Lesson 3: We All Live in a Watershed Guiding question: In my watershed, what activities are occurring that are helping and/or harming the quality of water? Divide students into groups of five, and tell them to brainstorm a way to eliminate all of the water on earth. Share answers and rebuttals at to why these methods will not work.

Our Water All the water we have on earth is here to stay, and we cannot buy, steal or make any more water. If we cannot make any more water, what does that mean?

Recycling Recycling is taking a used or unwanted material and recreating it to make a useful product. We have been recycling water for centuries. Make the connection that the water they drank yesterday at the water fountain was used by someone else. Mention that they also could be drinking water dinosaurs drank or water used by Abraham Lincoln to shave his beard!

How Water is Recycled There are organizations that work to recycle our water. Sanitation District No. 1 (SD1) cleans all of Northern Kentucky’s wastewater at one of three wastewater treatment plants. Dry Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Page 14 Have students turn to pg. 14 in their Water Log workbooks as you explain the storm water process.

Storm Water The Water Cycle: Water evaporates from a water body. Transpiration from trees occurs. Clouds form (condensation). A cloud gets heavy from condensation, and precipitation occurs. Rain falls from the sky onto roofs, pavement, roads, etc. (run-off surfaces). Ask students how water gets into a river or lake.

Storm Water Some rain runs into storm drains. Some rain flows directly into water bodies. Rain from storm drains runs through pipes underground. Rain flows through pipes to channels and outlets, ending up in a water body.

Storm Water Water gets into a river or a lake by rainfall, runoff from homes and properties and through channels and outlets. Water falls onto our earth, carrying everything it touches (pollutants, soil, trash, etc.) with it to local waterways (streams, creeks and rivers).

Watersheds Watersheds are land areas that “shed” water to a local body of water. Water runs downhill from these higher places to lower areas and into rivers, streams, lakes and other bodies of water. Land areas that drain into bodies of water are called "watersheds" or "river basins." Have students turn to their “Kentucky River Basin/Watershed Map” in their Water Log workbooks. Tell students that the dark lines are dividing lines that show the highest places on the land. Water runs downhill from those higher places into rivers, streams, lakes and other bodies of water. We call these land areas that drain into bodies of water “watersheds” or “river basins.”

Point out each river basin/watershed. Ask students to circle NKY with a red crayon. Ask what county they live in and what watershed. The answer is the Licking River Watershed.

Watersheds Watersheds are named after the biggest river or creek that collects the water that runs off the land in the watershed. The Licking River flows through the counties in Northern Kentucky. We all live in the Licking River Watershed or Licking River Basin. Ask students which larger river the water from the Licking River flows into. The answer is the Ohio River.

Page 16 Have students turn to pg.16 in their Water Log workbook.

What’s Wrong With This Picture? There are smaller watersheds within larger ones. Color each watershed the following colors: Woolper Creek- blue Gunpowder Creek- red Banklick Creek- pink Big Bone Creek- green Cruises Creek- purple Phillips Creek- yellow Twelve Mile Creek- brown Four Mile Creek- gray Characters: Danny the Dog Walker Fran the Fertilizer Carl the Car Washer Peter the Polluter & Painter Owen the Oil Dripper

What’s Wrong With This Picture? What is the name of the watershed in which you live? What is the character doing? Where will the pollution go when it rains? Where will the pollution go after it leaves the creek? The answer chart is on pg 41 in your Teacher Guide.

School Audit Playground Parking lot Stream/Pond School grounds School storm drains Tell the students they are going to be private investigators and tour their school grounds to see if any of the situations occurring on the worksheet are happening at the school.

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Page 48 Tally your findings on the chalkboard or on the pollution web on pg. 48 in the Water Log workbook. Have students complete a family audit and report their findings.

Pollution Removal Ideas Write a letter to other classes encouraging other students to pick up trash in their classrooms and from the school grounds. Organize and conduct a school-wide clean-up day. Make posters publicizing a "No Pollution" message. Hang them around the school. Make an environmental infomercial to act out before a PTO/PTA meeting. Write a letter to your principal about the class taking a school audit, and suggest ways to make the school grounds cleaner. After students have completed their family audits, come up with ways they can remove pollutants from school and family grounds. Have them add their family audit totals to the pollution web.

Open Response Questions Identify and discuss three possible sources of stream pollution. Describe how each of the pollutants you identified and described in Part A could be prevented.

Web Review Click the link below to visit the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Education web page and complete an activity reviewing types of non point source pollution. Just click on the interactive scene to find out “what's wrong with the picture.” http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/kids/whatswrong/index.cfm