Designing a Unit with Backward Design
By Shae (Cheryl) Johnson

Greenwood Laboratory School

website:  http://courses.missouristate/ShaeJohnson
email: ShaeJohnson@missouristate.edu

Show Me Missouri Project                  Topic: Watersheds of Greene County

Unit designed for use with the Missouri Geographic Alliance Show Me Missouri grant project.

Content standards:  Students will acquire a solid foundation which includes knowledge of...

v      Science

·         Changes in the ecosystems and interactions of organisms

·         Impact of science, technology, and human activities on resources and the environment

v      Communication Art

·         Speaking and writing standard English

·         Reading and evaluating nonfiction works and materials

·         Writing formally

·         Comprehending and evaluating the content and artistic aspects of oral and visual presentations

·         Participating in formal and informal presentations and discussions of issues and ideas

v      Social Studies

·         The major elements of geographical study and analysis (such as location, place, movement, regions) and their relationships to changes in society and environment

·         The use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, statistics, maps, documents)

v      Fine Arts

·         Process and techniques for the production, exhibition or performance of one or more of the visual or performed arts

v      Mathematics

·         Geometric and spatial sense involving measurement (including length, area, volume, latitude and longitude)

·         Patterns and relationships

v      Health/Physical Education

·         Consumer health issues

Content students need to become familiar with:

·         The definition of watershed

·         The difference between a political address and a watershed address

·         The James and Sac Rivers and the waterways that are part of their watershed

·         Agencies such as the James River Basin, the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, Missouri Conservation and Department of Natural Resources, Stream Teams, and others related to Greene county watersheds

·         How to determine water quality

·         Landforms unique to certain watersheds

·         History of the names of waterways within the watersheds

·         The extent of sub-watersheds

·         The water cycle

·         Groundwater--where it comes from and where it is located

·         Agricultural pollution

·         Point and Non-point source pollution

Content students need to know to complete a performance task or project successfully:

·         Map reading

·         Become familiar with GIS (Global Information Systems), use of ArcView software, use of other electronic maps

·         Use of the Internet

·         Use of resources from the library

·         Note taking skills

·         Defining our Greene county watersheds

·         How to research for information about our watersheds

·         How the land is used within the watersheds

ü       Industry

ü       Agriculture

ü       Recreation

·         How humans have impacted the watersheds and how they have impacted the water quality

·         History of our waterways

·         Water quality within the watersheds

·         Use of digital camera

·         Webpage construction

·         Use of Power Point 

·         Oral and visual presentation skills

Enduring understanding of the unit

            Students will:

·         Gain a better understanding of respect and responsibility of our environment

·         Gain a better understanding as to how an individual can make a difference

·         Gain a better understanding of how changes impact the environment 

·         Gain a better understanding of the history of Greene county

Essential Question

·         How does our daily life impact the water quality in our environment?

·         Are the conveniences, advances and progress of today's world worth the negative impact they have on our environment?

Unit Questions related to essential question�to be used as pre- and post-test assessment of the project.

1. Explain what this statement means to you:

        "We have not inherited the earth from our fathers.  We are borrowing it from our children."

2. How can we be sure our water quality is protected?

3. Explain what Chief Seattle meant when he said, 

            "We did not weave the web of life;

            We are merely a strand in it.

            Whatever we do to the web,

            We do to ourselves."

Unit Questions to assess understanding of the content

4. What is a watershed?

5. What is the difference between your political address and your watershed address?

6. What are the two main watersheds in Greene county?

7. Name some of the creeks, springs, streams, and rivers in Greene County.

8. Where did the names of these creeks, springs, streams, and rivers come from?

9. How is land used within our Greene county watersheds?

10. List some of the ways humans have impacted our watershed.

11. Explain the difference between point source pollution and non-point source pollution. Now explain which one is harder to correct and why. 

12. Pick one creek, stream, river or spring in our watershed. Tell what you know about its history, where it got its name, and anything different or unique about it (such as landforms, where it runs, what part of the watershed it might be, where it is located, etc.)

13. Explain this statement: �Anything that happens upstream happens downstream�.

Activities students will be involved in include, but will not be restricted only to these that follow?

• Research watersheds and related subjects with the use of library books, pamphlets, brochures, maps, Internet sources, electronic atlases
• After researching for information, teams of students will make decisions where field trips will be planned. During these field trips, we will learn first-hand information, take notes, conduct interviews, and take digital pictures for our webpage segment of the Missouri Picture Atlas.
• Interview older citizens about changes that have taken place in our watershed
• Become familiar with our watersheds, and the rivers, streams, creeks, and springs that are part of them�their location, history, their names, critters indigenous to them and natural landforms
• Become familiar with and learn how to use GIS, ArcView software and mapping skills
• Work with Missouri State college geography students
• Work with community agencies, especially The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks and Loring Bullard, to learn about our watersheds and to prepare a presentation to that organization of our findings
• Work with community newspapers and or television stations to publicize our research
• Students will make decisions based on their research as to what to include and how to develop their final presentations.
• Teacher will give an overview of the project to The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks in February; students will give a formal presentation of the project to The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks in May. Presentations may also be made to other local community and Missouri State community clubs and organizations as deemed appropriate.
• Students will decide what is to be included on their webpage segment of the Missouri Geographic Alliance Missouri Picture Atlas, see that it is developed and submitted to the Alliance. They will include pertinent descriptions, photos, and some form of maps, drawings, or other creative additions. Examples of what is posted can be found at http://www.umsl.edu/~mga/ Go to the Missouri Picture Atlas to see what students in other counties have already done.
• Students will present their project to their parents.
• Students and parents will be involved in a Family Geography Challenge program to be presented in the early part of second semester. This program will engage students and families in further general knowledge of geography, relating it to our project and current events.

*In summary, students will be involved with the Show Me Missouri project which will create a replicable model for standards-based teaching that effectively integrates technology, experiential learning, and community and family involvement to expand the geography curriculum into multiple core subject areas.

As a part of their class projects, students will elicit information from their state and county governments with their varied agencies including agriculture, conservation, economic development, other civic organizations, local libraries, and the Internet.

*summary taken from the Missouri Geographic Alliance Show Me Missouri project materials and some information is paraphrased.

Copyrighted by Cheryl "Shae" Johnson, December 2002