Classroom activity Grade 6 Social Studies & Civics
Upstream and Downstream on the Gorsemere River
A grade 6 role-play where students act as landowners along a shared river, map how upstream choices reach a downstream town, and negotiate a watershed agreement.
Objectives
- Students will map how land uses along a river affect the water that reaches a downstream town.
- Students will negotiate a shared agreement that balances each landowner's needs with clean water downstream.
Vocabulary
- Watershed
- A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.
Also: upstream, downstream, runoff, pollution
Teacher overview
This is a small-group role-play for groups of five or six students. Each group shares one fictional river, the Gorsemere, drawn as a long strip of paper. Students take the roles of landowners along the river, from the mountains down to a town that drinks the water at the bottom. The core idea is simple and physical: water flows downhill, so every choice made upstream reaches the people downstream. Students see that a watershed links neighbors who may never meet, and they practice negotiating a shared rule.
Activity Directions
- Before class, draw or tape a long river down the middle of a paper strip for each group. Mark the top "mountains" and the bottom "town." Label the flow direction with an arrow pointing down toward the town.
- Put students in groups of five or six. Hand out one role card to each student from the Student Handout. The roles run from upstream to downstream: forest owner, farm, factory, riverside park, and the downstream town that drinks the water. In a group of six, two students share the downstream town role.
- Have students place their role card along the river in order, from the forest at the top to the town at the bottom. The town card always sits at the bottom of the map.
- Round one, choices. Each landowner reads their card and places one sticky note on the river showing what their land adds to the water or how it protects the water. For example, the farm might add a note for fertilizer runoff; the forest might add a note for shade and soil held in place.
- Round two, trace the flow. Starting at the top, move a finger down the river. As you pass each sticky note, read it aloud. When you reach the town, list everything the town's water has picked up along the way.
- Round three, negotiate. The town explains what it needs: water clean enough to drink. Each upstream landowner explains what they need from their land. The group writes one shared agreement with two or three rules that keep the town's water clean while still letting each landowner use their land.
- End the activity when each group has a written agreement and has traced the river one last time to check that the town's water would now be cleaner. Gather the class for the debrief.
- Debrief with the whole class. Focus on why the town at the bottom depends on choices it does not control. Ask: (1) Which landowner is affected by every choice made upstream, and why? (2) Which landowners are most likely to add pollution, and which mostly protect the water? (3) Why does a shared agreement work better than each landowner acting alone? Answers are in the Answer Key.
Student Handout
Read your role card. Decide what your land adds to the river or how it protects the water. You will place one sticky note and then help write your group's agreement.
- Forest owner (top): Your trees hold the soil and shade the stream. You keep the water cool and clean, but you could sell the trees for lumber.
- Farm: Your crops feed the region. Rain can wash fertilizer off your fields into the river. You could plant a strip of grass along the bank to catch it.
- Factory: You make goods and jobs. You use river water and send some back. You could clean the water more before returning it, but that costs money.
- Riverside park: Your paths and trees let people enjoy the river. You add little pollution, and your plants help filter runoff.
- Downstream town: You drink the river water at the bottom. You cannot control what happens upstream, so you must ask your neighbors to help keep the water clean.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: The town at the bottom is affected by every choice made upstream, because the river carries whatever is added to it downhill to the town, which cannot control those upstream choices on its own.
- Answer: The farm and the factory are the most likely to add pollution, through fertilizer runoff and used water, while the forest and the park mostly protect the water by holding soil and filtering runoff.
- Answer: A shared agreement works better than each landowner acting alone, because clean water downstream depends on everyone above cooperating, and one upstream choice can undo the careful work of the others.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students role cards with the sticky-note idea already suggested, so they can focus on placing it and reading it aloud. Pair a stronger reader with the downstream town role, which leads the negotiation.
Extension
Ask the group to add a second town partway down the river and rewrite the agreement so it is fair to both towns, then explain which upstream rules matter most to each town and why.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "watershed," "upstream," "downstream," and "runoff" with the river map and arrows before roles are handed out. Provide sentence frames for the negotiation: "My land needs ___," and "To keep the town's water clean, I can ___."