk around your neighborhood and tally the number of times you see items listed in
the chart below. Then total your tally marks and answer the questions at the bottom of
the page.
Pollutant
Tally (how many
times see)
Total
Pieces of litter
Bare soil
Items stuck in storm sewers
Erosion (loose mulch, sand, dirt on sidewalk,
street, driveway, etc.)
Evidence of flooding from past rains
Muddy creek or stream
Spots where oil has leaked from a vehicle
Grass clippings
Pet waste
Piles of leaves
1. What pollutant is there the most of in your part of the watershed?
______________________________________________________________________________
2. How do you think that kind of pollution could be prevented?
______________________________________________________________________________
3. Where does it look like water drains after it leaves your property?
______________________________________________________________________________
4. What are some things that moving water might take with it when it rains?
______________________________________________________________________________
5. What surprises you most about your part of the watershed?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________