SUPERSTAR W A T E R water STEWARD ra wets tsrep us dra ACTIVITY BOOK Illustrations by Malakai Greiner 1 How to use this book Welcome Superstars! This book was created for residents of the Mississippi Watershed and surrounding areas - to find out your watershed, you can visit mwmo.org/learn/find-your-watershed Here in the Mississippi Watershed, we are on stolen Dakota & Anishinaabe territory. Throughout this book, we do our best to honor this truth by 1.) acknowledging that we are currently occupying stolen Indigenous land, 2.) using Dakota and Anishinaabe language place names, and 3.) sharing resources for further learning and action to support living Indigenous peoples. Pages with a star in the corner have a video component that provides demonstration and further learning. You can find all the videos on stevenssquare.org/superstar. If you see a word that is bolded, you can find it's pronunciation and definition in the glossary on the last page of this book. Please share your projects, coloring pages, and scientific findings with us on social media with the hashtag #SuperstarSteward. You can also tag, @stevenssquarecommunityorg & @mississippiwmo. When you have gone through the activity book, you'll find a certificate that you can sign, cut out, and display proudly! You will also find iron-on patches that can be applied to your jacket so others will know you're a Superstar Water Steward. Be sure to ask for adult help when applying iron-on patches. Go ahead, Superstar! Turn the page and get started. Information sources: Production & Funding Credits: Rust, April. Water Ways: a Minnesota Water This project was coordinated by Stevens Primer & Project WET Companion. Square Community Organization. SSCO Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, provides a respectful forum for community 2010. involvement and leadership that builds on neighborhood strengths to promote and improve Stevens Square-Loring Heights as a Big River Teacher’s Guide. fun place to live, work, and play. Learn more Mississippi National River and Recreation about how you can get involved at www.stevenssquare.org. Area (National Park Service), 2019. Funding for this project was provided by the bdotememorymap.org Mississippi Watershed Management humanitieslearning.org/resource Organization, whose mission is to lead, and nativegov.org/resources to foster stewardship of the watershed with sacredland.org/bdote actions that promote civic ownership and responsibility and through measures that cgee.hamline.edu/watershed/action achieve diverse and functional ecosystems. Learn more at www.mwmo.org. Dakota & Anishinaabe language resources: fmp.cla.umn.edu/dakota/home.php Special thanks to Freshwater Society, ojibwe.lib.umn.edu inspiring and empowering people to value and preserve our freshwater resources. Learn more at freshwater.org. 2 WATER = LIFE Water is life. Here in the Twin Cities, we live on a bdote - the Dakota word for a confluence or a joining of two rivers. The bdote near the Twin Cities is the joining of the Minnesota River and the Mississippi River. This Bdote (you might know as "Mendota") is known as the place of the creation of the Dakota people - Makoce Cokaya Kin, which means the center of the Earth in the Dakota language. It's no surprise that the place where two waters meet is such a special and sacred place in Dakota history and culture. Water itself is special and sacred, because it maintains the life of every living thing. Water is inside of us. It keeps people & other animals alive and healthy. Water created the shape of our planet — hills, valleys, canyons, and mountains, were all formed by water. We use water for play in swimming pools, for travel when we ride in a boat, for keeping our homes and our bodies clean, and so much more! How do you use water in your daily life? write your answer below 3 WHAT IS WATER? Have you ever heard someone call water "h2o"? That is because water is made up of small pieces of matter called molecules that look like this: H H O Each letter in "h2o" represents an atom of a certain element. The H's stand for the element Hydrogen, and the O stands for the element Oxygen. 2 Hydrogen atoms and 1 Oxygen atom combine to create water molecules. This unique combination allows water to exist in 3 different forms or phases: solid, liquid, and gas. When molecules are very close together, they form a solid. When molecules are a little more loose, they create a liquid. When molecules are far apart, they form a gas! Solid Liquid Gas 4 WHAT IS WATER? Draw what you think the molecule formation would look like based on the image of the water in the box. We've included one water molecule in each box to get you started. Solid Liquid Gas What are some other examples of water in it's 3 different phases? Solid Liquid Gas glacier rain cloud 5 THE WATER CYCLE Water is always changing and moving between it's 3 phases. This transformation is called the water cycle! If you were a water drop, you would swim deep in the ocean, journey underground, and fly high up into the sky. As gas, water moves through the air in clouds. When it cools, water condenses into droplets, and the water falls to the ground as rain, snow, or another form of precipitation. Some gets used by people for drinking, farming, and energy production As water falls, some of it soaks into the ground and gets used by plants Some water evaporates as gas back into tiny water droplets called vapor and forms clouds Some of it runs into Some water soaks into the lakes, rivers, and earth and becomes wetlands to be used groundwater by animals. 6 MY WATERSHED When rain falls from the sky and into our yard, where does it go next? For many of us in the Twin Cities, the answer is the Mississippi River, and eventually, the Gulf of Mexico! All of the land that water touches before it reaches a body of water is called a watershed. Let's make one ourselves! Here's what you'll need: Modeling clay Dropper with water Wax paper Graph paper Blue & red thread pieces Crayons Scissors (optional) Part A: Make the Island Lay the wax paper on your table and then use the clay to build an island on top of the wax paper. Pinch the clay to create at least four distinct drainage basins. Each basin (watershed) must share a divide with at least one other basin (see picture for an example). Avoid cone-shaped peaks and unrealistic features or large flat areas. Part B: Determine the Drainage Pattern Use your dropper filled with water to determine the location of the island’s four largest rivers and their watersheds. Do this by gently dropping water from 1-2 inches above various parts of the island. Notice the path the drops of water make as they drain off the island. Those pathways are your major rivers! - If a drop gets stuck, add more water to the drop. Eventually it should flow off the island. If it still doesn’t move, reshape the area to create a steeper slope. - You can reshape the island at this point to get the rivers where you want them to be. Part C: Mark the major river and watershed boundaries. 1. Use pieces of blue thread to mark the location of the island’s 4 major rivers. Press the thread gently into the clay to keep it in place. 2. Use pieces of red thread to mark the boundaries of the watersheds for each river that you have identified (at least four). The watershed should include all the land that would drain into a particular river. 3. Gently scratch tributaries (streams) into your island. 7 Part D: Make a detailed map of your island. Using scissors, cut (or carefully tear with your fingers) along the coastline to remove the extra wax paper from around your island. Place your island in the center of the graph paper, and then trace its coastline onto the paper. Set the model aside and draw each of the following onto the map: major rivers and tributaries (blue) and boundaries of drainage basins (red). Here are some more features you can add to your map: - A compass to indicate North, East, South, and West. Position your map so that North is at the top. - Put a tiny red triangle on the map to mark the highest point on your island. - Give your island a name. Place the name at the top of the map. - Put arrows on all of the rivers to show flow direction. - Name the major rivers (blue yarn). Write these names along the rivers. - Put a green "UP" somewhere in the upper portion of the largest drainage basin. - Put a green "LO" somewhere in the lower portion the largest basin. - Put a green "M" at the mouth of your longest river. - Put a green "D" on one of the divides located on your map. - Put a green "C" on a confluence on your map - Put a green "H" at the headwaters of your longest river. - Include a scale on your map. Design the scale so that the length of one side of each square on the graph paper is equal to either 1 mile or 1 km. - Where would you like to live on this island? Draw a small house in that location. Flip your paper over and write about why you chose to place your home at that spot on the island. Is it because it's close to a river? Near the beach? Imagine what kinds of plants and animals might live on your island. Upload: Snap a picture of your island & map and tag it with #SuperstarSteward! 8 RIVERS The Mississippi River is one of the longest rivers in North America, running all the way from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, and provides water for millions of people. Before Europeans forced them out of their homelands, the Dakota and Anishinaabe used the Mississippi for all sorts of things; transportation, water (of course), and food like freshwater fish and mussels. In fact, over 400 Mdewakanton Dakota once lived in a village called Kaposia located at what is now St. Paul. Let's learn what the Dakota and Anishinaabe called what we now know as the Mississippi river. Practice saying these names out loud. Language Name Name translation Haha Wakpa Dakota (Ha-ha wah-kpah) River of the falls Gichi Ziibi (geh-chee see-bee) Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) Sound familiar? The name Big river "Mississippi" is based on the Anishinaabe word! To hear native speakers pronounce these names, visit the language resource links from page 1 Think about your name. Is it important to you? What makes your name special? Why do you think it is important to learn and practice the Dakota and Anishinaabe names for the Mississippi? 9 RIVER LIFE Imagine spending everyday being pushed in one direction by a very large fan. That’s what life is like for plants and animals that live in running water like rivers. As water rushes downstream, the animals either hold themselves in place, float on the top of the current, drift downstream, or swim against the current. Below are 4 kinds of animal that live in Minnesota rivers - if you think the animal floats or drifts downstream, color the background blue; if they hold on tight, color the background green; and if you think they swim against the stream, color the background red. Frog Catfish Plankton Crayfish neerG :hsifyarC ,eulB :notknalP ,deR :hsiftaC ,eulB :gorF 10 LAKES Minnesota lakes are shallow and deep, large and small, nutrient rich and nutrient poor. In other words, our lakes are all very different! Ever since Minnesota's lakes were formed, they have been slowly filling in with soil carried into them from the surrounding watershed. Some lakes are lined with 40 feet or more of sediment. Scientists use these layers of sediment to learn about the history of the area. Let's be scientists and investigate what we can learn from a lake near us. We can learn a lot through careful observation. Visit one of the many lakes in our city and record your findings! Use the key below to determine what kinds of nutrients are in the lake. Lake Color Type of nutrients found Clear Low levels of nutrients Turquoise Marl (a combination of clay, sand, and limestone) Green Algae Tannin or Bog Stain (decomposing plants - usually Brown means there's a wetland in this lake's watershed!) Today we went to a lake called to (name of lake) do a scientific investigation. The lake was (large/medium/small) and . The color of the lake was , which (shallow / deep) (color of lake) leads me to believe that it is in nutrients. (rich/poor) 11 LAKE LIFE We learned that each lake has it's own unique color and makeup. In the same way, each lake has its own variety of life as well. Let's explore this lake and learn more about the different areas of a lake and the types of plants and animals that call that lake home. Limnetic Zone This is the open-water zone, and begins where Littoral Zone the water becomes deep enough that light does This is the portion of the lake where light not reach the bottom. Floating plants, fish, and reaches all the way to the bottom. Emergent plankton like this zone best. plants and tadpoles (baby frogs) call this area their home. The Loon (our state bird) hangs out here to find food. Profundal Zone In this area, fish and plankton thrive on the nutrients that drift down from above. Benthic Zone This zone is at the bottom of the lake - animals like mussels live here. Even Painted Turtles like to burrow into the mud here to await spring! 12 Human Water Use The average American uses 80 to 100 gallons of water each day! That's a lot - as much as about 853 cans of pop. Some of us get our household water from a municipal water supply, and some of us get it from private wells. Municipal water supplies may come from groundwater or surface waters such as Lake Superior or the Mississippi River. Wherever your household water supply comes from, it’s part of the Minnesota water cycle. The water may be screened for particles and treated to remove minerals that give it an undesirable color or flavor An electric pump pulls water from the aquifer into a pressure tank. WATER TREATMENT LAKE PLANT A pressure tank uses electricity to pressurize the water. GROUNDWATER When someone turns on a tap or flushes a toilet, the pressurized water flows through pipes to the point of use. Visit home-water-works.org/calculator & use their interactive activity to find out how much water your household uses! 13 Pollution In the past, water seemed endless - people thought it could never run out! So, they would dam rivers and pollute lakes without much worry about long-term consequences. Today we realize that bodies of water can be harmed, and water supplies can be damaged or completely used up. Most human-caused changes in water and waterways fall into three main categories; the first is pollution. Most water pollution in Minnesota today is from water that has fallen onto the ground and picked up nutrients and chemicals that are unfamiliar to most bodies of water. This runoff can change and damage water. Brainstorm a list of 3-6 places you can find water in your community (including running out of your faucet). Collect some samples of water at each water source in some reused clear plastic or glass jars. Display the jars in your kitchen or classroom. What can you observe about the samples? Do you think some are cleaner than others? If so, what evidence leads you to believe that? 14 Impervious Surfaces & Invasive Species The second category of human-caused changes in water and waterways is water cycle change. Before your house or the roads were built, rain would soak right into the soil to feed plants. Now the surface is too hard and flat to soak into, so water runs off into a storm sewer then drains into a lake or river much faster than it is supposed to. This disrupts the natural flow of the water cycle. The third type of human-caused change in water is that we bring new and unfamiliar species of animals, plants, and bacteria into water, or we remove or change the amounts of existing inhabitants. Invasive species make it hard for native species to access the resources they need, like food & space to live. Here are 4 projects from small to big that you can do with your friends, family, and neighborhood to prevent pollution, and preserve waterways. Collect trash around your school & home to keep it from collecting in local water bodies. You can do Install rain gardens and rain barrels this with your friends and family or around your home to keep water from join a local community cleanup rushing to a river or lake too fast. learn more at cutt.ly/MWMORainBarrel small big Don’t dump anything into lakes or Volunteer to help monitor lakes and rivers, onto streets, or down storm rivers. Visit this site to learn how: drains & dispose of unwanted pca.state.mn.us/water/citizen- household chemicals and medicine water-monitoring properly. Visit pca.state.mn.us to learn how 15 Take action! Who "owns" a natural resource like water? Who is responsible for taking care of water? Water is a public resource that all have a right to use. We all can take care of water by using it wisely, and not polluting or wasting it. Some people will take actions that hurt water; however, we can take action together to encourage others to protect water. Share your opinions with those who are running for or already in office. Each Minnesotan is represented in U.S. Congress by two senators and one representative. At the state level, we each have one senator and one representative. You can find contact information for your state and federal representatives by going to www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/ A very significant way you can help protect water through government processes is to share your voice and opinions in public hearings. You can find out when and where public hearings will be held by watching city, county, and watershed district websites for information on planning commission meetings. Get involved with groups that work to influence water policy and legislation. Wherever you are, and whatever age you are, there is a group for you! Spark-Y Youth Action Labs (spark-y.org/youth) Friends of the Mississippi River (fmr.org/volunteer) Art for Water through Minnesota Water Stewards (minnesotawaterstewards.org/art-for-water) Stop Line 3 (stopline3.org/takeaction) Freshwater Society (freshwater.org/take-action/) and lots more! Find a list of volunteer opportunities on the Mississippi Watershed Management site (mwmo.org/get- involved/take-action/) 16 You did it! You explored lakes and rivers, became a researcher, an artist and a sculptor, an actor, an historian, a linguist, an ecologist, a conservationist, and a protector of water. All of these things go into responsible care of the water - otherwise known as stewardship. A water steward is someone who uses their understanding of water to protect their local water systems and to help others understand and protect water too. As much as we need water for so many things, water needs us now more than ever. You have all the tools you need to be a Superstar Water Steward - now all you have to do is use them! 17 Glossary Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) (Ah-ni-shi-nah-bay) Matter - Anything that takes up space is called matter. Air, water, rocks, and even people are Atom - The basic building blocks of all matter. examples of matter. Bdote (b-do-tay) (Dakota) - Where two rivers Molecules - A molecule is the smallest unit of a come together; a confluence. substance that has all the properties of that substance. For instance, a water molecule is the Condensation - When matter changes from a smallest unit that is still water. A water molecule gas to a liquid; the opposite of evaporation. can be divided into tiny parts called atoms. Confluence - The place where two rivers come Municipal water supply - Pipes and structures together. owned and/or maintained by the City that supply drinking water to the public for human Conservationist - Conservation is the use. protection of things found in nature. People who try to protect nature are conservationists. Phase - States of matter; the common four phases are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Dakota (Dah-koh-tah) Pollution - Pollution happens when the Ecologist - A type of scientist who studies environment is contaminated by waste, ecology, which is the relationship between chemicals, and other harmful substances. living things and their environment. Precipitation - A form of water pulled to earth Element - Sometimes just called 'elements,' from the atmosphere by gravity; includes rain, chemical elements are the building blocks for snow, sleet, ice pellets dew, frost, and hail. all matter. Runoff - Precipitation that flows over land into Evaporate - When matter changes from a surface streams, rivers, and lakes. liquid to a gas; the opposite of condensation. Sediment - The matter which falls to the bottom Groundwater - The water beneath the land's of oceans and lakes. surface that fills the spaces in rock and sediment. Stewardship - The careful and responsible management of something. Historian - Someone who studies the past. Tributaries - A stream feeding, joining, or Kaposia (Kah-Po-Za) (Dakota) - Seasonal flowing into a larger stream. Dakota village along the Mississippi River in the St. Paul area. Vapor - Another word for gas. Linguist - Someone who studies languages. Watershed - The total land area that drains water to a river, stream or lake. Makoce Cokaya Kin (Mah-ko-chay Choh- kahn-yahn Keen) (Dakota) ar Steward Certi erst fica Sup te This certificate is proudly presented to SREP T U A AW DRAW EPUS R ST R S T RE TE DRAWETS TER S A WA R W R D A TA R WE TS RE S E P U T S RA
Enter the password to open this PDF file:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-