Graphic organizer Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics
Upstream, Here, Downstream on the Fallowick River
A grade 7 graphic organizer tracing six activities along a fictional river to what each does to the water there and what the next place downstream notices.
Objectives
- Students will trace one activity's effect from the place it happens to a place downstream.
- Students will identify which body could require a change for each activity on the river.
- Students will explain why a river connects towns that do not share a government.
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, outfall, intake, runoff
Teacher overview
This is a cause-and-effect chain organizer laid out as a table, with its rows ordered from upstream to downstream. Six activities are listed in the order the water meets them, from the pastures above Upfield to the shellfish beds at the mouth below Almsbury. For each one, students record what happens at that spot and what the next place downstream notices, then name the body that could require a change. The organizer is built around one property of a river, which is that it crosses town lines while the governments that regulate it do not.
Organizer
The fictional Fallowick River runs past three towns. Upfield is highest on the river. Glenhollow is in the middle. Almsbury is at the mouth, where the river meets the bay. Fill in each empty cell with a short phrase.
| Place and activity | What happens at that spot | What the next place downstream notices | Who could require a change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfield: dairy pastures along the riverbank | |||
| Upfield: the town wastewater plant outfall | |||
| Glenhollow: the town drinking water intake | |||
| Glenhollow: storm drains from streets and parking lots | |||
| Almsbury: the swimming beach and boat landing | |||
| Almsbury: the river mouth and its shellfish beds |
After the table, answer these three questions in a sentence each.
- Which row shows an effect that travels the farthest downstream, and why?
- Which two rows could be improved by the same change, and what is it?
- Why can Almsbury not fix its own water problems by passing its own ordinance?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
| Place and activity | What happens at that spot | What the next place downstream notices | Who could require a change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfield: dairy pastures along the riverbank | Rain washes manure and soil off the pasture into the river; cattle in the channel break down the bank | Water is cloudier and carries more nitrogen and phosphorus past Glenhollow | Upfield's own zoning and stream buffer rules, plus state farm conservation programs |
| Upfield: the town wastewater plant outfall | Treated water is released under a state permit that sets limits on what it may contain | A steady flow that keeps the river up in dry months, and higher nutrients if the plant runs poorly | The state agency that writes the discharge permit |
| Glenhollow: the town drinking water intake | The town pulls river water out for treatment; screens keep out fish and debris | Less water in the channel below the intake, which matters most in a dry summer | The state agency that issues withdrawal permits, and Glenhollow's own council |
| Glenhollow: storm drains from streets and parking lots | Rain runs off pavement carrying oil, road salt, and warm water straight to the river with no treatment | Sudden muddy flows after storms, warmer water, and litter washing up at Almsbury | Glenhollow's council through its stormwater rules, with the state permit behind them |
| Almsbury: the swimming beach and boat landing | The county closes the beach for a day or two after heavy rain when bacteria counts rise | Nothing downstream, because Almsbury is the last town, but visitors and businesses feel it | The county health department, which sets the closure rule, though the cause is upstream |
| Almsbury: the river mouth and its shellfish beds | Nutrients from the whole watershed arrive here; algae grow, then die and use up oxygen | Fish and shellfish suffer when dissolved oxygen falls below 5 mg/L, which most fish need | A watershed-wide plan involving all three towns and the state, not any one council |
Answers to the three questions:
- The Upfield pastures, because the nutrients they release travel the whole length of the river and add to the algae problem at the mouth in Almsbury.
- The pasture row and the storm drain row, because both are runoff from land rather than from a pipe, and both are reduced by the same kind of fix, which is keeping rain and manure out of the channel with buffers and planted strips.
- Because almost everything that reaches Almsbury's water came from land in Upfield and Glenhollow, and Almsbury's council has no authority over land in the other two towns.
Differentiation
Support
Fill in the first row of the organizer as a model and provide a word bank for the remaining cells with phrases such as runoff, permit, buffer strip, dissolved oxygen, and beach closure. Allow students to complete cells with single words, and let the three questions be answered orally after the table is finished.
Extension
Ask students to add a seventh row for an activity of their own, such as a marina, a golf course, or a road salt storage yard, and fill it in for all four columns. They should then write two sentences explaining where in the river they would place it to cause the least harm, and why the placement matters more for some activities than others.
ELL supports
Pair the words upstream, downstream, intake, and outfall with a simple side-view drawing of the river showing three towns and the bay, with arrows for the direction of flow. Provide a matching card set linking each term to a short definition. Allow students to complete the organizer with short phrases or small drawings and to explain one row aloud before writing it.
Extensions
Have students name the river or creek nearest the school and find out which town or county lies upstream of it. They can then write one row of this organizer for a real activity they can see from a road or a bridge, using the same four columns, and mark which parts they could confirm and which they had to guess.