[LTER-education] Draft 1 - Cross-site activity - focus on precipitation

[Jill Haukos]

Educators -

I've attached a first draft of what I'm imagining for a potential cross-site activity.  If you and your site are interested in participating, here are some details and info I'm seeking from participants:

Audience:        5th – 7th grades
Goal:                Increase understanding of the different biomes and how they react to water –
   including aspects that affect water, including (but not limited to):  drought, elevation, temperature, and salinity

What I need from each site participating:

1.  Name of site
2.  Biome or habitat of site
3.  Describe your site – how would you describe your site to a child who had never visited before?  Include as much detail as you      think necessary for a child to really “get” your site.
4.  How does water affect your site?  What aspects of water are part of the equation?
5.  Include a data set from your site that relates to water that a child could easily understand.  If it exists!

What I’m thinking of asking kids:

1.  Read about the sites and then answer questions relating to what they’ve read, such as:

            a.  Which of the sites would be most affected by:
                        - Drought
                        - Rising temperatures of the ocean
                        - Hurricane
                        - High amounts of rain
                        - Dry winter – low snowfall
                        - An unusually warm winter
                        - An unusually cold winter
                        - Forest fires
                        - others?

            b.  Which sites have:
                        - Distinct seasons
                        - Just one season that is about the same all year
                        - The least precipitation
                        - The most precipitation – what affects this?

2.  What is the average amount of precipitation that each site receives?
3.  At what sites do you think it’s important that the precipitation arrives at a certain time of the year?
4.  Which sites seem to get about the same amount of precipitation every year?
5.  What sites seem to get a very different amount of precipitation every year?  Why do you think there are differences in the annual precipitation at some of the sites and not others?

I've attached my responses for Konza Prairie that could serve as a template. Note: this is a work in progress, I foresee it changing/morphing as necessary. Nothing is set in stone.

Many thanks!

Jill



Jill F. Haukos
Director of Education
Konza Prairie Biological Station
116 Ackert Hall; Division of Biology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS  66506
(785) 587-0381
konzaed at ksu.edu
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