Who "owns" a River?

   Today we experienced ways humans impact the environment by zooming in on human effects to water.  I began by telling the class we won huge prize- a river!  To be fair, I divided the river up equally and allowed small groups to decide what we should build along the river.  I prompted them to dream big and let them go without a price tag!  Here is how the river turned out- we have a Sports World, a Tree-House Hotel, a Super Game Land, a zoo, a National Park, and more!

   As each group presented their plans, we discussed how they might impact the river.  For example, the Sports World planned a cool complex, but left out trash cans!  We placed beads in the water depending on the pollution.

   This led us to a conversation about river cities- such as St. Louis.  I mapped out the river as if it was the Mississippi- we placed Itasca at the north, St. Louis in the center, and New Orleans south.  We talked about the cities north of St. Louis contribute to the pollution we see in the Mississippi, as well as how we pollute the river here and so on to New Orleans.
   The final part of this lesson was focused on how we can make changes to our plans to minimize pollution!