Curriculum Guide by the Bureau of Land Management

A Youth Program for the Study and Stewardship of Community Riparian Areas

Source: http://www.uwex.edu/erc/youth/curriculum.html

NC Essential Standards Correlation:
8th Grade Science- Structure of the Hydrosphere, NC Water Quality, Monitoring the Hydrosphere
9th Grade Earth/Environmental Science- Human Impacts on Freshwater Availability and NC Water Quality

This guide is initially designed for students in grades 5-8 to be conducted during class, at camp or in after-school programs.

This is a comprehensive, step by step curriculum guide to properties of rivers, the science behind quality watersheds and the importance of riparian buffers. A student action guide and a leader guide can be downloaded for free. The leader's guide includes a table for planning a schedule. The entire curriculum would require a total of 14-16 hours to complete. The guide includes outdoor activities to visit nearby streams. They are referred to as field trips but depending on the resources at your school grounds, a field trip may not be necessary. The activities could also be adapted depending on the resources available to the teacher.

The guides include all printouts for student activities as well as materials lists, vocabulary, background information and important resources. There are great ideas for building your own stream tables in class, exploring erosion, macroinvertebrates and the importance of riparian buffers. Students follow inquiry based lessons that foster the development of science investigation skills, critical thinking and problem solving.

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