Flooding

What is a “flood”?
A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land which is normally dry. Floods occur when there is more water in a river, lake, or stream than the body of water can hold. The excess water then floods onto the land. Floods occur frequently when there is excess rain and when the ground is saturated and cannot hold more water. Flooding is the most common natural disaster worldwide. Flooding occurs in rural and urban areas. We are currently experiencing flooding across much of Iowa. Heavy rainfall has contributed to saturated soils and high water levels in streams, rivers, and lakes.

Real Life Events
Show students news clips or documentaries about floods that have occurred, or flooding in general. Ask your students about their experiences with flooding and/or have them interview people who have experienced flooding. Review statistics about damages, losses and environmental impact of flooding.

Poor Land Management Practices Contribute to Flooding
Draining of Wetlands
Wetlands act as natural filters to clean and slow the absorption of water on the land. When wetlands are drained or tiled the water that would otherwise slowly be absorbed by the land flows directly to rivers, streams, and lakes.

Deforestation/Exposed River and Stream Banks
Vegetation holds soil in place and soaks up excess water. When large areas of vegetation are removed water washes over the land (instead of being absorbed) and into rivers and streams. This excess water contributes to the flooding of these bodies of water.

Erosion
Soil erosion due to poor farming practices, improper construction sites, draining of wetlands, and deforestation all contribute to flooding. Excess soil in lakes, rivers, and streams raises the water level (as well as washing away valuable topsoil and muddying the water).

Improper Damming of Rivers and Streams
Improper damming of rivers and streams causes flooding upstream. During periods of excess rain the extra water has no other place to go except out of the river banks and over the land. Improper damming can also cause flooding downstream when excess amounts of water are released to compensate for excess water upstream.

Make a Rain Gauge
Materials:
Clear Jar
Ruler
Paint

Process:
Place jars outside in an open area before it rains. After it has rained measure the amount of rain in each jar.
Create a chart for your class to track the amount of rain you receive at your school. Compare your amounts to your local news station.

Make it Rain in a Jar
Materials:
Clear jar
Plate
Hot water
Ice cubes
Index cards

Process
Pour about two inches of very hot water into the glass jar. Cover the jar with the plate and wait a few minutes before you start the next step. Put the ice cubes on the plate.

Explanation:
What happens? The cold plate causes the moisture in the warm air, which is inside the jar to condense and form water droplets. This is the same thing that happens in the atmosphere. Warm, moist air rises and meets colder air high in the atmosphere. The water vapor condenses and forms precipitation that falls to the ground.

Book Lists
Grades PreK-2
Berger, M., R. Sullivan, and G. Berger. 1999. Can It Rain Cats and Dogs?: Questions & Answers about Weather. Scholastic, Inc.
Capeci, A., and S. Haefele. 2003. Flash Flood (Magic School Bus Series – To The Rescue. Scholastic, Inc.
Cosgrove, B. 2004. Weather (DK Eyewitness Book Series). DK Publishing, Inc.
Evans, L., and C. Jabar. 1997. Rain Song. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Fourment, T. 2004. My Water Comes from the Mountains. Roberts Rinehart Publishers.
Gibbons, G. 1992. Weather Words and What They Mean. Holiday House, Inc.
Johnson, J., and B. Johnson. 2011. The Little Toad And The Big Flood. Two Peas Publishing.
Locker, T. 2003. Cloud Dance. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
McGuire, B. and D. Quake. 2007. Natural Disaster. Kingfisher.
Simon, S. 2006. Weather. HarperCollins Publishers.

Grades 3-5
Cosgrove, B. 2004. Weather (DK Eyewitness Book Series). DK Publishing, Inc.
Capeci, A., and S. Haefele. 2003. Flash Flood (Magic School Bus Series – To The Rescue. Scholastic, Inc.
Cremins, R., and T.B. Griswold. 2001. My First Pocket Guide: Weather. National Geographic Society.
Day, T. and C. Watts. 2006. Natural Disasters (DK Eyewitness Series). DK Publishing, Inc.
DePaola, T. 1985. The Cloud Book. Holiday House, Inc.
Gibbons, G. 1992. Weather Words and What They Mean. Holiday House, Inc.
Johnson, J., and B. Johnson. 2011. The Little Toad And The Big Flood. Two Peas Publishing.
Lauber, P. 1996. Flood: Wrestling the Mississippi. National Geographic Society.
Simon, S. 1992. Storms. HarperCollins Publishers.
Spilsbury, L., and R. Spilsbury. 2010. Raging Floods. Heinemann-Raintree.

Grades 6-8
Cosgrove, B. 2007. Eyewitness Weather. DK Publishing, Inc.
Dwyer, H. 2010. Floods. Cavendish, Marshall Corporation.
Kahl, J.D. 1998. Weather (Audubon Society First Field Guides). Scholastic, Inc.
Lauber, P. 1996. Flood: Wrestling the Mississippi. National Geographic Society.
Silverstein, A., V. B. Silverstein, and L. S. Nunn. 2009. Floods: The Science Behind Raging Waters and Mudslides. Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Spilsbury, L., and R. Spilsbury. 2010. Raging Floods. Heinemann-Raintree.

Grades 9-12
Allaby, M., and R. Garratt. 2003. Floods. Facts On File, Inc.
Barry, J. 1998. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing.
Kahl, J.D. 1998. Weather (Audubon Society First Field Guides). Scholastic, Inc.
McCullough, D. 1987. The Johnstown Flood. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing.
Parker, S., and D. West. 2011. Violent Weather. Crabtree Publishing Company.
Silverstein, A., V. B. Silverstein, and L. S. Nunn. 2009. Floods: The Science Behind Raging Waters and Mudslides. Enslow Publishers, Inc.

Links
BrainPop: Floods
http://www.brainpop.com/science/earthsystem/floods/preview.weml

Weather WizKids: Rain & Floods
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-rain.htm

Weather WizKids: Flood Safety
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-safety-flood.htm

Helping Your Child Cope After a Natural Disaster
http://www.ndguard.ngb.army.mil/family/support/youth/floodinformation/Documents/childrencope.pdf

Helping Your Teenager Cope After a Natural Disaster
http://www.ndguard.ngb.army.mil/family/support/youth/floodinformation/Documents/teenagercope.pdf

Are you looking for more nature-based activities for young children? Be sure to check out the Outdoor Explorations for Early Learners blog at: http://outdoorexplorationsforearlylearners.blogspot.com/

Are you looking for information about fishing and outdoor recreation activities with kids? Then check out the Take It Outside: Fish Iowa! blog at:
http://takeitoutsidefishiowa.blogspot.com/

IDNR Place-Based Mini-Grants Inspire Change


“It’s a little flippy thing, look, it looks like that, it’s a crawdad, see it tries to pinch.”
“I think you’re right, yes, you got a crawdad!”
“Alright!”

Excitement pours through a junior high school boy as he and his teacher, Merle Unkrich, examine a crawdad they caught from a Mississippi inlet tube. For this junior high school boy from a poverty level school district, where apathy and drugs have a strong hold, this is huge.

Merle Unkrich, the seventh and eighth science teacher for the Wapello Community School District has received three IDNR Aquatic Education Program Place-Based Mini-Grants. The mini-grants help pay for the transportation costs to the Mississippi inlet tubes and the purchase of thermometers, stereo microscopes, field guides, and critter nets. The students participate in a variety of activities planned and taught by the Louisa County Conservation Board - water testing, catching critters in the marshland with dip nets, fishing, hiking, and observing local wildlife.

Before the field experience Merle teaches her seventh and eighth grades classes a unit on Iowa and the Mississippi River. Students study biodiversity, ecosystems, animal species, interdependence, genetic diversity, ground water, the water cycle, groundwater quality, water quality, changing environmental conditions, and implications of environmental issues. Merle also talks about Iowa’s changing landscape and the land use. The Mississippi inlet field trip is the culmination to the unit.

Merle sees a huge transformation in these students when they get out of the classroom and engaged in real science.

“This is good for them because, to me, what it does, if they didn’t have any experience and they didn’t have anybody down here showing them, they would sit here and not entertain themselves at all. What it does is, if they ever get outside they will be able to entertain themselves. And a lot of these kids, not ever being outside, they would just sit and say ‘I don’t have anything to do’ but now they can get in and at least be curious.”

“To me this all (the field experience), it just brings everything I’ve taught all together. Otherwise it’s just this disjointed lesson plan out of a book and it’s a book that they didn’t want to read because it’s boring.”

Merle believes that teaching children to care for their local resources and allowing them to explore locally is the first step to caring about our environment for the rest of their lives. The IDNR Aquatic Education Program Place-based Mini-grants have allowed Merle to take her students out locally and foster caring about the environment.

However, there is more at work here than a science class exploring. Merle is also fostering interest, excitement, and learning from students that may have discipline issues, be exposed to drugs, and are growing up in a world dominated by computer games and television screens.

“I actually have kids come up at the beginning of the day and instead of messing around in the halls they are playing Fish Iowa (IDNR card game)!”

Listen to Merle talk about the place based approach at:

IDNR YouTube: Merle Unkrich from Wapellp Middle School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXVwQY61fFk&list=UU7mUVEonnSIp8RB31_DxXzA&index=4

Volunteer Wildlife Surveys

Volunteer wildlife surveys are an example of citizen science projects that students can be involved in. Citizen science projects combine useful observation or data collection with an opportunity for students to learn more about scientific principles, problems, and processes as well as helping them better understand our environment and how to protect it.

Wildlife survey projects involve students in data collection, presentation, and involvement on a local, state, national, and even global level. There are many wildlife surveys that classrooms, and schools can choose to become involved in. One such opportunity is the frog and toad call surveys.

Frog & Toad Call Surveys
Every year during the early spring (as the air and water temperatures start to rise) frogs and toads, roused from their winter slumber, start a harmonious call that echoes through the valleys and fields of Iowa. Western chorus frogs are usually the first of the pint-sized amphibians to start their spring time refrain but they are soon followed by spring peepers, leopard frogs and many more!

Male frogs and toads call during the spring to attract mates. By listening and recording the species heard and the location biologists can gain important information about the health of a population and about the water quality. Amphibians have thin permeable skin and so are sensitive to pollutants in the water. There is concern for amphibian species worldwide as they have declined globally due to pollution.

To find out more about volunteer wildlife monitoring or to sign up for a frog and toad route contact the state coordinator, Stephanie Shepherd at 515-432-2823 x 102, vwmp@dnr.iowa.gov.

IDNR Frog & Toad Call Surveys
http://www.iowadnr.gov/Environment/WildlifeStewardship/NonGameWildlife/VolunteerWildlifeSurveys/FrogToadCallSurvey.aspx

Iowa HerpNet
http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/

ISU Extension Publications: Iowa Reptiles and Amphibians
https://store.extension.iastate.edu/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=2142

Books
Beltz, E. 2009. Frogs: Inside Their Remarkable World. Firefly Books, Limited.
Elliot, L. 2002. The Calls of Frogs and Toads: Breeding Calls and Sounds of 42 Different Species. Stackpole Books.
Elliot, S.M. 1975. Our Dirty Water. Julian Messner.
Errington, P.L. 1996. Of Men and Marshes. Iowa State Press.
Marent, T., and T. Jackson. 2010. Frog: A Photographic Portrait. DK Publishing, Inc.

Wild Weather

Thundersnow in December? Snow in May? Do strange weather phenomena ever leave you wondering about the weather? We do too! Let’s explore weather this week!

Start by having students share what they know about weather. Make a list or chart to track what students already know. Lead into a discussion about what students want to know about weather. Make another list or chart. The previous discussions can be as a class or in small groups with the small groups reporting back to the big group.

Guide students as they design an experiment(s) (either in small groups or as a large class group) to learn more about weather, observe weather, record weather data (depending on what direction students want to go). Relate the study of weather back to the effects of weather on wildlife habitat, water quality, human impacts, and other natural resources impacts. Have small groups report back to large group by creating a multimedia presentation.

Book List
Berger, M., R. Sullivan, and G. Berger. 1999. Can It Rain Cats and Dogs?: Questions & Answers about Weather. Scholastic, Inc.
Carson, M.K. 2011. Inside Weather. Sterling Children’s Books.
Cosgrove, B. 2004. Weather (DK Eyewitness Book Series). DK Publishing, Inc.
Dussling, J., and H. Petach. 1998. Pink Snow and Other Weird Weather. Penguin Books, Limited.
Furgang, K. 2012. National Geographic Kids: Everything Weather – Facts, Photos, and Fun that Will Blow You Away. National Geographic Society.
Ganeri, A. 2012. Wild Weather. Heinemann-Raintree.
Koehler, S. 2009. Let’s Explore Science: Weather. Rourke Publishing, LLC.
Miller, D., Rivera, J. 2008. Hurricane Katrina and the Redefinition of a Landscape. Lexington Books
Parker, S., and D. West. 2011. Violent Weather. Crabtree Publishing Company.
Regan, L. 2012. Weather Lab. Silver Dolphin Books.

Links
How common is snow in May?
http://www.kcci.com/weather/how-common-is-snow-in-may/-/9358602/19968560/-/format/rsss_2.0/-/qbtsk0z/-/index.html

“Thundersnow” Facts: Mysterious Storms Explained
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090303-thunder-snow-storm.html

The Weather Channel for Kids
http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com/

Weather Web for Kids
http://www.eo.ucar.edu/webweather/

Next Generation Science Standards or NGSS were recently released. The new K-12 science standards are rich in content and practice. They approach science education in a manner that challenges students to truly grasp subject matter and apply what they are learning. The NGSS focus on preparing K-12 students to go to college or to enter the workforce. The standards were released in April and are now available for states to adopt voluntarily. Iowa educators, school administrators, science consultants, and higher education faculty, among others, recently met for a NGSS awareness session.


For more information on the NGSS visit the following websites:

Next Generation Science Standards
http://www.nextgenscience.org/

Next Generation Science Standards – Iowa
http://www.nextgenscience.org/Iowa

Iowa will convene task force to review science standards
http://www.educateiowa.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2860%3Aiowa-will-convene-task-force-to-review-science-standards&catid=242%3Anews-releases