Picture This: How USGS Captures Changing Water - Lesson Plan (PDF)

Objectives:

• Observe environmental changes using time-series images from a USGS HIVIS camera.
• Identify patterns in stream conditions, weather, vegetation, and seasonal change.
• Develop evidence-based explanations for changes observed in the landscape.
• Compare visual observations with real-time USGS water data, including gage height and water temperature.
• Interpret graphs to determine how measured hydrologic data supports or differs from visual observations.
• Recognize how stream systems respond to weather, seasons, and watershed processes.

Recommended level: Grades 6 – 12

Estimated Time: 30 minutes (plus optional extensions)

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Standards:

• DCIs:

  • MS-ESS2-4: Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
  • MS-ESS3-1: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are distributed.
  • HS-ESS2-2: Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth's surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
  • HS-ESS3-5: Analyze geoscience data and results from global climate models to make evidence-based forecasts.

   

• CCCs:  Patterns, Cause and Effect, Stability and Change, Systems and System Models

   

• SEPs: Asking Questions, Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Constructing Explanations, Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking