Lesson Plan: Local Waterway Health Check Stage: Lesson Focus: Student Outcomes: Syllabus links: Equipment and materials: Pre lesson preparation:

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1 Lesson Plan: Local Waterway Health Check Stage: 2 Lesson Focus: Stormwater and Catchments Student Outcomes: To understand the effects of stormwater on waterway health and inform the school community about stormwater issues. Syllabus links: Science and Tech INV S2.7 Conducts investigations by observing, questioning, predicting, testing, collecting, recording and analysing data and drawing conclusions HSIE ENS2.5 Describes peoples interactions with environments and identifies responsible ways of interacting with environments Equipment and materials: Map of the local area centred on the school and the local waterway Waterway health checklist score sheets Student recording sheet Garbage bags/gloves/tongs (if picking up litter en route to site) Clipboards for each student Writing equipment Cameras First aid kit Pre lesson preparation: Source required equipment (above) Complete excursion risk assessment Distribute and collect local excursion permission forms Lesson Outline: Introduction: Using a Google Earth map on the interactive whiteboard centred on the school, introduce students to the concept of catchments and stormwater and the fact that all rainwater falling in the local area makes its way to the lowest point (the local waterway) and picks up pollutants (eg litter, chemicals, nutrients etc) on its way. Emphasise that these pollutants usually end up on local beaches, rivers etc or accumulate in the ocean. These pollutants cause problems for waterway (and human) health. Discuss factors that could affect local water quality. Explain that students will investigate a local waterway, record results and draw conclusions about the waterway. Activities: 1 Walk to local waterway Discuss the components of the waterway health check score-card. Complete category one on the way to the waterway. If the route to the waterway has a litter problem at the time of investigation, students could pick up rubbish (using gloves/tongs and garbage bags) along the way to the survey site and deposit it in council bins. 2 Waterway health check At the waterway, have students complete the waterway health check worksheet using the checklist score card provided. Conclusion: On completion of the survey, discuss the class results and brainstorm ways students (and the community) can contribute to improving the health of local waterways, eg not littering, using recycled drink containers, picking up dog droppings in plastic bags, washing cars on the grass or in a car wash, washing paint brushes in a bucket etc.

2 Follow up Activities: 1 Make a class presentation to the rest of the school describing the health of the waterway and activities the whole school community can do to minimise stormwater water pollution. 2 Spray the drains with an environmental message to remind the school where school stormwater goes. Drain stencils may be available from local councils. Due to WPS requirements, students should wear a face mask, goggles and gloves.

3 Local Waterway Health Check student worksheet Site Information Name Name of waterway Date Suburb or Town Weather conditions Has it rained in the last 24 hours? (Yes/No) (If Yes, was it heavy? Yes/No ) (2) Use the Waterway Health Check card to complete the rating category for your site. Record your rating in the column below, then calculate the total score to rate the health of your waterway: CATEGORY RATING (1-10) YOUR COMMENTS 1. Land Use 2. Litter 3. Pipe and drain 4. Extra structure modifications 5. Smell 6. Water clarity 7. Vegetation 8. Invertebrate animals 9. Vertebrate animals Overall rating of the waterway health could be described as (please circle) excellent (85-90) good (66-84) average (26-65) poor (0-25) 90 Total score

4 Water Bugs Check as an indicator of Water Quality Rating (If a freshwater creek is available) Freshwater macroinvertebrates or water bugs are animals that spend all or part of their lives in the water - streams, rivers, ponds, wetlands, drains. To help us give the local waterway an environmental rating, we can check for water bugs by dipnetting, identifying them and then according to their sensitivity use this information to rate the water quality. Follow the instructions about how to dipnet to check for water bugs. Use the chart to identify and rate each one you have found. Water Bug identified from chart: Bug value (1-10): (the higher the number the more sensitive) Class Total Very sensitive (10, 9 and 8) Sensitive (6, 5 and 4) Tolerant (3) Very tolerant (2 and 1) Different no. of bugs found: Waterway Rating based on bug survey (please circle) Excellent Good Average Fair (4) Water quality testing You will undertake some scientific investigations to find our about the quality of the water at this site. Measurement Result Temperature ( C) Phosphates (ppm) Turbidity (NTU s) The water quality on this day can be described as The factors affecting the water quality

5 Local Waterway Health Check Score sheet 1

6 Local Waterway Health Check Score sheet 2