What’s in your Watershed?
Description:
This activity is an introduction to the watershed
geography and pollution issues of the Mississippi River.
Objective:
The student will be able to identify their position in the
Mississippi River Watershed, the position of major tributaries of the
Mississippi River Watershed, and explain the importance of whole watershed
conservation.
Materials:
Activity One: Where’s the Watershed?
 Geography or Social Studies book
 Colored pencils
 Map transparencies
 Where’s the Watershed? handout
 Where’s the Watershed? key transparency
Activity Two: Watershed Worries
 Clear plastic cups of varying sizes up to 16 oz
 Permanent markers
 One large bowl (approximately one gallon in volume)
 Various colors of food coloring
Background:
The Mississippi River is 3,705 km (2,302 mi) long and its watershed
encompasses 41% of the lower 48 states of America. A watershed is all of
the land containing water that eventually flows into a water body. A large
river, like the Mississippi, has a correspondingly large watershed. About 1/8
of North America, or 3.2 million km2 (1.2 million mi2) drains into the
Mississippi River. The Mississippi River begins in Minnesota at Lake Itasca.
As it flows south, several major rivers join with the Mississippi. These
rivers are called tributaries. In this project, the major tributaries
discussed are the Ohio, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers.
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
1
The Gulf of Mexico marks the end of the Mississippi River and it
receives 612,000 ft3/s (4.5 million gallons per second) of water from the
Mississippi River. Because each point in the watershed contributes water to
the river, each point also has the potential to contribute pollution.
Watershed pollution of the Mississippi River has led to severe problems in
the Gulf of Mexico. The major issue facing the Gulf is hypoxia, or low
oxygen. Hypoxia is detrimental to all of the animal life in the Gulf of
Mexico. No one state or city can be blamed for the pollution of the Gulf.
Watershed conservation is when each state, all 31 within the watershed,
works together to help conserve and protect the Mississippi River and
ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.
Procedure:
Activity One: Where’s the Watershed?
1.
Group the students in pairs. Explain that the students will be taking
turns drawing and labeling during the activity.
2.
Arm each pair with a Geography or Social Studies book, colored
pencils, pencil, and a Where’s the Watershed? handout. As the
students work, the teacher can be completing the same steps on an
overhead projector to help the class stay focused and provide
immediate assessment.
3.
Open the book to a page that displays a United States geographic
map. Use the map transparencies to add detail and scope to the
exercise.
4.
On the lower right corner of the map, create a compass by placing an
arrow that indicates north on the map. Put a capital "N" at the tip of
the arrow. Add a horizontal line through the middle of the vertical
line. In a clockwise fashion, add the letters E, S, and W around the
arrow to indicate the directions east, south, and west.
5.
Using a green colored pencil, have one student (A) trace the dashed
lines on the Where’s the Watershed? handout. Have the other
student (B) write "Watershed Boundary" somewhere along this line.
6.
7.
Ask the students to guess what a watershed is.
Using a blue colored pencil, student B should trace the Mississippi
River and student A should label it. Have the students refer to their
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
2
book if they need help. For the rest of the activity, have the
students switch back and forth while following the directions below.
8.
Make a triangle at the starting point of the Mississippi River. Label
the point Lake Itasca.
9.
Highlight the Arkansas River with a yellow pencil, the Missouri River
with brown, and the Ohio River in orange. Label each river.
10.
Place a triangle at each point where the Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio
meet the Mississippi and label these points. [Arkansas = Napoleon;
Missouri = St. Louis; and, Ohio = Cairo.]
11.
Label the body of water that the Mississippi River flows into on the
map. [Gulf of Mexico.]
12.
Now that the major rivers are outlined, ask the students again to tell
you what a watershed is. Using the map, review the definitions of
tributary and watershed with the students.
13.
Place a triangle at the approximate location of your school. Is it
within the Mississippi River Watershed?
14.
Write the two-letter abbreviations for each state that borders the
Mississippi River on the map. [Minnesota (MN), Wisconsin (WI), Iowa
(IA), Illinois (IL), Missouri (MO), Kentucky (KY), Tennessee (TN),
Arkansas (AR), Mississippi (MS), Louisiana (LA)].
15.
16.
Color the ten states that border the Mississippi River pink.
17.
Find out the names of the two Canadian provinces that are part of the
Mississippi River Watershed. Label and color them red on the map.
18.
Share the Where’s the Watershed? key with the students and
have them compare their map with the key. [Note: the key is
not colored nor does it have all of the cities labeled. It will
take some teacher preparation beforehand to finish the key.]
Label the remaining states that are within the Watershed Boundary
and then color them red. Count how many red states there are. [21:
Alabama (AL), Colorado (CO), Georgia (GA), Indiana (IN), Kansas (KS),
Maryland (MD), Michigan (MI), Montana (MT), Nebraska (NE), New
Mexico (NM), New York (NY), North Carolina (NC), North Dakota
(ND), Ohio (OH), Oklahoma (OK), Pennsylvania (PA), South Dakota
(SD), Texas (TX), Virginia (VA), West Virginia (WV), Wyoming (WY)].
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
3
Activity Two: Watershed Worries
1.
Using the Geography book, map transparencies, and completed
student maps, have the students locate some major cities along
the Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers. [Possible
answers include: Arkansas River: Wichita, KS, Tulsa, OK, Little
Rock, AR, Napoleon, AR; Missouri River: Great Falls, MT,
Bismarck, ND, Omaha, NE, Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO;
Ohio River: Pittsburgh, PA, Louisville, KY, and Cairo, IL;
Mississippi River: Minneapolis MN, Davenport, IA, Memphis,
TN, Vicksburg, MS, New Orleans, LA.]
2.
Make a chart on the board with each river as a heading and the
associated cities below.
3.
Introduce the concept of watershed pollution and the
importance of conservation throughout the entire watershed.
Explain that the students’ daily activities not only affect their
local area, but all the people and organisms that live
downstream of them.
4.
Distribute clear plastic cups and markers to the students. If
desirable, the cities at the start of the watershed, like Lake
Itasca, Wichita, Great Falls, and Pittsburgh, can have small
cups and the cups can gradually increase in size as the river
flows with St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans
having the biggest cups.
5.
6.
Write the name of one city on one cup until each city has a cup.
7.
Fill each cup no more than one-eighth of the way full with
water. Do not put any water in the bowl.
8.
9.
10.
Be sure to label one cup Lake Itasca, and the bowl Gulf of
Mexico.
Have the students take their cups and group them by river.
Assign each river group a different color of food coloring.
Have each river group place the smallest drop possible of food
coloring in each cup. Have the students look closely at their
cup.
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
4
11.
If possible go outside, otherwise push the desks away. Using
their maps, assist the students in arranging themselves into a
human watershed.
12.
Have the students pour the contents of their cup into the
person’s cup downstream of them. All water should eventually
reach the Gulf of Mexico bowl.
13.
14.
15.
Examine what the water looks like in the Gulf of Mexico.
Ask the students what this activity was supposed to represent.
Review watershed pollution and the importance of conservation
throughout the entire watershed. Ensure that the students
notice that not only did the volume of water increase as the
rivers flowed south, but the pollution also increased.
Evaluation:
Activity One: Where’s the Watershed?
The students’ maps match the key.
Activity Two: Watershed Worries
The students generate a list of cities, generate hypotheses about
watershed pollution, and arrange themselves into a correct watershed.
Sources:
Environmental Protection Agency. 2005. Mississippi River basin and
the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia culture/history. Accessed 2005
November 27. < http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/culture.htm>.
Jobson, H.E. 2001. Modeling water quality in rivers using the Branched
Lagrangian Transport Model (BLTM). U.S. Geological Survey
Fact Sheet FS-147-00.
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. 2001. Map the
Mississippi watershed. Accessed 2005 November 27.
<http://www.nps.gov/miss/programs/brj/brjactivities/mapping.
html>.
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
5
Science Museum of Minnesota. 2001. Maps. Accessed 2005
November 27.
<http://www.nps.gov/miss/programs/brj/brjactivities/maps.ht
ml>.
Wikipedia contributors. 2005. Arkansas River. Accessed 2005 November 27.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arkansas_River&oldid=28
291811>.
Wikipedia contributors. 2005. Lake Itasca. Accessed 2005 December 13.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Itasca&oldid=28299
404>.
Wikipedia contributors. 2005. Mississippi River. Accessed 2005 November
27.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mississippi_River&oldid=2
9390353>.
Wikipedia contributors. 2005. Missouri River. Accessed 2005 November 27.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Missouri_River&oldid=267
88111>.
Wikipedia contributors. 2005. Ohio River. Accessed 2005 November 27.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ohio_River&oldid=293722
00>.
Wonder Club. 2005. Mississippi River. Accessed 2005 December 13.
<http://www.wonderclub.com/Atlas/mississp.htm>.
Wonder Club. 2005. Missouri River. Accessed 2005 December 13.
<http://www.wonderclub.com/Atlas/missouri.htm>.
Wonder Club. 2005. Ohio River. Accessed 2005 December 13.
<http://www.wonderclub.com/Atlas/ohio.htm>.
Prepared by:
Heath E. Capello
University of Mississippi
November 2005
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
6
Lake Itasca
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
7
Ohio River
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
8
Missouri River
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
9
Mississippi River
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
10
Lower Mississippi River
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
11
Where’s the Watershed?
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
Names:
12
Where’s the Watershed?
Modified from NSF North Mississippi GK-8
Names: Key
13