Fourth-Grade Virtual Stream Study – Stream-to-Screen Learning

Access to this course is currently by invitation only.

Course Information

This mini-unit teaches fourth-grade students how to identify and describe signs of a healthy watershed and how humans impact the watershed. The lessons focus on watershed education and are delivered via videos from Stroud Water Research Center. Students complete activities for each lesson in a field notebook, which is available in digital or paper-based forms.

Videos for each lesson are about 35 minutes long, with pauses for completing field notebook sections. Teachers may choose to take longer pauses and discuss, but each lesson is meant for one class period.

Each lesson offers optional extension activities, and there are two optional videos that can be played at any point in the mini-unit.

After the lessons have been completed, a conclusion session allows for a teacher-led discussion, review of the mini-unit purpose, and two final questions that can be used as an assessment.

Course Instructor

Tara Muenz Author

Getting Started

Mini-Unit Overview

An overview of the lessons’ purpose, duration, outline, and sequence.

Introduction and Materials

Download digital and paper-based field notebooks and have students watch the introduction video.

Diving In

Watersheds, Tree Check, and Fish Grow on Trees

Learning targets: explain what a watershed is; explain why trees are important to the health of a watershed.

Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Adaptations

Learning targets: explain how aquatic macroinvertebrates survive and move in a stream; explain what aquatic macroinvertebrates tell us about a watershed’s health.

Water Quality and Habitat Check

Learning targets: explain the different habitats in a stream and describe two ways to tell the watershed’s health through water quality tests; use scientific skills to evaluate the health of the watershed.

Finishing Up

Conclusions

This is a class period led by the teacher and reviews the purpose of the three lessons.

Optional Content

The White Clay Creek video and nature stretch video can be played on any of the days where you have time.