My Science Box

Assessment

1. Have students label and color line drawing maps of California. Have them label the major landmarks (see vocabulary list) and shade in all the land that is part of the San Francisco Bay Watershed.
2. If your parents won’t go crazy with students writing on their hands, have pairs of students work together to label each other hand watershed models with a ball point pen.

Going Further

1. Do a webquest on Save the Bay’s Bay Classroom website.
2. Save the Bay has written an excellent map reading lesson, “Mapping your Watershed” that provides an excellent extension of the ideas covered here. Their mapping activity also leads into the From Maps to Models activity on MyScienceBox. You may download the lesson below. Teach students about the history of the Bay and make timelines to represent the major events and how they impacted the Bay.
3. Teach students about the history of the Bay and make timelines to represent the major events and how they impacted the Bay.
4. Visit the San Francisco Bay Model. The Army Corps of Engineers built a functioning hydraulic model of the San Francisco Bay that simulates the tides and currents. They have a marvelous visitor center and will give students a guided tour of the model.
5. Study the California Delta in more depth. There have been many hotly debated proposals on how to fix the delta in recent months, particularly since Hurricane Katrina. The California Department of Water Resources website provides detailed information about the Delta. The Sacramento River Watershed Program provides a listing of recent news articles concerning the state of the California Delta and the Sacramento River.