Objectives
The objective of this project is to teach 5-7th grade students about watersheds and wetlands.  The students will learn about the benefits of wetlands for flood protection, water quality improvement, and wildlife habitat.  The students will use data for the City of Fort Collins to view wetlands within the city and determine where they exist and why.

Background
In the summer of 1997, Fort Collins was devastated by a flood of Spring Creek, one of the streams running through the city.  The flood was the result of a two day rainstorm on the west side of the city.  The heavy rain filled the soils to their capacity and all of the excess rain was converted to runoff.  Spring Creek quickly filled over its banks and caused extensive damage.  Unfortunately, five people lost their lives in the flood.  As a result of this storm, which was larger than any on record, the city pledged to be more prepared in the future.  They decided to enlarge the stormwater system and build wetlands within the city to store and slow excess stormwater.  One of the wetlands - the Regency Pond Wetland, was built close to Webber Junior High and Johnson Elementary Schools.  The wetland has been adopted by the schools, the local neighborhoods, and Front Range Community College.  The teachers of the two Poudre District schools were interested in bringing wetland issues into the classroom.  This project was designed to introduce students to wetland concepts within the context of the City's stormwater basins in an ArcView geographic information system (GIS) environment.

Overview of the Project
The objective of this lesson is to introduce watersheds and wetlands by using ArcView GIS as a tool for understanding spatial relationships.  This project consists of an introduction and four lessons.  The introduction teaches students about ArcView and the location of Fort Collins within political boundaries.  The first lesson explores the concept of watersheds and the location of Fort Collins within these natural boundaries.  The second lesson focuses on Fort Collins and the stormwater basins within the city.  The third lesson investigates the flood of 1997 and the location of the damage.  Flood protection is presented as one benefit of wetlands.  The forth lesson describes the water quality and wildlife benefits of wetlands.  The location  of wetlands within the city are explored in this final lesson and an invitation to explore the local wetland is extended to the teachers.

Hardware Requirements
PC: minimum of 486 PC with 24 MB RAM, running Microsoft Windows 2000, 98, 95, 3.1, or NT 4.0 operating systems.
Workstation: IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, DELL, DEC or SGI with 32 MB RAM, running UNIX operating system.
Macintosh: PowerPC, running System 7.1 or higher, with 24 MB of RAM.

Software Requirements
ArcView GIS Version 3.0a or higher.
A Web browser (to view the lesson steps).

Notes to Teachers
The project can be lead in a variety of ways.  The lessons are designed to be straight forward and easy for the students to follow.  The students should only need the location of the project files (intro.apr for example).  For bulk of the lesson, the students should be able to guide themselves.

As an instructor, you do not need to be proficient in ArcView, however, basic knowledge will be helpful.  The primary role of the instructor will be helping to guide the students and troubleshooting when necessary.

The project has three components.  1.) The lesson web pages.  These can be printed prior to class, or students can have a web browser and an ArcView window open on their desktop.  We recommend printing them out prior to class so students can have as large an ArcView window as possible.  2.)  The ArcView projects.  These are interactive ArcView projects with all of the required shapefiles.  These files can be run from a CD-ROM disk, or downloaded onto the network or individual hard drives.  We recommend saving the projects to the network or individual hard drives.  3.)  Lesson worksheets.  These should be printed for each student or student team prior to class.  They include thought provoking questions and spaces for the students to write down the answers.  They can be turned in at the end of the class, or just used to get the students thinking.

The ArcView interface has been modified to prevent confusion for students.  Only the icons that will be used in the lessons have been activated.  You can change the button and tool bars from the project customize window.  See the ArcView help manual for complete instructions.

Lessons

 Introduction: ArcView Controls and Political Boundaries

 Lesson 1: Watersheds and Natural Boundaries

• Lesson 1 Worksheet

 Lesson 2: Stormwater Basins

• Lesson 2 Worksheet

 Lesson 3: Floods

• Lesson 3 Worksheet

 Lesson 4: Wetlands

• Lesson 4 Worksheet

gjohnson@cnr.colostate.edu
schlegel@cnr.colostate.edu

Updated on November 13, 2000

Link to  Colorado State University - Poudre School District GIS Project Home Page