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Classroom activity Grade 5 Science

Quail Hollow Marsh: A Grade 5 Wetland Filter Relay

A grade 5 movement activity where students carry nutrient beads through a model wetland's zones, acting out how a marsh filters water before a lake.

Objectives

  1. Students will act out water carrying nutrient tokens through three wetland zones, dropping tokens the way plants and microbes remove nutrients from real wetland water.
  2. Students will compare how many nutrient tokens reach the Open Lake bin under light, regular, and heavy storm roles and explain the pattern.

Vocabulary

Wetland
A wetland is an area like a marsh or swamp where the ground is soaked with water for much of the year. Wetlands soak up floodwater, help clean it, and shelter many kinds of animals.

Also: nutrients, runoff, capacity, filter

Teacher overview

This is a whole-class relay for 20 to 30 students. Three stations, set up in a loop, represent zones of Quail Hollow Marsh, a fictional constructed wetland used for this activity: the Cattail Zone, the Soil & Microbe Zone, and the Root Uptake Zone. Each zone represents a real part of a wetland that removes excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer runoff, before water reaches open water. Students act as water carrying nutrient tokens, dropping one token at each zone they pass, so the class can see directly how a wetland filters some nutrients out but has a limited capacity that a heavy storm can overwhelm.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, set up three zone stations in a loop around the room, each labeled with a sign (Cattail Zone, Soil & Microbe Zone, Root Uptake Zone) and each holding a small empty catch bin. Place a Start bin filled with about 40 pom-pom "nutrient tokens" at the beginning of the loop and an "Open Lake" finish bin at the end.
  2. Explain the rule that anchors the whole activity: each zone can remove exactly 1 nutrient token from a runner as they pass, as long as the runner still has at least 1 token left to give. A runner who arrives at a zone with 0 tokens simply passes through without stopping.
  3. Shuffle and hand out role cards to a group of 4 to 6 students for the first round: "Light Rain" runners take 2 tokens from the Start bin, "Regular Storm" runners take 4 tokens, and "Heavy Storm" runners take 6 tokens.
  4. On "go," each runner carries their tokens through the loop in order: Cattail Zone, then Soil & Microbe Zone, then Root Uptake Zone, dropping 1 token into each zone's catch bin as they pass, if they still have one to give.
  5. Whatever tokens a runner still has after the Root Uptake Zone go into the Open Lake finish bin. Each runner records their role and how many tokens reached the Open Lake bin on the class tally chart.
  6. Return all tokens to the Start bin and repeat the relay with a new group of 4 to 6 students, rotating role cards so that different students experience each role across the class.
  7. Continue with new groups of 4 to 6 until every student has run the loop at least once (about five rounds for a class of 30). End the activity once all rounds are complete and the tally chart is full.
  8. Gather the whole class at the Open Lake bin for the debrief discussion.
Quail Hollow Marsh: A Grade 5 Wetland Filter Relay — Grade 5 Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Quail Hollow Marsh has three zones in a row: the Cattail Zone, the Soil & Microbe Zone, and the Root Uptake Zone. Each zone removes exactly 1 nutrient token from a runner as they pass, as long as the runner still has at least 1 token left to give. Light Rain runners start with 2 tokens, Regular Storm runners start with 4 tokens, and Heavy Storm runners start with 6 tokens. Whatever tokens a runner still holds after the third zone go into the Open Lake bin.

  1. Which role's tokens filled the Open Lake bin the most, and why?
  2. What does a token reaching the Open Lake bin represent in real life?
  3. Why might a real constructed wetland be designed with more zones, or larger zones, than the one in this activity?
  4. A Light Rain runner starts with 2 tokens and passes all three zones. How many tokens does that runner drop into the Open Lake bin?
  5. A Regular Storm runner starts with 4 tokens and passes all three zones. How many tokens does that runner drop into the Open Lake bin?
  6. A Heavy Storm runner starts with 6 tokens and passes all three zones. How many tokens does that runner drop into the Open Lake bin?

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: Heavy Storm runners.
    Debrief question. Since each zone can only remove 1 token per runner, the marsh's three zones remove 3 tokens at most from any runner; a Heavy Storm runner carrying 6 tokens still has 3 left after all three zones, while Light Rain (2 tokens) and Regular Storm (4 tokens) runners lose a larger share of their tokens along the way.
  2. Answer: Nutrients the wetland did not filter out.
    Debrief question. Nutrients, such as fertilizer runoff, that were not fully filtered by the wetland and reach open water, where they can feed an algae bloom.
  3. Answer: So it can remove more nutrients before a storm overwhelms it.
    Debrief question. A wetland with more zones or greater capacity per zone can remove more nutrients before a heavy storm overwhelms it, matching how real wetland designs are sized to handle the runoff expected from nearby land.
  4. Answer: 0 tokens.
    Tally check. Light Rain runners (2 tokens) should reach the Open Lake bin with 0 tokens remaining, since each zone removes at most 1 token per runner.
  5. Answer: 1 token.
    Tally check. Regular Storm runners (4 tokens) should arrive with 1 token remaining, since each zone removes at most 1 token per runner.
  6. Answer: 3 tokens.
    Tally check. Heavy Storm runners (6 tokens) should arrive with 3 tokens remaining, since each zone removes at most 1 token per runner.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Reduce the relay to two roles instead of three (Light Rain with 2 tokens and Heavy Storm with 5 tokens) so the number pattern is simpler to track, and pair each runner with a partner who calls out the running token count at each zone.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask advanced groups to design a fourth role, "Extreme Storm," predicting how many tokens it should start with so that even after all three zones remove their tokens, at least 5 tokens still reach the Open Lake bin, then test their prediction by running the relay.

ELL supports

Post picture icons at each station (a cattail plant, a soil-and-microbe icon, a root icon) alongside the word labels, and pair the spoken zone names with a simple gesture such as tapping the catch bin, that all students can follow regardless of reading level.

Extensions

Research a real constructed or restored wetland in your region and compare its size and design to Quail Hollow Marsh's three zones, discussing what a real engineering team would need to measure before deciding how large to build a new wetland.