Expedition Sediments: Mud's journey through the watershed

Grades 9-12 Earth Science.

Could be adapted for: Grades 5-8 Science (geology, rivers, or oceans).

Could be adapted for: introductory geology or introductory oceanography undergraduate course, provided there are <30 students.

One-hour stand alone activity.

• Students will explain and illustrate how sediments are transported through an estuary and its
  watershed.
• Students will graph and compare sediment residence times in different locations.
• Students will compare the timescales of different sediment transport processes.

Collection and analysis or simple data, computation of a residence time, critical thinking about earth as a system.

Graphing, creating diagrams, short-answer writing.

Please see the main lesson plan pdf document and power point slides below for all content.

This game-in-a-lesson was developed as part of the 2019 Virginia Scientist & Educators Alliance (VA SEA) and is available at the following DOI address: https://doi.org/10.25773/1PAH-7023

Creative Commons License:
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Publication Statement:
This lesson was developed in alignment with the 2010 Virginia Department of Education's Science Standards of Learning.

Funding:
VA SEA is supported by the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Virginia Sea Grant, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Marine Advisory Program.

Recommended Citation:
Turner, J. (2019) Expedition Sediments: Mud's Journey through the Watershed. Subjects: Earth Science / Environmental Science Grades: 9-12. VA SEA 2019 Lesson Plans. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. https://doi.org/10.25773/1PAH-7023

Slides for Expedition Sediments (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 1.3MB Nov23 20) 
Main Lesson Plan (Acrobat (PDF) 4.5MB Nov23 20) 

Procedure:
Free-write–5 minutes
a) Put up the slide and start off with 5 minutes of free-writing: "Describe what you see in this picture.
What do you think is going on here?"

Introduction – 10 minutes
b) Introduce sediments. Use the contents of the Background Information section above if needed.
Explain to students how sediments can be seen as "good" vs. "bad" for ecosystems and for
people. For example, sediments are a renewable resource for marshes and beaches, but they
can be detrimental to water quality when there is too much erosion.
Optional: Watch three short videos:
- Bay 101: Sediment, Chesapeake Bay Program https://vimeo.com/110608386
- Marsh Replenishment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AIgYACJfSQ&feature=youtu.be
- Beach Nourishment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7w6jY6LnpM
c) Ask students "Where do we find sediments?" or "Where do we find mud? Sand?" As students give
correct answers, put the respective station labels up around the room where each station will
be.
d) Explain the game to students. They will be travelling around the watershed as individual grains of
sand. Each student is one grain of sand. Explain that they need to keep track of where they go
on the worksheet with the table.
Optional: explain how students should color in their tables and/or make a bracelet using the
different colors at each station as they go, if you are using those extra items.
Use a random system to break students up into their starting stations. They should be evenly
spread out around the room.

Game– 20 minutes
e) Display the "Game Instructions" slide on the projector. Start the game: do one very slow practice
turn so that students understand how to roll the die and go to the next station according to
what the numbered cards tell them. For example, if they roll a "3" at the ocean station, they
remain in the ocean. Ring the bell or let them hear the sound that signals the end of a turn.
f) Play the game. Use a bell/sound for each turn. Play for about 15 minutes, or until students have fully
or almost fully filled in their tables (15-20 stops). Stop a few turns into the game to check that
no one is lost.
g) At the end station of the game, ask students to write their final station on the last "start" column of
the table (see answer key).

Results – 5 minutes
h) Ask students to return to their original seats to 1) count up their totals and 2) fill out the graph. Draw
an example graph on the board if necessary.
i) Start a place for students to tally up all of their results, either on the board or on a poster or separate
piece of paper. The whole class results should have a total number of times that students visited
each of the 8 stations. One way to do this is to have students come up one group at a time to
add their results with the tally system. Another way to do this is to have them come up one by
one after they finish their graphs. (While they are filling out the graph and pooling results on the
board is a good time to start taking down the game).
Note: if some students make their graphs faster than others, have them color them in, then skip down
to questions 7 and 8 (last page of the worksheet) and start writing about their sediment journey
and drawing a diagram or picture of their journey.

Discussion – 5 minutes
j) Discuss the whole-class results with students. Draw the whole-class results on the board in a bar graph
or write the total numbers where students can see them. Ask, "Where did the sediments (you)
stay the longest?" (should be the ocean, the bay, and the marsh or possibly the reservoir and
the estuary). "Where did the sediments (you) stay for the shortest amount of time?" (should be
the stream or the beach).
Student in-class work – 10 minutes
k) Ask students to fill out questions 3 – 6 below their graphs on the worksheet.
l) For the rest of class, have students answer questions 7 and 8: writing a story about their journey and
drawing a diagram of their journey. 

Conclusion – 5 minutes
m) Before students leave the classroom, wrap up the lesson. Ask "What did we learn from the game?"
or "What do you think was the big-picture point of this game?" If students provide answers that
make sense, write their answers on the board. Explain and list on the board the following bullet
points, whether students provide these answers or not:
o All of the systems are connected: sediments travel through all of these places.
o Sediments stay for longer in some places than others.
o Humans alter the natural transport of sediments by building dams, building reservoirs, and dredging.

The worksheet for this lesson plan is designed to assess students' ability to explain the journey of a
sediment grain and compare the different storage locations and processes.

Please see the answer key for examples of graphs and answers to the questions.

References:

Cerco, C.F., Noel, M.R., 2016. Impact of Reservoir Sediment Scour on Water Quality in a Downstream
Estuary. Journal of Environment Quality 45, 894. doi:10.2134/jeq2014.10.0425
Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP). 2018. Sediment. Video Produced by Will Parson. Accessed November 1,
2018. https://www.chesapeakebay.net/issues/sediment
Dellapenna, T.M., Kuehl, S.A., Schaffner, L.C., 1998. Sea-bed mixing and particle residence times in
biologically and physically dominated estuarine systems: A comparison of lower Chesapeake Bay
and the York River subestuary. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 46, 777–795.
doi:10.1006/ecss.1997.0316
HowTowithGEO. 2015. Beach Nourishment: Outer Banks. Youtube.com. Published August 22, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7w6jY6LnpM
Lymington Yacht Haven. 2017. DredgingToday.com. VIDEO: Lymington River Marsh Replenishment on
Display. Youtube.com. Published February 27, 2017.
https://www.dredgingtoday.com/2017/02/27/video-lymington-river-marsh-replenishment-ondisplay/
Virginia Department of Education. 2010. Standards of Learning (SOL) & Testing: Science. Accessed
November 1, 2018.
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/index.shtml
Voepel, H., Schumer, R., Hassan, M.A., 2013. Sediment residence time distributions: Theory and
application from bed elevation measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 118,
2557–2567. doi:10.1002/jgrf.20151

Image Sources:

Liberty Dam Reservoir. Created April 21, 2015. By Bohemian Baltimore - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48376635
Dangerous River Plume. Photographed August 3, 2015. Andrew McDonnell, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Personal permission. amcdonnell@alaska.edu
Situk River. Created April 26, 2017. Jessica Turner, Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
jsturner@vims.edu
Exe Estuary. Created May 18, 2007. By steverenouk - IMG_0664, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2123048
Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Created August 16, 2008. By JoshuaDavisPhotography.com CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chesapeake_Bay_Bridge_3.jpg
Sand dunes at Naikoon Provincial Park. Created May 12, 2011. By Karen Neoh, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NaikoonPP-Beach-sand.jpg
Salt Marsh, Tyninghame. Created March 3, 2007. By Dr Duncan Pepper, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12554550
Ilha Grande (Open Ocean). Created January 2, 2009. By Anderson Mancini from Sao Paulo, Brazil - Open
Ocean, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64176298
Western Maine (Land). Photographed June 15, 2013. Jessica Turner, Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
jsturner@vims.edu