Plan
- Do you know what a watershed is? It’s the path that water takes from its source to its end. Try figuring out the path your water takes through your community.
- What impacts could human activity have on water?
- What would you like to learn about water?
Do
The Water Rangers website has a ton of great information gathered by people just like you! Volunteers go out in their communities and track different information about their local waterways.
- In teams, select a waterway from the Water Rangers website. It can be in your community or further afield. Trace the path of the waterway – what is its source? Where does it go?
- Look at the data sets that people have added to the data platform. How does the data change?
- Look at the dates of the collection – does it change from season to season?
- Look at data from different locations along the waterway. Does the data change from location to location?
- Why might data change from season to season?
- Why might it change in different locations? Look at human factors around the different collection sites – things like factories, production plants, runoff pipes, etc. might all impact the water.
Review
- Did anything surprise you? Why?
- Will you go and collect your own data in the future? What changes might you see?
- What human activities can have an impact on the health of water?
- Remember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map to the Review section.
Keep it Simple
- Learn about your local watershed before you jump in to this activity!
Take it Further
- Look closely at the data along your chosen waterway and see if you can connect why data is different in different areas, e.g. factories or production plants using the water to cool equipment may make for warmer water, water near the end of a runoff pipe may be contaminated with chemicals, etc. Is human activity having a negative impact on your water? Is there anything we can do to help?
