Copper+River

=Lesson Title: What causes the Copper River to be brown?= Grade Level: 4th and 5th grades Subject area: Earth Science By Emily Million **Goals** Content Standards: Earth Science [4] SD2.1 observing models of how waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape the Earth’s surface by eroding rock and soil. (L) [4] SD2.2 identifying causes (i.e., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, floods, landslides, and avalanches) of rapid changes on the surface

Writing: W2.6 Use resources

Math: The student demonstrates an ability to classify and organize data by [4] S&P-1 [designing an investigation and collecting L], organizing or displaying, using appropriate scale, data in real-world problems (e.g., social studies, friends, or school), using bar graphs, tables, charts, or diagrams with whole numbers up to 25 (M6.2.1 & M62.2) The student understands and applies mathematical skills and processes across the content strands by [4] PS-5 using real-world contexts such as social studies, friends, and school (M10.2.1 & M10.2.2)

Reading: R2.3 Read Text Aloud R2.1 Use structural analysis; determine meaning of unfamiliar words R2.4 Retell or restate information

ISTE NETS-S: 2. Communication and collaboration 3. Research and information fluency 4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making 5. Digital citizenship

Instructional Objective(s): Students are presented with a question of what the different causes are of why the Copper River is so murky. Students will learn about the different ways that natural elements affect the land surfaces and water quality. **Action** Before-class Preparation: Make copies of worksheets for groups, and materials for experiments. Place students in groups of 4. During Class: ‘Tis the season! Copper River Salmon is here by Matt Markovich, May 15, 2009 [] || Go through the quiz with the active expressions, print out the FYI: Read More page so students can get into groups and highlight applicable causes. Look at the Way Back When, Around the World, Theory, Mother Nature, and the Comic. Have students fill in the Activities, graphic organizer, and vocabulary with their groups. They can also get online and click on the Q&A section to find out more information about erosion. || Brian Pop Erosion video [] || [] || [] The Copper River Story by Keegan Seafood [] Copper River Watershed Project [] Wickersham’s Conscience [] PDF: Alaska’s Copper River: Humankind in a changing world || Containers to store water, digital cameras || Record keeper Data collector Data analyzer Information specialist Students will take their samples and evaporate the water to find out how much silt is in the sample. Then they will filter out the different sizes of silt with different sizes of strainers. The amounts will be weighed on a scale. The record keeper will be recording the results on a worksheet. The data collector will collect the data for the experiment. The data analyzer will be taking the data and putting it on a graph with the other groups. The information specialist will be in charge of keeping the information in order and highlighting the applicable information. The record keeper will record the results of the group in sentence form. The group will create a flipchart of erosion that addresses the question, records the data we collected, and has images of the experiments and conclusions. || Paper, pencils, filters, Bunsen burners, and glass containers. Interactive white board with graph set up for groups. ||
 * Time ||  Instructional Activities  ||  Materials and Resources  ||
 * 10 minutes || Discuss what they remember the Copper River looking like. Record what they share on the white board. || Interactive white board, white board, or paper ||
 * 5 minutes || Attention getter: Have students view the video about the Copper River Salmon. || Interactive whiteboard
 * 60 minutes || Show Erosion Video to help explain what might have caused the river to be as it is.
 * 30 minutes || Print out Experiment page from Brain Pop where students put rocks in containers. Have students follow the directions in their groups. || Brian Pop Erosion video
 * 60 minutes || Collect information about Copper River from websites. Students can print pertinent information. Have them highlight important information about Copper River and what would make it murky. || Copper River Knowledge System
 * 2-3 hours || Students will go on a field trip to the Copper River to collect samples of the water. Students will be taking photographs of the water sample, and the surrounding bluffs. || Field trip permission slips
 * 2-3 hours || Students will be in groups of 4:
 * 2-3 hours || Students will make conclusions of what the causes of the Copper River color are. We will come together as a class and look at the data we collected and the graph we completed. || Interactive whiteboard ||

**Monitor** Ongoing Assessments: Assessment of group members working together cooperatively with a rubric. Students understand the reason for the river being so murky.

Accommodations and Extensions: Some students will need extra support with the graphing, and recording conclusions. Students could communicate with other classes with river access to compare similar projects. They also could be grouped with others and will use things like a Skype, a blog, or wiki to communicate. Students could also create a newscast describing why the Copper River is brown. They could do some of their footage by the river from the field trip.

Back-up plan: Go through Brain Pop video and resources and have the students create a poster describing erosion and why the river would be so murky. Students can use their science textbook as a resource.

**Evaluation** Lesson Reflection and Notes: Completed activities will be graded using a checklist for the lab notebook, the experiment activities, and a rubric for the flipchart.