Over the past few weeks, I have compiled several possible lesson plans as options for the water fair at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Innovation Center. I wanted to find credible lesson plans and resources that I can use to compare standard ground with rain garden ground, focusing on infiltration rates, runoff, and environmental impacts. While compiling these lessons, I created an annotated bibliography that includes the lesson citation and a description of the lesson.
Some children learn best by listening to their teacher, while others require hands-on experience, and still others benefit from a visual example provided by an instructor. For the last type, some plans include videos of instructors demonstrating rainwater runoff. This is why I am open to finding a lesson that is easy to understand, comprehensive, interactive, and engaging.
I have narrowed down my lesson plans to the one that I will be conducting at the water fair at JJK. This is to understand infiltration and run-off.
Students will be provided with 3 cups. Cup A will contain clean water. The water will be poured into Cup B. Cup B will contain soil on top and one other object at the bottom (such as leaves, tin foil, wood chips, etc). Cup B and the object will both contain a hole. The water that is poured into Cup B from Cup A will run into Cup C. The students will observe the amount of water in Cup C and the color of the water in Cup C. To prepare for the fair I will practice the lesson ahead of time.