Presented by:

Leslie Chase Chelsea High School 299 Everett Avenue Chelsea, MA 02150	Judith M. Donovan Reading Memorial High School 62 Oakland Road Reading, MA 01867	Mary Anne Lynn Reading Memorial High School 62 Oakland Road Reading, MA 01867

PALMS Summer Content Institute 1997: The Watershed Model: Online and Community Service

Learning Standards in Action: Designing Projects and Assessments

Based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

Massachusetts Department of Education

I. Description of the Project:

The development of a comparative investigation of urban and suburban environments of the Mystic River Watershed, which may serve as a model for comparison of any diverse environments within a common watershed.

The Town of Reading is located at the headwaters of the Aberjona and Mystic River system; 18 miles downriver, at the mouth of the river system, is the City of Chelsea. High school students from Chelsea and Reading will examine each their own water-based environments, within the Mystic Watershed. As the learners engage in inquiry-based, hands-on projects, critical thinking skills and problem-solving, the project will lead them to cross the domains of science and interdisciplinary connections, as they begin to explore, describe and understand two diverse ecosystems in the Mystic Watershed.

II. The target groups for this project include:

Chelsea: General Science/Math students: grades 11 and 12;

Reading: Biology Students: grade 10; ChemCom and Environet students: grades 11 and 12.

III. State Curriculum Frameworks Learning Standards:

Attached is a chart, listing the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks Learning Standards that are appropriately related to the Enabling Activities (Section V below), and can be applied by each member of this planning team. See Addendum I

Additionally, each teacher will develop other Standards which are curriculum and content-dependent, particlularly for Strand 2, as the development of the unit progresses. At this time, it seems likely that the following will be considered, for application of Strand 2 of Physical Science and/or Life Science:

• Explore and describe how matter is made up of elements, compounds, and numerous mixtures of these two kinds of substances.
• Present evidence that solubilitiy of substances may vary with temperature and with the natures of the solute and the solvent.
• Explain chemical changes in terms of rearrangements of atoms of molecules, which are made possible by the breaking and forming of chemical bonds.
• Explore and illustrate an understanding that the amount of energy involved in changesof state of molecular liquids and solids is determined by the type of attractive forces between the molelcules.
• Demonstrate an understanding that energy is supplied to ecosystems by sunlight and dissipates as heat. Know that the principle pathway of this dissipation is cellular respiration.
• Illustrate an understanding that plants convert light energy into chemical energy.

Chelsea: The School Curriculum Objectives are in process.

Reading: The Statement of Philosophy for the Science Department Curriculum Goals and Objectives, Reading Public Schools reads:

It is our intention that students graduating from the Reading School District understand that science is a unique and powerful way of knowing about the natural world. It relies upon curiosity, inventiveness, observation, analysis, continuous questioning, and perhaps more importantly, critical thinking. Knowledge means little if we cannot apply it to the solution of personal and societal problems, and to the improvement and protection of life. With this in mind, we have established curriculum and instructional goals.

The document continues, identifying and defining the five goals of the Science Department. The goals include: Knowledge of Science; Process of Science; Application of Science; Nature of Science; and Outcomes of Science. Furthermore, each goal is elaborated, showing consistency with the Common Core and the Curriculum Frameworks Guiding Principles. Performance Objectives and current Evaluation of Performance are also included. A copy of the full report is attached as Addendum II.

Reading's specific math, science and technology education goals, consistent with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, have been identified in the Palms Project Mission and Vision Statement, April 1996. It is clearly stated that curriculum design should:

• actively engage learners
• emphasize quality of understanding
• use assessment to improve instruction
• use cooperative and collaborative learning
• make learning accessible and equitable for all students
• stress learning as a life-long process
• have a problem-solving focus
• be hands-on and inquiry-based.

Activity #1- "Building a Surface Watershed Model:  This may be requested from Faith L. Burbank, tel 781-740-4913, or email: fburbank@umext.umass.edu.

Activity #2- "Following a Raindrop Underground" Using creative and critical thinking strategies, students predict and follow the changes in a raindrop (precipitation) as it journies over and underground, through human and natural landscapes to the bay. This allows students to develop questions for further investigation about water quality and pollution.

Activity #3- "Applying Analogy and Models to Understanding" Go to Part I, p. 7. (Click on http://k12s.phast.umass.edu/~masag/mbeaguid.htm#Models).

Activity #4- "Erosion in a Bottle", Part II, p. 79. This is a Land Use Runoff Model that uses plastic soda bottles to demonstrate what happens when water lands on various surfaces. Equipment list and procedures for testing different
types of sediment and pollutants are included.

Activity #5- "I Don't Live by the Estuary, Why Should I Care?", Part II, p.17. Students create a model of a watershed using a stream table and experiment with different "pollutants".

Activity #6- "Who Dirtied the Water?", Part II, p. 24. This involves an interactive story in which the origin of different types of pollutants in the Boston Harbor area is demonstrated. Students role play peoples from Native
American to the present.

Activity #7- "Pollution Dilution", Part III, p. 9. This math & science activity uses experiments adding food coloring to water to show how scientists use measurements to define clean and dirty water.

Activity #8"Clean Lab: Filter Feeders at Work", Part III, p. 16. This "bivalve biology" activity illustrates how the soft-shelled clam collects its food which may include contaminants, and how contaminants are passed on through the
food chain.

Activity #9- "In the Field...Watershed/Forest Inventory", Water World Workshops, 190A High St., Newsburyport, MA 01950.
 
*Note: This activity will be conducted along the Mystic River. Students will use techniques learned in the classroom to do a hands-on investigation of selected sites. They will inventory flors, fauna, weather, geology,
microorganisms and water quality. See Addendum IV.

Activity #10- Activities from Watershed to Bay: A Raindrop Journey, University of Massachusetts Cooperataive Extension Service, Chapter IV, pp.7-16. These activities emphasize skills with map and compass and developing understandings about watershed contours and topography. Activity 1: Locating your School; Activity 2: Drawing a Watershed Hypothesis for your School; Activity 3: Using Topographic Maps; Activity 4: Finding the Ups andDowns of the Landscape with a Contour Line Exercise; Activity 5: Planning your own Raindrop Journey, with
Worksheets on Watershed Mapping and Water Table Contours; Activity 6: Human Impacts on your Watershed with a Worksheet on Water Quality in Your Watershed; and Activity 7: Assessment and Reflection.

At this point in time the students will have a conceptual as well as an emerging real-life experience of their watershed and the conditions that influence it. It is our hope that as students continue to monitor this waterway they will begin to see patterns and relationships, begin to formulate their own questions about the watershed and eventually develop a sense of ownership.

Students will be introduced to another community along the watershed to assess and reinforce their learning. They will be required to reestablish information (e.g. topography, terrain, etc.) of this sub-watershed (Chelsea/Reading). The students' ability to use their new knowledge base and developing skills to achieve this task will be utilized as an assessment tool. The introduction of information about a second watershed is also designed to open the door of communication with students from this partnering town via technology.

VI. Skills:

1. Development of a scientific vocabulary associated with watersheds, based on the real-life experiences of the Enabling Activities.
2. Re-enforcement of scientific method (observations, collecting data, record-keeping, analysis, and evaluation).
3. Learn the skills associated with reading a map.
4. Application of math computations and graphing skills, as needed.
5. Ability to use technology appropriately: equipment and tools of science, computers (e-mail, internet searches, probes).
6. Development of critical thinking skills.
7. Generating their own questions.

These products and performances compliment the skills listed in section VI. in numerical order.

1. Demonstrate the appropriate use of a scientific vocabulary associated with watersheds, through oral and written communication. It is anticipated that such a vocabulary will evolve over time, and may be ability-dependent. Class discussions, journal and/or paragraph writing, word splash activities, research, and oral presentations are among the appropriate performance tools.
2. Students will keep personal lab notes and use that information to complete lab reports.
3. After becoming familiar with map reading by using a Reading map, students will demonstrate their knowledge, given a Chelsea map. Chelsea students will perform these tasks in reverse.
4. Quantitative measurement are embedded in many of the Enabling Activities. Data interpretation through graphing will be required in lab reports.
5. Some identifiable products and performances include: communication with students of Chelsea/Reading via e-mail; do process-research with student-generated questions, identify sites on the internet that help them to better understand their watershed, test soil and water quality using probes and other testing tools, and measure factors of slope and drainage.
6. Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn and reasons.
7. As students gain information and understanding of the watershed concept through an examination of their own water-based environments, it is anticipated that questions will increase in frequency, depth, variety, and expression.

The "spirit" of the Frameworks will guide criteria assessment development, in a holistic manner.

Can the student deal with concepts rather than the discrete facts? Can the student conduct sustained work? Can the student demonstrate an understanding of context of solving complex problems? Can the student deveise a strategy for solving the problem? Can the student redefine the problem?

The specific criteria for assessment listed below compliment the skills identified in section VII., in numerical order. While they are meant to provide the seed of our thoughts, they need further development.

1. Considerations for developing assessment in vocabulary include meaningful usage in both oral and written form applied in a variety of ways.
2. Observations are quantitatively and qualitatively accurate and use of metric measurements is appropriate. Scientific drawings display knowledge of key concepts. Appropriate tools and materials are used.Data are organized and recorded appopriately and neatly. Avoidance of personal opinions, conclusions and inferences while making observations. Inferences are reasonable, explained and justified, based on observations made and the observer's prior knowledge.
3. Reading map markings such as latitude and longitude, scalar values, elevations and altitudes, and other special symbols for watershed maps.
4. Performs basic math computations connected with experimental work. Can create and interpret basic graphs.
5. Considers safety and care in the use of tools and equipment. Ability to make the connection with students from the partnering school. Ability to perform a basic internet search.
6. Gives evidence through various activities of the use and development of critical thinking skillss. Generates new ideas. Specifies goals, and generates alternatives, evaluates and chooses the best alternative. Recognizes problems and makes and executes plans of action. Organizes and processes symbols, pictures, graphs, objects, and other information.Uses efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills. Discovers a pattern or principle underlying the relationshipp between two or more objects and applies it in solving a problelm..
7. Increases the number of questions/ideas posed. Varies questions/ideas in the manner of expression.Varies the nature of questions/ideas, using the hierarchy of: recognition and recall, interpretation, application, creative, and evaluation as the basis of personal inquiry.

Compare and contrast the watershed of Reading with that of Chelsea.

• List areas of similarities in the watersheds
• Describe ways in which the watersheds differ
• Identify the connections/ relationships between these two sub-watersheds
• Predict ways in which the watershed might improve or change

• Can people change a watershed quality?
• What is your role in the change of the watershed?
• Do you have a sense of stewardship and care for your watershed?

X.. Scoring Guide (to be added later):

XI. Recommended web-sites and resources:

Armadillo's WWW Resources:
http://192.239.14618/links/html

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
http://www.epa.gov
http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/
http://www.epa.gov/surf/nep.html

Bill Nye, the Science Guy:
http://Nyelabs.kcts.org/
http://Nyelabs.kcys.org/nyeverse/shows/s221.html

Soil Studies:
http://nessen.unl.edu/activities/soils/soildemos.html

Virtual School House:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/cisco/schoolhouse.html

Boston Harbor Basin Map(includes Mystic River Watershed):
bostmap.htm

Other Resources:

The Blue Planet (video), NASA.

Boston Globe articles related to Reading gasoline spill, September and October, 1992.

Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders, National Audobon Society. Alfred A. Knopf, Pub.: NY, 1984.

Field Guide to North American Trees (Eastern Region), National Audobon Society. Alfred A. Knopf, Pub.: NY, 1984. Guide to Field Identification: Wildflower of North America. Golden Guide, Frank D. Venning. Western Publishing Co., Inc., NY, 1984.

Massachusetts Bays Resource Guide for Educators (A draft). Barbara S. Waters and Faith Burbank, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Bays Education Alliance Working Group Members.September, 1996.

"Poison in the Well ", from the audio cassette Blind Man's Zoo; 10,000 Maniacs: 1989. Electra/Asylum Records, Los Angeles, CA.

Reading Chronicle articles related to Reading gasoline spill, September and October, 1992, and September, 1997.

Usborne Spotter's Guides: The Weather; Francis Wilson & Felicity Mansfield. Usborne Publishing Ltd. : London, England, 1985

Student Project: Watershed-MWRA