This lesson is part of an Idea Set called Tracking Our Plastic: Sea to Source.

Preparation

Recommended Prior Activities:

• The Power of Plastic
• Sea to Source

Resources Provided:

• Encyclopedic Entry: Watershed
• Video: Sea to Source: Collecting Geospatial Data (in carousel above)
• Chart: Know & Need to Know
• Website: How's My Waterway
• Website: Marine Debris Tracker

Materials You Provide:

• App: Marine Debris Tracker
  • Note: Download the app on mobile devices for small-group student use prior to lesson. Create a username and password for your class, then "Select an Organization" and choose "National Geographic Education."
• Chart paper and markers for mapping watersheds
• One school mobile data device per group of three students

Required Technology:

• Internet access
• One computer per classroom
• Mobile data device (smartphone/tablet)
• Monitor/Screen
• Projector

Physical Space:

• Classroom
• Parking lot
• School playground

Grouping:

• Large-group instruction
• Large-group learning
• Small-group learning
• Small-group work

Accessibility notes:

• Step 4: When collecting geospatial data outside of the classroom, choose a location accessible to students with physical challenges. Students with physical challenges can be responsible for logging data for their group, if necessary.

Overview
The world’s waterways range in size from a tiny trickle to miles wide, but all share a few things in common. They typically run with the force of gravity, and they belong to watersheds—areas where all of the water drains from a source toward a single waterway and out to its mouth, eventually reaching the sea. In a cycle, this water returns from the ocean back to the land via precipitation, such as rain and snow.

Scientists use a variety of data collection strategies to study plastics in watersheds, and each yields different information about the environment.

• Geospatial data tracks locations—for example, the latitude and longitude of a piece of plastic pollution.
• Observational data can encompass many types of information gleaned through simple recognition (such as the number of plastic bottles at a data collection site) or measured with tools (such as the weight of plastic pollution on a scale).
• Finally, social science data focuses on people, culture, and society—for example, interviews with residents and local businesses might reveal barriers to plastic recycling.

Objectives
Students will:

• Map watersheds by identifying main bodies of water, tributaries, and the direction of flow.
• Collect geospatial data on plastic pollution.
• Describe the movement of water and debris within a watershed using relevant terms.
• Directly link the discarding of plastic with pollution in local waterways.

Teaching Methods:
Experiential Learning
Learning by doing—includes knowledge and skills acquired outside of book/lecture learning situations through work, play, and other life experiences (Note: do not confuse with "learning experience").

Inquiry
Also referred to as scientific inquiry; refers to activities in which learners develop knowledge and understanding of how scientists study the natural world.

Lab Procedures
Laboratory work, including testing, experimentation, observation, practice, and analysis.

Skills Summary
This activity targets the following skills:

• Geographic Skills
  • Acquiring Geographic Information
  • Analyzing Geographic Information
  • Answering Geographic Questions
• Science and Engineering Practices
  • Planning and carrying out investigations
• 21st Century Student Outcomes
  • Learning and Innovation Skills
    • Communication and Collaboration
  • Information, Media, and Technology Skills
    • Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) Literacy
• 21st Century Themes
  • Global Awareness
  • Civic Literacy
  • Environmental Literacy
• Critical Thinking Skills
  • Applying

Directions

1. Define the term watershed and support students in applying it to the “Sea to Source: Ganges” expedition in the Ganges (Ganga) River watershed.

• Using the class Know and Need to Know chart, revisit any questions related to water or plastic movement, and prime students with the goal of this activity: to understand the flow of water and plastic pollution within their community.
• Introduce the term watershed by reading together the Watershed encyclopedic entry. Ask each student to write their own definition of watershed following this activity, and solicit responses to construct a class definition in a visible location.
• Open National Geographic MapMaker and locate the Ganges River. Ask for volunteers to locate the source and mouth of the river. Open Basemaps and select the Imagery basemap, then view the rivers and streams surrounding the Ganges. Explore in both 3D and 2D views in MapMaker to view the area surrounding the Ganges. Ask students to think-pair-share with a partner for the following questions:
  • Knowing what we now know about watersheds, what can we say about all of the rivers and streams surrounding the Ganges? (All rivers and streams within the watershed flow into one main body of water, the Ganges River.)
  • Which way is the water flowing on this map, and how do you know? (The flow is downhill, from the mountains to the plains, because water in watersheds flows with gravity.)

2. Engage students in mapping your local watershed to expand knowledge of water and plastic debris movement.

• Transition students to focus on your own community watersheds. Begin by projecting an online map of your zip code using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) How’s My Waterway interactive tool.
• Ask a volunteer to use a blue marker to trace the main river or stream on the map along its path from source to mouth.
• You may need to zoom out substantially to find a main river or stream with tributaries also represented on the map. Even if you are far from a body of water, examining a larger area of the map will eventually ensure that the watershed you trace includes your community.
• Next, ask a second volunteer to use a black marker to trace all of the streams and rivers that flow into that river. Explain that a smaller river or stream that flows into a larger river is called a tributary.
• Finally, ask a third volunteer to connect the tips of all of the black tributaries with a red line. Explain that this red line shows the outer bounds of the watershed.
• Remind students of the direction of flow in the main river or stream, and then ask for a volunteer to place a black arrow indicating the direction of flow for each tributary.
• If necessary, remind students that all water within watersheds empties toward the main river or stream, and that this flow is downhill (with gravity).
• Pick a well-known place on the map and draw a dot or star at this location. Ask students to imagine plastic debris dropped here, and ask:
• If a big rainstorm comes and picks up this plastic, where do you think it will flow?
• Choose a location well within the watershed that you have mapped. Prompt students to illustrate their prediction with green arrows moving this piece of plastic debris downhill to the nearest tributary, into the main river, and down to its mouth.

3. Guide students to identify trends in the Marine Debris Tracker online data.

• Revisit the types of geospatial data described in the geospatial data collection video seen in the prior activity, Sea to Source. The video, "Sea to Source: Collecting Geospatial Data," is included in the carousel above.
• Explain to students that they will now be using an online tool, the Marine Debris Tracker, to examine the location of plastic debris from around the world and practice collecting geospatial data.
• Move the chart paper with the students’ watershed map to an alternate visible location, and project the Marine Debris Tracker website for the class. In the top navigation, select "Data", then filter your results using the left-hand navigation. For example, select "All Organizations," choose a specific time frame, and search. Zoom in on the map to your region. If debris is present here, remain local; if not, choose a more distant location with debris logged, such as the Ganges River, between May and July of 2019.
• Zoom in and explain to students that each marker indicates one piece of debris; click on a few points to see what type of pollution is represented.
• Explain that students will now learn to use the Marine Debris Tracker to log local debris.

4. Prepare students to collect geospatial data with the Marine Debris Tracker app.

• Divide students into groups of three, and ask one member of each group to open the free Marine Debris Tracker app on a school device or smartphone.
• If not already logged in, walk students through signing into and selecting the organization listed as "National Geographic Education" with the class username and password.
• Travel as a class to an outdoor location near the school where trash has accumulated outside of waste bins. Together, practice logging debris (each group should log a few pieces; see Tips).
• Assign each group of students to a specific area in the vicinity (for example, the playground, dumpster area, school entryway, etc.) and log the trash they encounter there in the Marine Debris Tracker app. After a specified amount of time, return to the classroom.

5. Prompt students to synthesize watershed knowledge data to predict where plastic pollution will move.

• Explain to students that their own data collection is now available to view on the Marine Debris Tracker. Refresh the "Data” tab on the projected tracker, and zoom into your local region. Students can now see their own data.
• Complete the activity with a brief discussion synthesizing the connection between watersheds and marine debris, asking:
  • Where will the plastic debris we just logged eventually end up?
  • How do you know?
• Encourage students to record their own and classmates’ responses in their notes.
• Revisit the Know and Need to Know chart, noting any student questions clarified by this activity.

Informal Assessment

Examine the class watershed maps and listen for students’ descriptions of potential plastic transport to informally evaluate their initial understanding of the watershed concept, their use of the Marine Debris Tracker, and their predictions of water/debris movement, each of which will be developed and refined in later activities within the lesson.

Extending the Learning

• Step 2: This activity contains material from Mapping the World’s Watersheds and can be expanded to include independent watershed mapping by students as individuals or in small groups.
• Step 4: Extend the learning about geospatial data and the Marine Debris Tracker with the Introduction to GIS activity or the GIS (geographic information system) encyclopedic entry.

Tips & Modifications

• Step 2: This step can be completed within the “Data” tab of the Marine Debris Tracker to streamline use of the tool with watershed mapping practice.
• Step 4: If time runs short, skip tracking debris in small groups and rely on the practice tracking completed as a class for Step 5.
• To learn more about the use of the Marine Debris Tracker, access the Getting Started video on the Marine Debris Tracker website.

Connections to National Standards, Principles, and Practices

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) available through the National Science Teacher's Association:

• Performance Expectation:
  • MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
  • 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.
• Science & Engineering Practices:
  • Planning and carrying out investigations: Plan an investigation individually and collaboratively, and in the design: identify independent and dependent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measurements will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a claim.
• Crosscutting Concepts:
  • Cause and Effect: Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS):

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.