Grade 6 Lesson plan
Ranking Risks in the Glenmarrow Watershed: A Careers Lesson
A grade 6 careers lesson in which students work as a source water protection specialist, ranking six pollution risks above a reservoir intake and defending one project.
C3 Framework · Grades 6–8
D2.Geo.4.6-8 How cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments
Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.
Why water teaches this standard well
Decisions about lawns in desert cities, irrigated cotton and alfalfa fields, and factories sited along rivers all reshape water environments, and the effects travel downstream to distant communities. A study of who uses a shared river, and how upstream choices change life downstream, puts this indicator to work on a real system.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
20 materials aligned to D2.Geo.4.6-8
Lesson plans
Grade 7 Lesson plan
Coldwater Valley's Drought Allocation: Sharing a Shrinking River
A grade 7 social studies lesson using a fictional irrigation district to divide a shrinking river's water between farms and a town during a drought year.
Grade 6 Lesson plan
Hoover Dam: Weighing the Tradeoffs of a Depression-Era Project
A grade 6 lesson using Hoover Dam's real generating capacity to examine how a 1930s public works project brought jobs and power at a real environmental cost.
Grade 7 Lesson plan
Hoover Dam and the Colorado River: Who Benefits and Who Pays
A grade 7 lesson using Hoover Dam to examine how one shared-river project distributes costs and benefits across nearby and distant communities in the Southwest.
Grade 8 Lesson plan
Sharing the Beckridge River: A Grade 8 Water Compact Negotiation
A 50-minute grade 8 lesson in which two groups negotiate a fictional upstream-downstream river-sharing compact modeled on real interstate water agreements.
Grade 8 Lesson plan
Hoover Dam and the Reshaping of the Colorado River Basin
A grade 8 case-study lesson comparing Hoover Dam's Depression-era construction with today's water infrastructure investment need, using real capacity and funding figures.
Grade 8 Lesson plan
Should Sable Point Build a Desalination Plant?
A grade 8 lesson where teams weigh the costs and benefits of a fictional coastal city building a desalination plant, using real capacity and energy figures.
Worksheets
Grade 6 Worksheet
Acre-Feet on the Cobb Ditch: Sharing a Creek's Water
A grade 6 worksheet on how a ditch company divides a creek by shares, with acre-foot conversions to gallons and cubic feet and a dry-year cut to all shareholders.
Grade 6 Worksheet
Maidley Middle School's Lunch Menu and Its Water Footprint
A grade 6 ratio and percent worksheet in which students use published water-footprint figures to compare the water behind two lunch menus at a fictional middle school.
Classroom activities
Grade 6 Classroom activity
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.
Reading passages
Grade 6 Reading passage
The Village Under Sparrow Gap Reservoir
A grade 6 reading passage about a valley village flooded to supply a growing city, with eight questions on the city's gain, the valley's loss, and how the rules changed.
Grade 6 Reading passage
How the Town of Eskdale Found Its Water
A grade 6 social studies passage about a fictional town that outgrew its wells and built a gravity aqueduct from a hill spring, showing how geography shapes settlement.
Grade 6 Reading passage
Why Deepford Grew Beside the Brennig River Dam
An original grade 6 passage about a fictional mill town whose dam shaped where people lived and worked, and the choice the town faces now that the mill is gone.
Grade 7 Reading passage
When Whitmarsh's Wells Turned Salty
An original grade 7 passage about a fictional coastal town whose summer pumping pulls salt water into its wells, and the three supply options it weighs.
Grade 8 Reading passage
Water Rights in the West: First in Time, First in Right
A grade 8 informational passage explaining the prior appropriation doctrine that governs water rights in many western states, contrasted with riparian rights.
Debate kits
Grade 8 Debate kit
Should Highmoor County Permit a Water Bottling Plant?
A two-session grade 8 debate kit on a groundwater withdrawal permit, with two-sided evidence, board roles, and a rubric for the county hearing students stage.
Projects
Grade 8 Project
Orrin Flats From Above: An Irrigation Relief-Print Series
A grade 8 printmaking project in which students carve three aerial-view relief blocks showing how farms in a fictional irrigation district water their crops.
Grade 6 Project
Nutrient Guardians: Fertilizer-Runoff Yard Signs for Loomis Creek
A grade 6 project where teams design three illustrated yard signs and a proposal urging neighbors to keep fertilizer nutrients out of Loomis Creek, within a fixed budget.
Graphic organizers
Grade 7 Graphic organizer
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.
Career spotlights
Grade 7 Career spotlight
The Water Master Who Divides the Tillingham River
A grade 7 spotlight on an irrigation district water master, following a delivery day on the fictional Tillingham River with ratio, percent, and acre-foot questions.