Educator’s Guide 

Teaching Students About the Upper Uncompahgre River Watershed

© 2023, 2024 Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership

This Educator’s Guide to Teaching Students About the Upper Uncompahgre River Watershed was made possible with generous grant funding from the Telluride Foundation (www.telluridefoundation.org) and Gunnison Basin Roundtable (https://gunnisonriverbasin.org/) funded by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. UWP thanks Ridgway teacher and consultant Krista Javoronok for developing the curriculum, and UWP’s volunteer board members who assisted in its development and scientific review. UWP also thanks MyTopo, a Trimble Company, for their generous discount on laminated maps of Ridgway and Ouray, CO. 

UWP also thanks partner organizations with similar missions and whose materials were modified for use and are included in this guide: specifically, Mountain Studies Institute (Silverton and Durango) and Project Wet’s Aquatic Wild curriculum.

This Educator’s Guide may be downloaded free from the UWP website—as fair use materials in Colorado, across the nation, or in another country. While developed for teaching students about the Upper Uncompahgre River Watershed, they can be modified for location-specific lessons! 

View printable and downloadable guide

Contents

Overview   5

Watershed Teaching Materials   7 

• Watershed Education Materials Trunk Contents   7

Year One: Middle School Curriculum   9

• Guiding Questions (Questions for Students, Questions for Teachers, Outcomes: Grade 6/7 & 8)   9
• Lesson: Determining River Health (objectives, outcome, time frame,
  teacher background, materials, references, and activity outline)    11
  • Student Worksheet: Unc Watershed—Water Quality Field Data
    Collection Sheet to Determine Abiotic and Biotic Factors    14
  • Teacher Background Materials:
    • pH 17
    • Turbidity 19
    • Stream Temperature 20
    • Dissolved Oxygen 21
    • Conductivity 22
• Lesson: Understanding the Impacts of Mine Waste and Rock
  Drainage in Watersheds Like Ours   23
  • Acid Mine Drainage Creation and Clean-up Chemistry Activity Outline   25
  • Student Data Collection Sheet for Acid Drainage    27
• Lesson: Gold King Mine Spill: What Happened and How it Was
  Cleaned Up (lesson and worksheet)    29
  • Watershed Fact Sheets and Color Photographs (in trunk)
• Lesson: Identifying and Mapping Important Features of a Watershed    30
• Lesson: Literature Connection & Exploring Watersheds Vocabulary   32
• Lesson: Evaluating What Students Learned During Watershed
  Awareness Week   34
• Watershed Week Final Project: Rubric for Student Teams    35

Year Two: Middle School Curriculum   36

• Questions for Students to Explore   36
• Outcomes: Grade 6/7   37
• Outcomes: Grade 8   37
• Lesson: Fishable Waters    38
  • Student Field Data Sheet to Determine Fishery Health
    (habitat inventory)    44
  • Fish Biography cards   46
• Lesson: Watered Down History   55
• Lesson: What’s in the Water   58
• Lesson: Building Vocabulary Related to Watersheds   64

Associated High School Curriculum/Field Days   66

• Education Plan    67
• Student Note-taking Worksheets   69

Watershed Glossary   75

Additional Resources   83