Water Quantity
Students remove measured amounts of water from a five-gallon bucket, simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth.
Curriculum Filter Results
Making Great Lakes Connections
Groups of learners work on a single Great Lake and connecting waterway and then come together as a class to construct a simple three-dimensional model of the Great Lakes. Individual groups also
present their Great Lake and connecting waterway information.
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More Than Just a Lake!
By creating a map of the rivers flowing into your Great Lake, learn how rivers form a watershed.
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Your Great Lake!
How much water does each Great Lake hold? Use this lesson as a demonstration or a classroom lesson to create visual representations of the Great Lakes, Lake Baikal, and the relationships between surface area, retention time and pollution effects.
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Density: Sea Water Mixing and Sinking
Two of the most important characteristics of ocean water are its temperature and salinity.
Together they help govern the density of seawater, which is a major factor controlling the ocean’s
vertical movements and layered circulation.
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Going with The Flow
Students use a simple model to discover that air moving over water causes the surface of the water
to move horizontally. In writing and in a discussion, students relate this concept to surface currents in
the ocean and the Great Lakes.
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How Does Stratification Affect Water Quality?
Some lakes have water quality problems related to the layering of the lake’s waters, which occurs in the summer months. Because of its shallowness, Lake Erie is such a lake. During the summer, the warm surface layer of water does not mix with the colder bottom layer of water. If a lot of algae has grown in the lake, decay of the dead algae on the lake bottom may use up all of the oxygen in the cold bottom water layer. When there is no oxygen in the bottom waters, the water is said to be anoxic. Fish and other animals cannot live in these anoxic waters. In the fall, the surface water cools and mixes with the bottom water, resupplying the bottom water with oxygen needed for life.
Objectives:
- Describe how stratification of lake waters influences water quality.
- Explain how phosphorus affects oxygen levels in lakes.
External Curriculum Materials
How well do you know the Great Lakes?
In this activity, learners will construct the five Great Lakes from string and use paper “water” and “fish” to show comparisons between the lakes.
After completing this activity, students will be able to:
- Compare and contrast the differences between the Great Lakes in water volumes, length of shoreline, human population distribution, and the amount of fish harvested from each lake.
External Curriculum Materials
Water Quantity
Students remove measured amounts of water from a five-gallon bucket, simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth.
External Curriculum Materials
Making Great Lakes Connections
Groups of learners work on a single Great Lake and connecting waterway and then come together as a class to construct a simple three dimensional model of the Great Lakes. Individual groups also present their Great Lake and connecting waterway information.
Objectives
After participating in this activity, learners will be able to:
- identify the Great Lakes and the bodies of water that connect specific Great Lakes with each other and with the Atlantic Ocean
- describe the three-dimensional geography of the Great Lakes, including elevations
- describe why locks are needed, and how a lock system works