• Skill: Asking Questions, Planning investigations
• Region: American Southwest
• Science Theme: Colorado River

• Created by: Utah Education Network

Students will learn about the Colorado River and human efforts to control water flow. Students will then research other water management efforts throughout the country and report their findings.

• Skill: Experimentation
• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5, Middle School
• Science Theme: Water Cycle

• Created by: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Global Precipitation Measurement

In this lesson, students will learn about the water cycle and how energy from the sun and the force of gravity drive this cycle.

This learning activity takes at least two 45 minute class periods.

• Skill: Experimentation
• Grade Level: 3-5, Middle School
• Region: American Southwest
• Science Theme: Water Cycle

• Created by: Aquarius Education and Public Outreach, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

This lesson is an instructor demonstration that focuses specifically on two aspects of the water cycle: evaporation and condensation. This is a well described instructor led demonstration for introducing and exploring the water cycle.

This activity takes approximately 1 hour 35 minutes, but can be broken into separate lessons. Additional materials are required.

• Skill: Experimentation
• Grade Level: Middle School, High School
• Science Theme: Water Cycle

• Created by: National Weather Service

This classroom demonstration illustrates the amount of water stored in various parts of the Earth system in a straightforward manner. Students estimate the proportions of water in the oceans, icecaps and glaciers, groundwater, freshwater lakes, inland seas, soil moisture, atmosphere, and rivers. Then they fill beakers with the actual proportion and discuss what elements of the activity were surprising to them. Information on flash floods and flood preparedness and safety are included.

This learning activity takes approximately 20 min.

• Skill: Experimentation, Developing and using models
• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5, Middle School
• Science Theme: Climate, Water Cycle

• Created by: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Global Precipitation Measurement

This activity was developed to give participants an understanding of Earth's water cycle by completing a WebQuest and building a model of the water cycle.

This activity takes 1 hour.

• Grade Level: Middle School, High School
• Science Theme: Drought

• Created by: Public Broadcasting Service Learning Media

Through this set of lessons, students learn about the impacts of water shortages due to drought, make connections to climate patterns, and explore community resiliency solutions. The lessons engage students in evaluating solutions for a particular case study community. Students will need to do additional research on solutions, but by the end of the lesson, students will be able to articulate how drought, although a localized problem, has far-reaching impacts, and to suggest solutions to a problem that is projected to intensify as the climate continues to change.

This learning activity takes four 45 minutes class periods.

• Skill: Asking Questions, Construction explanations
• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5
• Science Theme: Climate, Water Cycle

• Created by: Becca Hatheway, Kerry Zarlengo, Lisa Gardiner, Sandra Henderson, The University Cooperation for Atmospheric Research

Students learn about the water cycle and hydrology through a series of three lessons, two coloring book pages, and an e-Book. The themes covered in this resource tie into Climate Science and fundamental climate principles, as well as, engages students in scientific methods.

This series of activities takes a minimum of six 30-45 mins class periods, with optional field trip.

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data, Arguing from evidence
• Grade Level: Middle School, High School, University

• Created by: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Using real data from NASA's GRACE satellites, students will track water mass changes in the U.S., data that measures changes in ice, surface and especially groundwater. The background information includes an animated video about where water exists and how it moves around Earth, as well as short video clips to introduce the GRACE mission and explain how satellites collect data. Students will estimate water resources using heat-map data, create a line graph for a specific location, then assess trends and discuss implications.

This activity illustrates the importance of water resources and how changes in climate are closely linked to changes in water resources. The activity could fit into many parts of a science curriculum, for example a unit on water could be connected to climate change.

This learning activity takes one to two 60 min class periods.

• Grade Level: Middle School
• Science Theme: Water Cycle

• Created by: Jetstream - On-line School for Weather, NOAJetstream - On-line School for Weather, NOAA - National Weather ServiceA - National Weather Service

In this activity, students act as water molecules and travel through parts of the water cycle (ocean, atmosphere, clouds, glaciers, snow, rivers, lakes, ground, aquifer). Students use a diagram of the hydrologic cycle to draw the pathway they traveled.

Activity takes about 1 class period.

• Skill: Experimentation, Asking Questions, Developing and using models
• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5
• Science Theme: Water Cycle

• Created by: Aquarius, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Students observe the process of evaporation, make comparisons about the process, then construct a diagram and use it to describe the process of evaporation.

This activity takes four 30 minute class periods. Additional materials are required.

• Grade Level: Middle School, High School
• Science Theme: Drought

• Created by: PBS, WGBH Educational Foundation

This PBS Learning Media activity addresses drought basics, including its causes and impacts and ways to assess it, by using media from NOAA and NASA. It defines the types of drought, the impacts, monitoring, and responses to drought. Use this resource to stimulate thinking and questions on the complexity of drought and to identify some variables used in defining drought.

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data
• Grade Level: High School, University
• Region: Colorado
• Science Theme: Climate, Colorado River

• Created by: Patricia Mynster, David Hassenzahl, Encyclopedia of Earth

This activity addresses climate change impacts that affect all states that are part of the Colorado River Basin and are dependent on its water. Students examine available data, the possible consequences of changes to various user groups, and suggest solutions to adapt to these changes.

Activity takes about one-two class periods and homework assignments. Computer access required.

• Skill: Experimentation

• Created by: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Use aluminum foil to make boats and then test designs by seeing how many pennies or paperclips they can hold.

• Skill: Experimentation, Asking Questions
• Science Theme: Water Cycle

• Created by: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

See the relative volume of water available that is clean, safe, and available to drink.

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data, Experimentation
• Grade Level: 3-5

• Created by: University of Colorado Teach Engineering

Students construct three-dimensional models of water catchment basins using everyday objects to form hills, mountains, valleys and water sources. They experiment to see where rain travels and collects, and survey water pathways to see how they can be altered by natural and human activities. Students discuss how engineers design structures that impact water collection, as well as systems that clean and distribute water.

This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data, Experimentation, Planning investigations
• Grade Level: 3-5, Middle School

• Created by: University of Colorado Teach Engineering

Students learn about the differences between surface and ground water as well as the differences between streams, rivers and lakes. Then, they learn about dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the role it plays in identifying drinking water sources. Then students are introduced to conventional drinking water treatment processes by developing and implementing their own water filtration system through the associated activity. A student worksheet and answer key are provided.

This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data, Experimentation, Asking Questions
• Grade Level: High School, University
• Region: American Southwest
• Science Theme: Colorado River

• Created by: Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

In Lab 4, students take a journey to the Colorado River Basin near Lees Ferry. They explore aspects of the Colorado River Basin using a variety of resources, interactive maps, and tools such as Google Maps. This journey give them perspective on the scope of the watershed and how various stakeholders have siphoned the water from the river to serve seven western states' needs. Then they collect data concerning where the water comes from, who is using the water and how much they are using, and what the future may hold for the people living in the basin. In the final part of the lab, students use a quantitative method to measure the rings (using ImageJ) to produce a graph, a tree-ring chronology and use it to determine how water levels in the Colorado River Basin have varied over the past 200 years. They use the similar procedure followed by dendrochronologists to build a record that can be used to identify climate anomalies such as droughts. Then they compare their tree-ring width graph to published stream-flow data to determine how reliable a proxy tree rings are for measuring changes in the flow volume of the Colorado River.

• Grade Level: High School
• Region: Arizona
• Science Theme: Colorado River

• Created by: Arizona State University, Arizona Geographic Alliance

In this activity, students will learn about the dams and major cities on the Colorado River. They will research why the dams were built and discuss how hydrology plays such a great part in the geography of Arizona. This lesson has strategies for diverse learners (ELLs).

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data
• Grade Level: Middle School, High School
• Region: Colorado
• Science Theme: Colorado River

• Created by: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Colorado River watershed has always been a subject of great interest and concern. It provides agricultural irrigation and drinking water to farms and cities in seven southwestern states. The intention of this exercise is to be a southwestern regional perspective of a changing climate. You’ll be graphing snowpack in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, evaluating supply and demand on the river, answering questions about population growth, analyzing tree ring reconstruction of past flow as well as discussing the possible outcomes of a drought. 

• Skill: Experimentation, Planning investigations
• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5, Middle School, Adult
• Science Theme: Precipitation

• Created by: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Global Precipitation Measurement

In this hands-on inquiry-based activity, students face an engineering challenge based on real-world applications. They are tasked with developing a tool they can use to measure the amount of rain that falls each day. This is more of a mini unit than a stand alone activity.

This activity takes one to three 60 min class periods. Additional materials are required.

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data
• Grade Level: Middle School, High School, University
• Science Theme: Drought

• Created by: National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)

This is a extensive collection of maps, data, and tools that students can use to research drought and its impacts on agriculture, wildfires, water supply, vegetation, soil moisture, temperature and precipitation.

• Grade Level: Middle School, High School, University, Adult

• Created by: United States Geologic Survey

An interactive data visualization map of the USGS data of water usage from 2015 of the USA and US territories.

• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5, Middle School, High School, University, Adult
• Science Theme: Drought

• Created by: ESRI, National Drought Mitigation Center

Using US Drought Monitor data and its classification system, this interactive tool tracks drought in the continental US by county, from 2000 to the present.

• Grade Level: Middle School, High School
• Science Theme: Climate, Water Cycle

• Created by: US Geological Service (USGS)

This visualization, from the US Geological Survey, provides a simple schematic of the various pathways that water can take as it cycles through ocean, lakes, atmosphere, surface and ground.

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data
• Region: American Southwest
• Science Theme: Colorado River, Drought

• Created by: U.S. Department of the Interior

This application was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation in support of the Department of the Interior’s Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI). This visualization is part of a multi-agency effort to showcase the usefulness of open data (i.e., data provided in a discoverable, sharable, and machine-readable format) by exploring the current 16-year drought and its effects on the Colorado River Basin.

• Grade Level: Middle School, High School, University
• Region: American Southwest
• Science Theme: Colorado River

• Created by: Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy

This is a StoryMap on the Colorado River. The story map details the history of the Colorado River, water resources, river management, and tools for managing in the future.

• Skill: Analyzing and interpreting data
• Grade Level: Middle School, High School, University
• Science Theme: Drought

• Created by: Richard Heim, Liz Love-Brotak, National Drought Mitigation Center

This is a real-time map of current drought conditions in the US, which can be zoomed to the state level, with access to many more resources at that level. Some of these include the National Drought Regional Summaries and animations of historical data.

• Grade Level: K-2, 3-5, Middle School, High School
• Science Theme: Precipitation, Water Cycle, Weather

• Created by: Tom Whittaker, Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, SciJinks; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

A computer simulator that allows students to adjust the air temperature and dew point to see what type of precipitation would fall to the ground.

• Grade Level: High School, University, Adult
• Region: American Southwest

• Created by: University of Colorado, Boulder

In this lecture, Dr. Joanna Endter-Wada from Utah State University discusses water demand for urban areas. Learn about the nature of urban water demand, urban water management, and more. This is part of the Water in the Western US lecture series.

• Grade Level: High School, University, Adult

• Created by: University of Colorado, Boulder

Dr. Reagan Waskom, director of the Colorado Water Institute at Colorado State University, provides an overview on agricultural water use in the west. Learn about types of agriculture, how water is used in agriculture, and why so much water is needed for agriculture in the west. This video is part of the Water in the Western US lecture series.