Driving Question
What does rainfall on our schoolyard have to do with the health of our rivers and streams ?
Big Idea
Schoolyards, like most built environments, can be designed to work with the natural water cycle. This has multiple environmental benefits for all living things (including us!)
Summary
Amounts of rainfall have broad implications for all living things, including the flow of our waterways that not only support a diverse ecosystem but serve as the source of our drinking water supply. Collecting and tracking precipitation data over time* can help students correlate data to this real world impact. This will be possible using your own schoolyard Rain Gauge through Ambient Weather Station or those nearby (or far away too). Before we look at the recorded data, let’s first explore how rainfall makes us feel through observation using our senses. Who does not enjoy the sound of rain, watching it fall or jumping and splashing in a puddle? We will see !
*Note: Later on you will use your Ambient Weather Data to graph both precipitation and soil moisture sensor – using the addon )
Engage
The Engage activity (Slides 4-13) is meant to make a quick but engaging connection for your students about how they experience rain. Of course, feel free to go further.
Explore and Explain
Have students think about the journey of a raindrop from the time it lands on the schoolyard to its final destination– the ocean. Use the digital tool River Runner embedded in Slide 14 and linked here to explore. If you have time, have a brief conversation about why they think the vocabulary word “RUN” is used to describe waterways and is also in the title of this tool. (Hint:Here is a good opportunity to remind students about gravity and topography)
If water wants to “runoff”, what path does it take? A natural one, a human-made one? Whatever it can find?
Explore the stream maps in Philadelphia and compare then and now to explore how our streams were encapsulated in pipes and became our sewer system infrastructure
Slides 15-25
Schoolyard investigation/Drawing on evidence
Once students start to discover the connection between the street drains and the underground pipes (infrastructure) to manage the flow of rainfall in our city, use your schoolyard to observe this more closely Although students will be able to SEE what is on the surface through mapping (birds’ eye view) they will be invited to IMAGINE what is underground, making the invisible visible. This may require some scaffolding to get students to see what they cannot see (use this elevation/section drawing in the slide deck)
Go outside and complete the Rain Drain Mapping activity in your schoolyard. The activity starts with slide 25.
Why do we need to manage stormwater?
Diagram (words and arrows) the critical parts of the students’ cross-section drawing to highlight how we can we work with parts of the natural water cycle to help our schoolyard plants, infiltrate the soil and recharge our groundwater and streams
Elaborate
The Sponge!
Ask students to share their diagrams with others while making the argument for capturing/collecting water on site in the schoolyard. Not only how does this refresh, replenish , recharge our local waterways , it helps our plants grow and maybe it even cools the air when there is moisture in the soil .
Share the Big Green Map – all the green projects throughout the city – and posit the question– does it all add up?
Lastly, take your students outside after a rain fall and ask them to reflect how they feel– does being near moisture in the ground or remains in the air make a difference in how we feel ?
Tracking and Interpreting DATA: Local to citywide
Using the observation, research and what we know about journey of rain, students can track the data on their own schoolyard and throughout the city to see that it all adds up
Collect and graph Precipitation and Soil Moisture using the data collected from your Ambient Weather Station and Soil Moisture ADD ON. You decide on the date parameters– one week, one month, etc using your dashboard.
Teacher Support
Driving question:
What does rainfall on our schoolyard have to do with the health of our rivers and streams ?
Guiding questions:
How can we observe and also record evidence of parts of the water cycle – precipitation, runoff and infiltration in our own schoolyard?
What water infrastructure can we see and what is hidden in our schoolyard to manage rainfall? How do these systems work WITH nature or take inspiration FROM nature?
How do these systems work to capture, collect and convey the natural flow of water?
Students will be able to:
Identify and describe the pathways for water flow from schoolyard to river to ocean
Create and diagram a plan view (map) of the rain to drain pathways in our schoolyard
Create and diagram a cross section view of the rain to drain pathways of rain in our schoolyard
Collect, analyze and interpret environmental data to describe your school’s watershed
Notebooks
Paper and pencil (graph paper?)
RESOURCES
Stormwater (noun) In a natural, undeveloped environment, rain falls on the ground and evaporates or is absorbed into the soil. In an urban, developed environment such as Philadelphia, rain falls on the ground, “runs off” and flows into the sewer system. This water is referred to as stormwater or stormwater runoff.
Precipitation (noun) rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground.
Infiltration (noun) permeation of a liquid into something by filtration.
Infrastructure (noun) the basic systems and services, such as transportation, water and power supplies, that a country or organization uses in order to work effectively
Gray infrastructure refers to human-made, often engineered structures used for managing water resources, like stormwater and wastewater. It typically involves concrete and steel and includes systems like sewer lines, treatment plants, and stormwater tunnels. These systems are designed to collect, convey, and treat water, often using pipes and other hard surfaces to direct water flow.
Green infrastructure refers to a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas, along with other environmental features, designed to deliver multiple ecological, social, and economic benefits. It encompasses a range of practices that utilize plants, soil, and natural materials to manage stormwater, improve air and water quality, and enhance overall quality of life.
A. After an outdoor investigation of the schoolyard, students will create a rain with labels and/or diagrams that may include all of the area where water might drain into the street, or drain into a pipe underground, the plants or trees where water is able to be absorbed into soil or mulch, and areas where water pools into puddles to eventually evaporate.
B. Students will create a cross-section illustration of the schoolyard showing both above ground AND below ground in the same drawing to show where the water is flowing into pipes or infiltrating into the soil, or running off into the storm drain by showing the answers to the following:
Where does a drain or gutter lead the water to?
What happens to water that is absorbed in a rain garden or the soil/mulch around a plant/tree?
What happens to the water that is in puddles on the schoolyard?
C. Examine and interpret in a summary paragraph precipitation and soil moisture data from the Weather Station over time and communicate to others about rains (time) impact on where the water flows during the rain event related to storm drains sewers, soil, lawns, gardens, mulch and street gutters
PA STEELS Standards
Environmental Literacy and Sustainability
Grades 3-5
Develop a model to demonstrate how local environmental issues are connected to larger local environment and human systems.
Critique ways that people depend on and change the environment.
Grades 6-8
Collect, analyze and interpret environmental data to describe a local environment
Obtain and communicate information to describe how best resource management practices and environmental laws are design to achieve environmental sustainability