Eyes on the Hydrosphere: Tracking Water Resources

Jonathan Harvey (Fort Lewis College)
Becca Walker (Mt San Antonio College)

Editor: Beth Pratt-Sitaula (EarthScope Consortium)

This material was developed and reviewed through the GETSI curricular materials development process. Final review and editing is pending. (view details)

This material was developed and reviewed through the GETSI curricular materials development process. This rigorous, structured process includes:

team-based development to ensure materials are appropriate across multiple educational settings.
multiple iterative reviews and feedback cycles through the course of material development with input to the authoring team from both project editors and an external assessment team.
real in-class or field camp/course testing of materials in multiple courses with external review of student assessment data.
multiple reviews to ensure the materials meet the GETSI materials rubric which codifies best practices in curricular development, student assessment and pedagogic techniques.
created or reviewed by content experts for accuracy of the science content.

Final review, editing, and approval by GETSI for this material is still pending.

Initial Publication Date: May 28, 2019

Summary

This module introduces students to the basics of the hydrologic cycle, but in a way that engages them with both societal challenges related to water and methods for measuring the water system. The data used in the module includes both traditional (ie., stream gages) and geodetic methods (ie., gravity satellites). Students also use real data to identify trends and extremes in precipitation and water storage. It is intended to require ~2–3 weeks of class to use in its entirety. It includes individual and group work, reading, reflection, and working with data on the computer. In the final exercise, students are able to investigate water resources in a region of interest to them.

Show more about Online Teaching suggestions

Webinar about teaching this module: Teaching about the Water Cycle with Data-Rich Water Resources Activities

For a majors-level module on water resources, please see Measuring Water Resources with GPS, Gravity, and Traditional Methods

Strengths of the Module

This module presents an impactful, yet accessible, introduction to how the water cycle works, how humans rely on water resources, and how we monitor those resources. The module includes a mixed-methods approach. In- and out-of-class assignments are used to guide students through a series of hands-on exercises, including: construction of a water cycle diagram, a jigsaw exercise where student "experts" teach each other about measurement techniques, and a computer-based exercise wherein students analyze real hydrologic data to detect short- and long-term hydrologic variability in multiple climate zones.
Materials are provided to students in such a way that they can focus on the earth science concepts while building their data analysis and interpretation skills.
This module is specifically constructed to be accessible to introductory-level students with minimal prior training in earth science.
The final exercise in the module gives students an opportunity to investigate the water resources in an area of interest to them. They research typical water challenges for that area and look at one or more water-related data sets.
Overall, students are introduced to a broad range of both traditional and newer geodetic methods. These include stream gauges, groundwater wells, snow pillows, vertical GPS changes, reflection GPS for snow depth, and GRACE satellite (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment).