In the Arizona desert, farmers depend on an ample supply of irrigation to grow their crops. As climate changes, irrigation managers face a host of issues to keep the water flowing.
Students should research and define terminology included in the exercise (example - drainage basin) prior to lab. Pre-lab lecture should include basic concepts of hydrology (stream networks, basins) and an example of Strahler Stream Order. Students in a GIS-capable class can follow the instructions to create relevant maps and datasets. Students in introductory (non-GIS) classes should use pre-printed figures and tracing paper to complete the exercises.
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This activity is a field investigation where students observe, predict, and gather data on steam velocity, erosion, and discharge.
Included in the activity description
Metacognitive components of the activity
Describing one's thoughts to another person requires the problem-solver to listen and attend to their own thoughts as well. The questions and clarifications that the listener describes is yet another window into the problem-solver's thinking.
Metacognitive goals for this activity:
Promote reflective thinking, communication skills, better reasoning, listening skills, and better problem-solving and conceptual understanding.
Assessing students' metacognition
There have been several studies of this instructional strategy. I have used it in my own instruction of mathematics and science for more than 25 years.
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This stream field investigation will allow students to look at stream erosional patterns, take measurements to determine discharge, and conduct a chemical and turbidity analysis of Garvin Brook in Stockton, MN. Based on this investigation students will create a presentation that includes a new testable question that may be carried out the following year along with a stream ecology study.
Students explore how different materials (sand, gravel, lava rock) with different water contents on different slopes result in landslides of different severity. They measure the severity by how far the landslide debris extends into model houses placed in the flood plain. This activity is a small-scale model of a debris chute currently being used by engineers and scientists to study landslide characteristics. Much of this activity setup is the same as for the Survive That Tsunami activity in Lesson 5 of the Natural Disasters unit.
This unit is to be taught as an extension to the FOSS WATER INVESTIGATION 1, Part 3, WATER ON A SLOPE. After learning that water flows down a slope, students will understand that this concept determines how our watersheds flow. It will also explain why some rivers (such as the Red River) appear to be flowing "up" on a map. They will then create a landform map of Minnesota accurately representing the higher elevations (our RIDGELINES) and the location of our major rivers and bodies of water. This unit can also be extended by many of the activities in the Project Wild and the MinnAqua Lesson Books.
In this exercise, students use their intuition to enumerate similarities and differences between groundwater flow and oil migration. The activity is divided into two parts: (1) brainstorming of ideas, and (2) an expanded discussion of selected topics. The instructor begins by briefly reviewing the Rules of Brainstorming and then soliciting answers to a question such as: "How is the flow of groundwater in an aquifer similar to or different from the movement of oil in a petroleum reservoir?" The instructor records the similarities and differences suggested by students in two lists. After a sufficient quantity of responses has been gathered, the instructor chooses certain ideas for closer examination and discussion. (The instructor may decide on target topics in advance, or may choose to 'go with the flow' to explore interesting ideas that emerge from the students.) The activity gives students the opportunity to connect the disciplines of hydrogeology and petroleum geology, with particular emphasis on the concepts of multiphase flow, relative permeability, and saturation distributions at the water table and oil-water contacts.
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As Public Works Director of Nogales, Arizona, Alejandro Barcenas works to ensure a safe and secure water supply for the city’s 20,500 residents. His task isn’t easy: the city is located in an arid region just north of the United States–Mexico border, and its entire supply comes from groundwater.
Half of Nogales’ water comes from alluvial aquifers that are highly responsive to rainfall events. Though this convenient source of water recharges easily, it is also vulnerable to climate-related changes such as reduced precipitation and increased evaporation. The other half of the city’s groundwater comes from a lower-quality source—this water is more expensive to produce. To optimize the use of the two sources of groundwater into the future, Barcenas is contributing to the development of a modeling tool that simulates how the aquifers may change in response to climate.
See attached Excel worksheet
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In this module students learn some of the fundamental concepts of groundwater flow including measurement of water levels, hydraulic heads, construction of potentiometric surfaces, delineation of flowpaths, and calculation of ground-water flow velocities and traveltimes.
The goals of this module are to learn how to contour irregularly spaced data (water-level measurements made in observation wells), how to draw flowpaths on a contoured water-table map, how to measure hydraulic gradients from a contoured water-table map, and how to compute flow velocities and traveltimes using Darcy's law. The goals are applied to examining flowpaths of groundwater moving from the W.R. Grace and Beatrice properties and to computing traveltimes along these flowpaths.
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This module introduces students to the complexity of groundwater flow at the Aberjona River Valley site. The previous two modules provide background on the specific geology (and buried glacial valley complex) and the basics of groundwater flow through porous media. This module examines groundwater removed from the subsurface by pumping wells. This module is enhanced with groundwater animations created by Dr. E. Scott Bair, which illustrate contaminant movement and projects contaminant concentrations in various locations in the subsurface.
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This module uses existing publications from the USGS and the Army Corps of Engineers regarding flooding affects and classifications. The users are guided to basic overviews provided by those agencies can understand flooding and flooding concepts. The module also direct students to the 'real-time' data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association in conjunction with the USGS so they can view graphs showing the relation between rainfall, river stage and flow for the Aberjona River. The NOAA and USGS databases can provide the user with real-time as well as historic data to track flood waves and establish base flows. This data was key to the trial in defining what amount of groundwater was derived from the Aberjona River.
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Defining pumping of Wells G. and H was an important and contested issue during the trial. The induced infiltration module provides references regarding methods to measure induced infiltration and quantify surface water loss to groundwater from aquifer pumping. This module references different techniques for quantifying groundwater infiltration from streams. The purpose of this information is familiarizing users with the differing methods to quantify Stream loss due to induced infiltration so they can assess the effectiveness of the USGS data used during the trial.
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Contaminant movement through the subsurface is different for each contaminant and for different subsurface conditions. This module provides a general overview to the term "fate and transport," which refers to what happens when a contaminant migrates and its mode of migration. This module provides tools to help students understand the complexity of subsurface migration of contaminants and relate these complexities to trial issues. The module introduces concepts related to effective flow, dispersion, diffusion, and migration of partially soluble contaminants. Specific references to trichloroethylene (TCE) are provided as this was the most significant contaminant linking the defendants' to the plaintiffs' claims.
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Algal blooms are caused by an aggregation of either microscopic phytoplankton or macro algae. They can produce toxic or harmful effects on humans and or the ecosystem. The purpose of this activity is to teach students how to use remote sensing data from the Landsat 8 (OLI) to monitor algal blooms. Students work through a case study from Lake Erie. At the end of this activity students will be able to, in MATLAB, 1) access USGS data repositories to view Landsat imagery, 2) access band specific .TIF files directly from Amazon Web Services, 3) pre-process the imagery and a apply single band bloom detection algorithm and 4) work with the atmospherically corrected Land Surface Reflectance product to improve remote sensing estimates. Students will also work with the MATLAB Mapping Toolbox to produce presentation quality maps.
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This module is focused on increasing the users understanding and familiarity with the fate and transport of contaminants. Video clips of sand tank models showing the movement of contaminants in subsurface porous media are included. The sand tank models provide a visual guide to help see how different geologic materials with different permeability's effect the movement of fluids and ultimately the distribution of contaminants.
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In a class demonstration, students observe a simple water cycle model to better understand its role in pollutant transport. This activity shows one way in which pollution is affected by the water cycle; it simulates a point source of pollution in a lake and the resulting environmental consequences.
The Dotsero Crater in western Eagle County, is Colorado’s only active volcano. A new report from the United States Geological Survey lists it as a moderate threat to human activity. Don’t worry, Dotsero is not expected to erupt again anytime soon, but it does give us a chance to explore the report, and this mysterious piece of Colorado geology a little further. To help with the details, 9NEWS turned to Richard Busch with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He is an archeologist by expertise, but as an educator with the museum, he must be well versed in everything from anthropology to zoology.
Mójate Educación Acuática Equipo STEM (Se require entrenamiento especial). El Centro de Extensión y Educación en Ciencias Naturales colabora con la facultad de CSU, los Parques Nacionales y los programas de ciencia ciudadana para traducir su investigación científica actual en experiencias STEM únicas para los estudiantes en forma de kits educativos que se pueden prestar. Cada kit contiene casi todos los materiales necesarios (menos cosas comunes como agua y toallas de papel) para explorar algunos temas de investigación científica realmente interesantes. enviando un formulario de recogida local o un formulario de entrega disponible en el sitio web vinculado. Nota: El acceso a este recurso requiere capacitación adicional del educador. Utilice la información de contacto en la página de descripción general del kit STEM para obtener más información. https://www.cns-eoc.colostate.edu/stem-kits/ Este kit se proporciona de forma gratuita para uso educativo.