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Lesson 1- Land Use Change Introduction
In this lesson, students will learn about the Hudson River's watershed and the sub-watersheds that feed the Hudson. This is a good lesson to use to recap the concept of a watershed. Students will use aerial photos of Dutchess or Westchester counties in 2004 and compare those with photos taken in 1936. Use the power point presentation to show and explain some of the changes that have occurred.
Lesson 2- Paleoclimate in the Hudson Valley
In this lesson, students will read about sediment cores and how they tell us about the changes that have occurred in the Hudson's watershed during the last 16,000 years. Using sediment collected in cores from the marshes of the Hudson River, scientists have learned about the region's past- the deeper the core, the older the sediment. Each layer of a core contains sediment and with it pollen and other fossils that scientists study to understand the plants that lived in the area. Knowing what climatic conditions those plants require, scientists infer what the climate was like during those eras. Use the additional reading to help students understand how scientists collect and use these data. Students will use simulated pollen (confetti) to construct the geologic history of the region.
Lesson 3- Land Use Change Since 1609
Similar to Lesson 2, students will use soil layers to figure out how the region has changed since the arrival of Henry Hudson in 1609. Changes here focus on human disturbance, including the arrival of invasive species, charcoal as a result of fires, and the elimination of certain species of trees due to human use.
Lesson 4- Importance of Soil
By designing a water filter made from soils and researching water filter types in different parts of the world, students learn about the importance of soil for water quality.
Lesson 5- Permeability of Soils
Students experiment with different substrates to learn how permeability changes with soil type, and the impact of permeability on groundwater recharge and water quality.
Lesson 6- Land Use & Water Quality
This lesson requires at least one field trip to two different aquatic ecosystems which drain watersheds comprised of different land use types. Students prepare in the classroom, determining which variables to study, and then compile and share results with their classmates. Students also use data from a study done in Baltimore to examine the way nitrogen retention changes based on land use.
Lesson 7- Human Accelerated Environmental Change
Students use major change events in the Hudson Valley to discuss how different changes interact. If you didn't complete this lesson at the beginning of the Hudson River module, it would be an ideal way to end the Land Use Change module. The lesson asks students to think about five different 'stories' in the region: zebra mussel invasion, water chestnut invasion, common reed invasion, Lyme disease, and temperature changes in the river. Using a jigsaw format, students discuss all of the changes and try to make predictions about what type of human accelerated environmental change each story represents.
Extension Lesson A- Regional Stream Limnology
Land use affects stream water quality. Removal of vegetation and conversion of land in a watershed to impervious surfaces like pavement and rooftops increases runoff and the loading of silt into a stream. Fertilizers and animal waste products add to nutrient loading.
In this lesson, students collect water from streams with different land uses. Students compare stream water from small streams with water further downstream in a higher order stream to investigate the relationship between land use in tributaries and the health of the higher-order stream.
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