River Run Lesson
http://www.uncw.edu/riverrun/

River Run offers two main interactive data displays, the Geographic Information Service (GIS) and the Data Visualization Tool (DVT). GIS is a computer utility for mapping and analyzing geographic locations and numerical data of events that occurred at those places. The ability to link to databases and maps to create stimulating displays is useful when using the GIS tools.  

The River Run data visualization tool (DVT) and Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used within science classes to study water quality or other issues concerning water (hurricanes, weather, etc).  Students can use the DVT to manipulate various water quality parameters to see the changes that occur in different parts of a river system over time.   Students can also use the GIS to plot the location of various types of farms or hurricanes in the area of the rivers and compare data from the two sources to look for evidence of water quality degradation caused by agricultural run off or hurricane impacts. Such an exercise would give students an enormous amount of practice working with graphs, maps, and technology within a meaningful and engaging context.   The following inquiry-based lesson allows students to understand real-world data and environmental concepts, such as water quality parameters through space and time, using engaging and interactive internet sites.  

River Run Lesson Plan

Cape Fear River is a large system that drains about 27% of NC – the largest watershed in NC. The land surrounding the Cape Fear River Basin has many different uses, such as industry and agriculture. The land uses affect the waters in this basin, and therefore it is important to understand these different influences and their affects on the plants and animals living nearby.

(Picture of CFR and Black R)

Before using River Run, it would be helpful for the teacher to review students’ knowledge of the Cape Fear River Basin, and the properties and parameters involved: dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, turbidity, temperature, nitrate, and phosphate. After defining and describing these parameters, the teacher should continue probing students with questions to identify students’ knowledge of these parameters.

· Have students hypothesize what factors could affect and alter the parameters of the Cape Fear River and Northeast Cape Fear River.   (i.e. rain storms, hurricanes, pollution, etc).

· Why is it important to understand these parameters and what affects them?

· Ask the students to think of any relationships between the parameters, such as dissolved oxygen and turbidity.   What do the students predict they will see?

As a facilitator, the teacher will help students explore the different parameters of the Cape Fear River (CFR) by asking questions during their observations.   By using this data display tool, students will observe the data and use their findings to form questions, predictions, and find solutions.   Not all the data is completely explainable, and this could be used to further probe the students for their ideas as to what happened.   Ask students why? they think the expected did not occur and what else could be happening.  

After students begin to understand the parameters of the Cape Fear River, have them transfer their fundamental knowledge into real life data by completing some inquiry activities using River Run:

Click Here

for Inquiry Questions for Students

using River Run

Continue questioning and studying the relationships of the parameters for both rivers to see if students begin to discover additional patterns in the data.

Additional extension:

An exploration using data visualization tools and lakes while studying their parameters would be a great extension to this lesson.   Students may use the following link to utilize DVTs that look at data and lakes.

http://waterontheweb.org/data/dvtools/index.html

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 Lesson By:

Kelly Hall
MAT graduate student
University of North Carolina - Wilmington