
Students
at
Ellis
Elementary
School
recreated
a
watershed
experiment
as
a
part
of
the
fourth-grade
curriculum
covering
water
cycles
and
watersheds
in
Virginia.
Alicia
Schrank,
fourth
grade
teacher
at
Ellis
Elementary,
led
her
class
through
the
"crumpled
paper"
watershed
experiment.
The
experiment
involves
taking
a
piece
of
paper
and
crumpling
it
up,
then
opening
it
a
little
to
see
the
small
ridges
and
valleys
created
by
the
crumpling.
This
mirrors
the
Blue
Ridge
mountains
and
the
valleys.
Students
then
trace
along
the
ridgelines
using
a
blue
colored
marker
to
represent
streams
and
rivers.
Then
they
spray
the
paper
using
a
spray
bottle
to
represent
a
rainstorm
over
the
land.
The
students
observe
how
the
water
travels
down
the
ridges
and
collects
downstream
and
discuss
how
the
collection
spot
could
represent
the
Chesapeake
Bay.
Schrank
explained,
"We
focus
on not
only
what
a
watershed
is
but
how
everything
that
occurs
in
the watershed
affects
the
water
and
thus
affecting
all
humans
and
wildlife
habitats
within
it.
The
students
truly
learn
what
it
means
when
we
say,
'we
all
live
downstream.'"
The
class
proceeds
to
add
brown
dots
to
the
land
using
a
colored
marker
to
represent
pollution.
To
connect
the
lesson
back
to
a
personal
experience,
Schrank
asks
the
students,
"What
type
of
pollution
do
you
see
around
your
own
neighborhoods?"
She
then
has
them
spray
the
paper,
to
show
students
how
the
brown
mixed
with
the
blue
and
represents
how
trash
could
get
mixed
in
with
our
water.
Lastly,
the
students
draw
large
circles
with
a
red
marker
to
represent
landfills
or
factories
that
create
a
lot
of
pollution.
One
of
the
students
shared,
"No,
now
the
water
will
be
really
dirty!"
as
they
sprayed
the
land
again.
This
brought
the
class
back
to
the
discussion
point
of
what
it
means
to
say,
"we
all
live
downstream," and
one
student
stated
that
it
didn't
matter
where
Schrank
sprayed
because
the
water
ran
all
over
the
land,
polluting
the
streams,
rivers,
and
bodies
of
water
where
it
collected.
The
class
concluded
the
lesson
with
ideas
on
how
fourth
graders
can
protect
the
Chesapeake
Bay
and
influence
the
adults
in
their
homes
to
be
more
aware
of
how
their
actions
affect
everyone
in
the
watershed.
"I
always
love
doing
this
lab
with
the
students
having
their
own
crumpled
paper
'land'
and
I
wanted
them
to
have
the
same
experience
in
the
virtual
learning
setting.
I
find
this
experiment
stays
with
students
and
makes
them
look
differently
at
the
world
around
us,
and
just
how
much
we
impact
it,
both
positively
and
sometimes
like
in
this
experiment,
negatively
through
pollution,
and
being
more
conscious
of
our
actions,"
shared
Schrank.