Potomac Highlands Watershed School

High School Activities

1. A blackboard - with age-appropriate activities that include a learning phase, where information is read, and a testing phase, where the knowledge is either tested in a quiz or matching exercise, used to fill in a form, or put to use to solve a problem.
2. Also on the blackboard, a list of relevant vocabulary - with definitions just a click away.
3. A bookcase, with a section that provides useful background information on each of the Middle School activities.
4. A computer gateway to many of the environmental organizations and agencies that serve the greater Potomac region.
5. A window to some of our favorite Potomac Highlands images.
6. An "open book" with a reading selection that will change periodically.
7. A magnifying glass that takes a closer look at some of the Potomac Highlands smaller inhabitants.
8. The High School telephone is the entry point to Environmental Forums where students and teachers explore regionally important environmental issues in depth.  Students work both as a class and with other students across the internet to understand problems and to seek solutions that are broadly acceptable to their communities.

The High School curriculum includes modules introducing the watershed, pollution issues, and planning.   The watershed curriculum introduces students to the parts of a watershed - things like vegetation, bedrock, and aquifers.  It then teaches how the different parts of a watershed interact.  The watershed pollution curriculum teaches how good land management practices can reduce pollution in our rivers and streams.  The Planning curriculum explores issues related to growth and development.  Environmental Forums allow students and teachers, as a class and with other students across the internet, to explore regionally important environmental issues in depth. 

Watershed Curriculum

Why worry about watersheds?  In part, because watersheds are where we live – most obviously in mountainous terrain like West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands.  Perhaps more importantly, the watershed – rather than political boundaries - has become the organizing concept underlying environmental assessment and protection efforts at both the local, state and regional levels. This is a logical approach, as most of us "live downstream" from somebody else, and that somebody we are downstream from lives in our watershed. For example, the Chesapeake Bay is "downstream" from West Virginia, and efforts to protect the Chesapeake Bay from pollution focus on pollution delivered through watersheds (like the Potomac).

Government agencies increasingly seek to solve problems by working with inclusive citizen's groups known as watershed associations; as the name implies, watershed associations consist of people living within a watershed who have a shared interest in a clean environment.  This has created a new and very positive way for citizens to work with and impact government action.

Potomac Watershed Puzzle II. This activity explore the geography of watersheds, a dominant feature of West Virginia's mountainous landscape.  It is probably a bit elementary for high school students, but it does introduce a number of concepts they may not have yet learned.

Watershed Creator - the user builds a watershed by matching the parts of the watershed with their functions.

The Water Cycle.  This activity, which is on the Region of Waterloo website (in California), has a very nice water cycle animation that introduces the way water moves through a watershed.

Web Scavenger Hunts - the user visits websites from around the region to find answers to questions about West Virginia's Potomac Highlands and issues related to planning and pollution.

Since these activities are interrelated, a single lesson plan is offered here.  This lesson plan may also be downloaded as a PDF file here.

Complete question and answer sheets for each activity are available to teachers on request. Please email us here .

 and request this information. It would be best if your return email address is identifiable as belonging to a school employee.  Otherwise, you will be contacted by Cacapon Institute staff to ensure that you are a teacher, and not a student, prior to receiving the requested material.

Watershed Pollution Curriculum

Stream Cleaner explores the relationship between people's actions and their impacts on the environment.  In Stream Cleaner, a stream is polluted with excess nutrients (fertilizer) and sediment (dirt).  The user has access to a "tool kit" with five Best Management Practices they can use to reduce pollution.  Each tool has a cost associated with its use, and the student has $10,000 to spend to clean up the water. 

State agencies and community members in WV's Potomac region are working on the same issues raised by Stream Cleaner with the ambitious goal of cleaning up our WV rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.  The Pollution section of the Middle School bookshelf provides information about this West Virginia Potomac Tributary Strategy Process - which is attempting to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution while minimizing economic and social burdens on our community.  The bookshelf also provides a number of relevant links.   Because it can be used to lead into discussions about pollution science, land management decisions, economic decisions, community decision making and citizenship, and the role of government, Stream Cleaner would be appropriate for general science, biology, environmental science, social science, and vocational-agriculture courses.

The Stream Cleaner and pollution studies lesson plan is available here, and may also be downloaded as a PDF file here.

Planning Curriculum.

The Potomac region of West Virginia is now facing explosive development due to the influx of residents from the Washington, DC metro area, developing transportation infrastructure, and the desire of regional urban residents to have a second home in the country.  Growth is coming rapidly, and each county is trying to find the right solution for its residents - but there are probably as many perspectives on what is "right" as there are people thinking about it.   This range of opinions leaves local officials with many difficult decisions regarding the future of their county.  This module has been designed to introduce high school students to the complex issues local officials face when trying to enhance the economic viability of their county while protecting quality of life.  Decision Matrix places students in the role of a newly elected county planner in a typical West Virginia county who is trying to direct the county's economy on a sustainable path, while respecting the desires of residents to preserve the natural beauty and rural lifestyle of the county.   The planning lesson plan is here.

Environmental Forums

The Environmental Forum (eForum) module provides a unique setting for in-depth, moderated explorations of both the science and societal challenges posed by regionally important environmental problems.  Students work both as a class and with other students across the internet to understand problems and to seek solutions that are broadly acceptable to their communities.  Because eForums include research on environmental science, land management decisions, economic decisions, community decision making and citizenship, and the role of government, and include the use of persuasive writing and debate based on that research, they are appropriate for courses in general science, biology, environmental science, social science, vocational-agriculture, and language arts courses.  This is a High School activity because of the critical thinking skills required.  Lesson plan is here.

The Potomac Highlands Watershed School’s Environmental Forums are an example of Project Based Learning, where students seek a solution to a complex problem through a collaborative process over an extended period of time.  When the eForum is coupled with hands-on conservation or research projects it provides a Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE), an expansive form of project based learning that is a curriculum requirement in MD, VA, PA, and D.C.  To learn more about PBLs and MWEEs, click here.