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Worksheet Grade 12 English Language Arts

Reading the Kettle River Basin Drought Watch Dashboard

A grade 12 worksheet in which students integrate a fictional river basin's reservoir data table with a narrative brief to answer questions about drought staging.

Objectives

  1. Students will extract specific values from a hydrologic data table.
  2. Students will integrate data-table values with a narrative brief to answer inferential questions.
  3. Students will calculate a percent change in streamflow between two recorded months.

Vocabulary

Baseflow
Baseflow is the water that keeps a stream flowing even when it has not rained for a while. It comes from groundwater slowly seeping into the streambed.
Streamflow
Streamflow is the amount of water moving past a point in a river or stream in a given amount of time. It rises after storms and snowmelt and drops during dry spells.

Also: drought stage, capacity, dashboard

Teacher overview

Real drought-monitoring dashboards pair a numeric data table with a short narrative that explains what the numbers mean and what decisions they trigger, and reading one well means moving between the two rather than reading either alone. This worksheet gives students both parts for the fictional Kettle River Basin: a monthly reservoir and streamflow table and a narrative brief explaining the basin authority's drought-stage rules, then asks students to combine them to answer questions a basin manager or a local reporter would actually need answered.

Reading the Kettle River Basin Drought Watch Dashboard — Grade 12 English Language Arts
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The Kettle River Basin is a fictional watershed used for this worksheet. After two unusually dry winters reduced the snowpack that feeds the river, the Kettle River Basin Water Authority began publishing a monthly drought-watch dashboard so residents and downstream farmers could track reservoir conditions themselves.

Narrative brief: The authority declares Stage 1 water-use restrictions when the reservoir falls below 60 percent of capacity, and Stage 2 restrictions, which add outdoor watering limits, when it falls below 45 percent of capacity. The authority states it will consider Stage 3 restrictions, the most severe level, only when capacity drops below 30 percent for two consecutive months, since a single low reading can reflect a temporary measurement gap rather than a true trend. The brief also explains baseflow: the steady contribution groundwater makes to a river's flow between rain events, which keeps a river from drying up completely even in a dry month. When streamflow drops sharply, the baseflow portion drops too, and fish that depend on cool, steady flow can be harmed well before a reservoir empties.

Data table: Kettle River Basin monthly readings

Month Reservoir level (ft below full pool) Capacity (%) Streamflow (cfs)
January 3 91 310
March 8 79 240
May 15 64 150
July 24 47 95
September 32 29 62
  1. According to the narrative brief, what event prompted the Kettle River Basin Water Authority to begin publishing this dashboard?
  2. Using the data table, what was the reservoir's percent of capacity in January?
  3. Between January and September, how many percentage points did the reservoir's percent of capacity fall?
  4. Using the data table, by how many feet did the reservoir's level drop (as measured below full pool) between January and September?
  5. According to the narrative brief, at what percent of capacity does the authority declare Stage 2 restrictions?
  6. Using the threshold you found in item 5 and the data table, in which month did the reservoir first fall below the Stage 2 threshold?
  7. Streamflow dropped from 310 cfs in January to 95 cfs in July. About what percent of the January streamflow remained in July? Round to the nearest whole percent.
  8. Using both the streamflow numbers and the narrative's explanation of baseflow, explain why fish downstream could be harmed well before the reservoir empties completely.
  9. The narrative states the authority considers Stage 3 restrictions only after capacity drops below 30 percent for two consecutive months. Based on the data table, is Stage 3 justified by September? Explain your answer using the data.
  10. Write a two-to-three sentence paragraph a local news reporter could publish, combining one number from the data table with one detail from the narrative brief, that explains the basin's drought status to the public.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Two unusually dry winters reduced the snowpack feeding the river, which led the authority to begin publishing the dashboard so residents and farmers could track conditions themselves.
  2. Answer: 91 percent
  3. Answer: 62 percentage points.
    The reservoir's capacity fell from 91% in January to 29% in September; 91 − 29 = 62 percentage points.
  4. Answer: 29 feet.
    The reservoir's level was 3 feet below full pool in January and 32 feet below full pool in September; 32 − 3 = 29 feet.
  5. Answer: 45 percent
  6. Answer: September.
    Capacity readings were 91%, 79%, 64%, and 47% through July, all above the 45% threshold; only September's 29% falls below it.
  7. Answer: about 31 percent.
    95 ÷ 310 × 100 ≈ 30.6%, which rounds to about 31 percent of the January streamflow.
  8. Answer: Because baseflow, the steady groundwater contribution that keeps a river flowing between rain events, drops along with total streamflow, a river running at only 95 or 62 cfs is also losing the steady, cool water fish depend on, so conditions can become harmful to fish well before the reservoir itself runs dry.
  9. Answer: Not yet justified. Only September's reading (29%) falls below the 30 percent threshold; the narrative requires two consecutive months below 30 percent, and the data table shows only one such month so far.
  10. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong response combines a specific number (for example, "streamflow has fallen to 62 cfs, just 20 percent of its January level") with a narrative detail (for example, "putting the basin close to the Stage 3 threshold the authority set for two consecutive low months") in a concise, publishable sentence or two.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a highlighted copy of the narrative brief with the two percentage thresholds (60% and 45%) already circled, and allow students to use a calculator for items 3, 4, and 7.

Extension

Ask students to calculate the percent change in reservoir capacity between each pair of consecutive months in the table (January to March, March to May, and so on) and identify which two-month period had the steepest decline, then explain what that might mean for how quickly the authority should act.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "baseflow," "capacity," and "drought stage" with a labeled diagram of a reservoir at three fill levels alongside the vocabulary. Allow items 1, 2, and 5 to be answered with a short phrase or a number rather than a full sentence.