Land Use Change - Hellbranch Run

Jason Cervenec

Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center

This activity was developed for an introductory geosciences class at the high school level. It has also been successfully used at the middle school, advanced high school, and university levels.

Students must understand the concept of a watershed and have familiarity with various land uses.

This activity is part of a sequence of activities (fifth of five activities).

• For convenience, measurements of volume rather than mass are often used by Earth scientists to monitor quantities of water in natural systems. (For this unit, we will ignore volume changes that occur due to changes in temperature.)
• In a soil and water system, where soil particles are assumed to be fixed, measuring the volume of water added to a system and the volume of water that leaves a system provides a way to estimate the volume of water that remains within a system.
• While water particles are most commonly added to a soil-water system via rain, they can be removed via evaporation, uptake by plants, surface runoff, and subsurface runoff. Water particles can also be stored in the system.
• Humans can alter evaporation, uptake by plants, surface runoff, and subsurface runoff through land use patterns (paving surfaces, re-grading slopes, or changing vegetation cover, for instance).
• Water naturally drains downhill (from a higher elevation to a lower elevation) due to gravity.
• A watershed is a region from which water drains to a common location.
• Scientists can create complex mathematical models that allow them to adjust many factors and predict the effect on storage, surface runoff, and subsurface runoff.
• Computers allow scientists to design more complex models and use the models over larger geographic areas or longer time scales than would otherwise be possible.
• As scientists collect additional data and improve their understanding of the Earth System, mathematical models are improved and more accurate predictions are made.
• Geoscientists are working on topics that have applications in everyday life.
• Geoscientists need to apply their content knowledge in innovative ways while working with a diverse range of partners to solve complex problems.

A deliberate effort has been made to use best practices in science education when designing this activity. The activity is based around the 5E Learning Cycle and each investigation is an exercise in guided inquiry. Topics are introduced conceptually in qualitative ways before engaging in extensive quantitative measurements and calculations. While lectures can be used to quickly communicate the information contained in the activity, an explicit goal is to provide ways for major objectives to be "uncovered" and discussed in context of content-rich learning experiences. Hopefully, this will engage students, link content with real-world situations, and support deep understanding and long-term retention of knowledge. This activity is best delivered with a connection to one or two local watersheds. Many online resources referenced in this activity allow teachers to tailor instruction to their local environment and identify local professional who can offer instructional support and serve as guest speakers or site visit coordinators.

This fifth activity in a series of five provides a detailed examination of one watershed within Central Ohio with a specific focus on water flow and additional water quality measurements such as total suspended sediment, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, soluble phosphorous, and lead. This activity extends student understanding to include materials carried within water and also serves as a self-contained activity looking at land use in classrooms that might not have time to complete Activities III and IV.

Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center: Water Cycles and Watersheds

Other Activities in this Series:

• Soup Can Water Budget
• Geo Sandbox Water Budget
• Small Scale Watershed - Schoolyard
• Large Scale Watershed - Battelle Darby Creek