Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary
Science Curriculum
Supplementary Materials
2011
Table of Contents
Title
Lesson One: Isopods: Design your
own experiment (Grade 7)
Lesson Two: Populations and
Ecosystems at Bruce Vento Nature
Sanctuary (Grade 7)
Lesson Three: Bruce Vento Nature
Sanctuary: Then and Now (Grade 8)
Lesson Four: The Changing
Landscape of Bruce Vento Nature
Sanctuary (Grade 8)
Lesson Five: Water! Phalen Creek
and the Mississippi River (Grade 8)
Page
Number
2
Isopod Inquiry Lab Report
Fieldwork Reflection
Key to Life in the Pond
3
5
Macro Invertebrate Lab Report
Fieldwork Reflection
Photo Essay Check list
6
7
9
Fieldwork Reflection
Waterfall on the Move and
Waterfalls 101
10
12
Erosion Lab
Fieldwork Reflection
The Water Cycle Image
14
15
17
Follow a Drop through the
Water Cycle
Water Purification Lab
Fieldwork Reflection
18
20
22
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Isopod Inquiry
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
PART ONE
Title of experiment:
Scientific Question:
Hypothesis:
Independent Variable:
Dependent Variable:
Materials:
PART TWO
Data:
Independent Variable (observation)
Trial
One
Dependent Variable (description)
Trial
Two
Trial
Two
PART THREE
Results (evidence):
Conclusion (explanation):
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Fieldwork Reflection
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Summarize the Learning Targets or Guiding Questions
PLEASE ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES:
1. Why is it important to match scientific questions with appropriate methods of
investigations?
2. What are three components of conducting a controlled experiment? (Scientific question is
one.)
3. What is the different between results and conclusions?
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4. What was the hardest part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
5. What was the most rewarding part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
6. Any other thoughts, comments, ideas?
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Macro Invertebrate Lab Report
Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
ABIOTIC DATA
Trial
1
2
3
Temperature (degrees Farenheight)
Describe the weather:
BIOTIC DATA
Species Name
Number Found
Describe the habitat:
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Fieldwork Reflection
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Summarize the Learning Targets or Guiding Questions
PLEASE ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES:
1. Give examples of one ecosystem, two populations and one community at Bruce Vento
Nature Sanctuary.
2. What are macro organisms? Name three examples.
3. How do you think the macro organisms (biotic) would be affected by increased
temperatures (abiotic)?
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4. What was the hardest part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
5. What was the most rewarding part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
6. Any other thoughts, comments, ideas?
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Photo Essay Checklist
Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Find and take pictures of evidence of Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary’s past. Each time you take a
picture make a note of what it is to remind yourself later.
o Restoration: rain garden, entrance, wetlands, native plants
o Dakota people: Wiki Tipi cave, Indian Mounds Park which is north east of the Sanctuary (if
time)
o Brewery: old structures near in bluff, gravel markers
o Railroad: concrete slabs, existing rail roads
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Fieldwork Reflection
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Summarize the Learning Targets or Guiding Questions
PLEASE ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES:
1. Where is the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary located? Be descriptive!
2. Names three different groups of people that used Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary.
3. What resources did the land provide the people listed above?
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4. What was the hardest part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
5. What was the most rewarding part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
6. Any other thoughts, comments, ideas?
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‘Waterfall on the Move’ -National Park Service
When Father Hennepin visited St. Anthony Falls in 1680 it wasn’t where it is today! Newton
Winchell made a map to show the locations of St. Anthony Falls between 1680 and 1876.
Who was Newton Horace Winchell? N. H. Winchell was a geologist and a very curious person. He
came to Minneapolis in 1872 to work for the University of Minnesota. He was very interested in the
geology of the Mississippi River between St. Paul and Minneapolis. As a geologist, Winchell knew
some interesting facts about the river bluffs. He knew the bluffs were made of layers of
sedimentary rocks and that St. Anthony Falls had receded (moved backwards or upstream on the
river.)
But how far and how fast did St. Anthony Falls move? Winchell looked at journals and other
records from early explorers such as Hennepin and Carver. He calculated St. Anthony Falls took
about 10,000 years to move from Fort Snelling to downtown Minneapolis. Modern research says it
took 12,000 years. Winchell was pretty close!
Today you can walk along a trail named after N. H. Winchell. The Winchell Trail in Minneapolis
winds through parkland on top of, and past, the geology Winchell examined.
Waterfalls 101
Waterfall formation is based around the basic principle that there is a watercourse (realize that
water is an erosive agent) traversing over different layers of rock each with different rates of
erosion. In other words, you have a river or stream flowing over hard rock (where erosion is slow)
and also flowing over soft rock (where erosion is more rapid).
Over time, the soft rock is further cut into by the water ultimately making the watercourse steeper
beyond the hard rock layer. This steepening effect also accelerates erosion as the influence of
gravity on the water increases the water's speed (thanks to the increasing slope as a result of the
accelerated erosion).
Eventually, the watercourse steepens until it's either nearly vertical or completely vertical. At this
point, you have waterfall! With the watercourse continuing to cut into the softer rock, the waterfall
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gets taller, the plunge pool (where the waterfall lands) gets deeper, and the soft rock directly
beneath the hard rock gets undercut. The watercourse plunges the cliff and doesn't even make
contact with the cliff wall. This suggests that the hard rock layer is overhanging.
As the undercutting continues, eventually the overhanging hard rock gets unstable and collapses
into the base of the waterfall. The net result of this action is that the waterfall retreats further
upstream to the remaining lip of the hard rock layer. With its high volume of water, Niagara Falls
continues to retreat about a whopping 3ft per year! Look at the overhanging wall in the photograph,
which is further evidence that this process is still going on!
The undercutting still continues until you run out of the hard rock layer. At that point, the
watercourse will probably go back to being a stream or rapid.
Adapted from www.worldofwaterfalls.com
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Erosion Lab
Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Create a hill made of sand that is at least two feet high and has a 45 degree slope on one side.
Flatten the slope using a ruler or yard stick.
Use your finger or stick to create a very shallow river that include several turns.
Starting at the top pour water from a watering can slowly and begin to form a small river valley.
Over time and as the water is poured more quickly the river begins to widen. Note that if the water
is poured at a constant rate the energy of the moving water decreases. Be sure to flatten the sand
after each trial to maintain consistency.
1. What happens to the surface of the sand when the water first hits it?
2. Do you think it matters if the soil starts out wet or dry? Try moistening the sand before creating
the stream with a spray bottle. What changes?
3. What would happen if you created a bigger hill and made a steeper slope? Try it!
4. Try adding small plants to simulate ’trees’ along the path of the river. What changes?
5. As an extension, to try and form a small waterfall. What do you notice about the structure as you
pour water?
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Fieldwork Reflection
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Summarize the Learning Targets or Guiding Questions
PLEASE ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES:
1. In your own words, what is erosion?
2. How has erosion changed the landscape of St. Paul?
3. How are erosion and the retreat or movement of waterfalls related?
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4. What was the hardest part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
5. What was the most rewarding part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
6. Any other thoughts, comments, ideas?
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The Water Cycle
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Follow a Drop through the Water Cycle
You may be familiar with how water is always cycling around, through, and above the Earth,
continually changing from liquid water to water vapor to ice. One way to envision the water
cycle is to follow a drop of water around as it moves on its way. I could really begin this
story anywhere along the cycle, but I think the river is the best place to start.
If the drop wanted to stay in the river then it shouldn't have been sunbathing on the surface
of the sea. The heat from the sun found the drop, warmed it, it evaporated it into water
vapor. It rose (as tiny "dropettes") into the air and continued rising until strong winds
grabbed it and moved it until it was over land. There, warm updrafts coming from the heated
land surface took the dropettes (now water vapor) up even higher, where the air is quite
cold.
When the vapor got cold it changed back into it a liquid, this process is. If it was cold
enough, it would have turned into tiny ice crystals, such as those that make up cirrus clouds.
The vapor condenses on tiny particles of dust, smoke, and salt crystals to become part of a
cloud.
After a while our drop combined with other drops to form a bigger drop and fell to the earth
as precipitation. Earth's gravity helped to pull it down to the surface. Once it starts falling
there are many places for water drops to go. Maybe it would land on a leaf in a tree, in
which case it would probably evaporate and begin its process of heading for the clouds
again. If it misses a leaf there are still plenty of places to go.
The drop could land on a patch of dry dirt in a flat field. In this case it might sink into the
ground to begin its journey down into an underground aquifer as groundwater. The drop will
continue moving (mainly downhill) as groundwater, but the journey might end up taking
tens of thousands of years until it finds its way back out of the ground. Then again, the drop
could be pumped out of the ground via a water well and be sprayed on crops (where it will
either evaporate, flow along the ground into a stream, or go back down into the ground). Or
the well water containing the drop could end up in a baby's drinking bottle or be sent to
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wash a car or a dog. From these places, it is back again either into the air, down sewers into
rivers and eventually into the ocean, or back into the ground.
But our drop may be a land-lover. Plenty of precipitation ends up staying on the earth's
surface to become a component of surface water. If the drop lands in an urban area it
might hit your house's roof, go down the gutter and your driveway to the curb. If a dog or
squirrel doesn't lap it up it will run down the curb into a storm sewer and end up in a small
creek. It is likely the creek will flow into a larger river and the drop will begin its journey back
towards the ocean.
If no one interferes, the trip will be fast (speaking in "drop time") to the river, ocean or at
least to a lake where evaporation could again take over. But, with billions of people
worldwide needing water for most everything, there is a good chance that our drop will get
picked up and used before it gets back to the sea.
A lot of surface water is used for irrigation. Even more is used by power-production
facilities to cool their electrical equipment. From there it might go into the cooling tower to be
evaporated. Talk about a quick trip back into the atmosphere as water vapor -- this is it. But
maybe a town pumped the drop out of the river and into a water tank. From here the drop
could go on to help wash your dishes, fight a fire, water the tomatoes, or (shudder) flush
your toilet. Maybe the local steel mill will grab the drop, or it might end up at a fancy
restaurant mopping the floor. The possibilities are endless -- but it doesn't matter to the
drop, because eventually it will get back into the environment. From there it will again
continue its cycle into and then out of the clouds, this time maybe to end up in the water
glass of the President of the United States.
Modified from: US Geological Survey
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Water Purification Lab
Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
How does the water cycle purify water naturally? It’s your job to simulate this process.
Materials:
Pitcher
Water
Rocks
Gravel
Sand
Cloth (bandana)
Straw or hay
Nail
Clear plastic cups
Procedure:
1. Begin by creating dirty water in a pitcher by adding soil to fresh water.
2. Using the nail, poke five holes in the bottom of a cup. Add one item from the list above to
the cup.
3. Hold the cup filled with the filtering material above an empty cup. Add water to the top cup
and watch it filter through. Repeat the process with each material individually and then
different combinations.
4. Describe the results on the back side.
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Trial
1
Material(s)
Observations- be specific and desciptive!
2
3
4
5
6
7
What material or materials filtered the water most efficiently?
How does this lab relate to the water cycle? Give examples.
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Fieldwork Reflection
Name:________________________________
Date:___________
Summarize the Learning Targets or Guiding Questions
PLEASE ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES:
1. Name and describe four steps in the water cycle?
2. How does the water cycle purify water?
3. How does land use affect the quality of water?
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4. What was the hardest part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
5. What was the most rewarding part of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary project?
6. Any other thoughts, comments, ideas?
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