Week 13: Stream Processes

This week's activity:

• Making Sense of Stream Processes (p.81-91)

This activity is designed to fit the science practices and the middle school standards of the Next Generation Science Standards. A handout of the science practices used in NGSS that I gave out in class is available on SacCT (once you get there, click on 'pdf documents' in the left sidebar).

Stream Processes Websites

Here are some websites related to stream processes that may give you additional information:

Physical Geography.net Streamflow and Processes: http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10y.html

be sure to click on these key words as you read through this web page:

headwaters, mouth
stream load, bed load, suspended load, dissolved load
stream discharge (or discharge)
meandering, point bar

Click here for a discussion of discharge and what happens to a stream when discharge increases in a natural situation: http://www.uh.edu/~jbutler/physical/flooding/streamdischarge.html

Click here for a short introduction to stream gradient: http://www.jsu.edu/dept/geography/mhill/phylabtwo/lab8/gradcalf.html

Read about deltas at these two sites:

http://www.onegeology.org/extra/kids/earthProcesses/deltas.html
http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/delta/

A brief definition/explanation of braided streams is given here: http://pages.uoregon.edu/millerm/braided.html

Animation of the evolution of a meandering stream: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/egeo2/content/animations/14_1.htm

Watch a 1 minute YouTube video about how V-shaped valleys form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIn0UoeDyVg

If you miss week 13:

You can not make up these activities, but you still have to do the weekly assignment as best you can and turn it in before the next class period. Read the material in the manual about this activity with care so that you understand what you missed, talk to a classmate to find out more. Worksheets collected for this lab will be listed on the Lab Schedule page and must be turned within a week. Click here for the syllabus information about missing class.

I have uploaded a pdf of the powerpoint presentation that was used for this class onto SacCT (once you get there, click on 'pdf documents' in the left sidebar).

Here are more specifics about the worksheets that were collected:

• page 89 in your manual
  • for this one, I will be correcting the part at the bottom about how you would go about measuring discharge with the materials provided (not the actual measurements)
• Two halfsheets; to complete the half sheets you need these:
  • Today's Engineering Challenge
  • NYT article

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