Seeing Watersheds: Roaring Fork within the Colorado River Basin
What is a watershed? How do you find one? How do you measure the water in one? Students use maps and activities to identify the Roaring Fork Watershed as a member of the larger Colorado River Watershed and learn key water managment terms: acre-feet and cubic feet per second (cfs). Students will simulate the flow of water through a watershed during different seasons through building a human Roaring Fork Watershed. Setting: Field or Classroom
Insectopia: Exploring the World of Aquatic Insects
Learn aquatic insect anatomy, life cycles, and habitat by collecting, observing and drawing watery bugs. Discover more about insects and their importance in the river ecosystem. Use nets to catch the insects and field scopes to study these creatures closely. Setting: Field (preferred) or Classroom
Wading Into Wetlands
Learn about wetlands through a variety of activities, hands-on wetland exploration, and journaling.Setting: Field
The Power of Water: Hydroelectic Plant Field Trip
Explore how people convert water energy into electricity by taking a tour of the Ruedi Hydroelectric Plant up the Fryingpan River or Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant on the Colorado River. Setting: Field Trip
Chillin' with the Chubs
Students play a game to simulate the effects of introduced species and dams on native fish populations in the Colorado River. Students will identify habitat requirements, compare pre-dam and post-dam habitat conditions, hypothesize about the effects of different environmental stressors on fish populations, and graph the changes in populations observed in the simulation game. Setting: Classroom and School yard or Field
Amazing Properties of Water
Experiment with the properties of water, exploring how these properties affect the world physically and biologically. Setting: Classroom
What's the Point of Pollution?
Using the EnviroScape Model find ways to manage land to minimize water pollution and be responsible citizens of our communities. Learn the importance of using models in scienctific discovery. Setting: Classroom
Pond Ecology
Explore the life of a pond. Learn about the animals that live in and around ponds. Use field equipment and keys to look closer at pond life. Setting: Field
The Water Underground
Explore how groundwater is part of the water cycle, how it moves underground, and how human actions can affect the quality of groundwater. Using the groundwater model see how water moves first hand. Setting: Classroom
Rivers and Rocks
Through use of the scientific method, students will understand the rock cycle and how geology affects the aquatic life of rivers. Learn what river rocks can tell us about the history of a place. Setting: Field
An Invited Guest in the Colorado Watershed
What would you do if your home was taken over by guests, invited and uninvited, who wouldn't leave? Students play a game and graph the results to learn about nonnative plant species in the Colorado River Watershed. They explore the consequences that result from introducing new species to an ecosystem. Setting: Classroom or Field
Plumbing the Colorado
Students examine the Colorado River system and demonstrate changes in river flow that occur as the river travels from source to sea. Students will gain an increased awareness of water users on the Colorado River, including those outside their local area by identifying the source, tributaries, and mouth of the river. They will also recognize the difficulty of balancing needs of all water users. Setting: Classroom or Field
First Come, First Served - Water Rights
Students will understand the basic tenants of Colorado water law and issues that surround how Colorado's "First in time, first in right" priority system works. Students will file for water rights and participate in a fun interactive activity. Setting: Classroom or Field
Riparian Plants: Using Dichotomous Keys
Students will learn how to key out riparian plants using and dichotomous key and understand the importance of plants to the riparian ecosystem. Setting: Field
Riparian Ecology
Use the scientific method to investigate a riparian area.'s ecology. Learn how herbivores, carnivores and omnivores co-exist though aquatic insect explorations. Setting: Field
Riparian Birding
Learn how to identify birds near rivers and lakes using descriptive terms and anatomy before focusing on their names. Explore adaptations and behavior by using observational skills.Setting: Field
How Wet is Our World? Water Conservation
All the water we have now is all we will ever have. Learn about this precious resource and what you can do to help conserve it through fun interactive relevant activities. Setting: Classroom
Snow Study
Explore the properties of snow through fun hands-on field exploration. Learn how to measure snow pack, snow water equivalent, and what causes avalanches to occur. Through interactive activities understand the connections between snow pack and water resources. Setting: Field
Riparian Ecosystem Study
Observe the intricacies of and inventory riparian organisms. Then compile these and other organisms into a riparian food web that depicts the complexity of the riparian ecosystem. Setting: Field
Stream Continuum: Stream Trailer
Discover physical characteristics of rivers through the river continuum concept using hands-on inquiry science with the stream trailer. Setting: Classroom and school yard
Riparian Health and Water Quality
Students will explore the concept of using physical, chemical, and biological parameters to test the riparian health and water quality of a local river or stream. Use many different types of field study equipment including field scopes, water chemistry kits, and other other measurement tools. Setting: Field
Down the Drain: Wastewater Plant Tour
Explore the world beyond the kitchen sink. We can coordinate with your local wastewater treatment facility for an eye-opening tour for your students. nbsp; We can also conduct pre-trip or post-trip lessons as necessary. Setting: Field Trip
Weather and Climate
Students will explore the differences between weather and climate through calculating data averages and creating a large class mural map. Students be able to explain the differences in climate within the main climatic areas of the United States based on precipitation, temperature, and humidity.Students should have a previous basic understanding of weather concepts. Setting: Classroom
Water Cycle and Weather
Use the water cycle to study properties of local weather, including precipitation, clouds, temperature, and humidity. Learn though many interactive activities including games, measuring, and learning how to read weather instruments. Setting: Classroom and School yard
What's the Flow? Calculating Stream Flow
Measure physical characteristics of streams and use math skills to measure the velocity and volume of water in the stream. This field-based program makes math fun! Setting: Field
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Schedule a Program
Call Sarah Johnson at 927-1290 or email sarah@roaringfork.org.
Insectopia
Using Models: EnviroScape Model
donated by Carbondale Rotary and Rebekah Lodge
Stream Trailer
In partnership with Natural Resource Conservation Service
Groundwater Model
Pond Ecology
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