Note: Teacher’s notes are in red.

By assembling a “river” from puzzle pieces, students will develop awareness of how people and wildlife use and depend on rivers; how actions within a river system can affect the entire system; and that people need to take action to maintain the vitality of river systems.

Your Mission
Who uses the rivers in your watershed? How do you impact the rivers? What can you do to keep your rivers healthy? If this sounds a bit puzzling, don’t worry—you’ll soon put the pieces together.

Subjects: Geography, Language Arts, Science

Relevant U.S. National Geography Standards: 14, 15, 16

Materials
Students will work in groups of three or four. Each group will need:

• Two-page “River Puzzle” student handout (Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.)
• Construction paper—different colors; about six or seven 8 ½ x 11" pieces
• Crayons or colored pencils; magic markers
• Scissors
• Scotch tape or a glue stick

We All Live Downstream
After students have read the first section of this activity, “We All Live Downstream,” ask what they think that phrase means. Review the ways people use and impact rivers. (Optional: If your students aren’t familiar with rivers, they can review Other Related Web Sites for 5-8 students in this activity; or Using Our Rivers Other Related Web Sites for 5-8 students; or Changing Our Rivers Other Related Web Sites for 5-8 students.)

Introduce the geographic idea of scale—not the kind of scale found on a map, but in terms of conservation, the scale at which people understand conservation issues. At the individual scale, a person perceives only what is within sight: “There is trash in the river, but it floated away. The trash is no longer a problem.” A person who sees things at an individual scale doesn’t understand (or perhaps care) that trash is still in the watershed. However, the trash is still a problem. Nothing goes completely “away.”

People need clean, healthy rivers for drinking water and other fresh-water needs. We use rivers for agriculture, industry, transportation, and recreation. Birds, fish, and wildlife rely on rivers for food and shelter.

People build structures to make maximum use of rivers: aqueducts to transport water; canals to improve transportation; dams to store water, control flooding, or provide hydroelectric power.

People also change rivers through pollution: fertilizer and pesticides run off from farms; fuel from gas stations leaks into groundwater; oil, grease, and debris wash down storm drains into streams; people throw trash in rivers. People clear forests, fill in wetlands, build roads, and erect buildings, and in doing so destroy wildlife habitat and change the pattern of runoff into rivers.

Doesn’t all that junk just float away and disappear? And if your river has a dam hundreds of miles away that doesn’t make any difference to you...does it? But the fact is, it does matter. We all live downstream!

Of Course You Can Make a River!
Tell students they’re going to make a river from puzzle pieces. Some of the pieces will represent physical features that might be along a river. (Have students review the river system diagram. Some of the puzzle pieces show human features: farms, homes, a town, a city, a dam, a sewage treatment plant. There’s also wildlife along the river.

Divide the class into groups of three or four students. The groups’ mission is to put the puzzle pieces together to create a healthy river that benefits all—the environment, humans, and wildlife. Groups may assemble their “rivers” any way they choose. (There is no right or wrong way to assemble the puzzle.)

To prepare, students can go online to manage the “Delicate Balance” of a river system. (Tennessee Valley Authority)

If students don’t have access to a computer, print handout explaining why sharing a watershed is “Everyone’s Business.” (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)

You’re going to create your own river system from puzzle pieces. Your river system will include things people need (a dam, factories) and things people enjoy (a playground, a campground). It will include natural areas that are good for wildlife. The good news is that there’s no wrong way to put your river together! This could be the easiest puzzle you’ve ever done...

There’s just one thing. Your river is part of a watershed, and everything in a watershed is connected—someone always lives downstream! So you need to put together a river that will benefit everyone—for a very long time. You need to ensure sustainable use of your river.

Before you begin, take a practice run by figuring out the “Delicate Balance” necessary to manage a river system. (Tennessee Valley Authority)

Piecing It All Together
Give each group the 2-page student handout, construction paper, a glue stick or scotch tape, scissors, and crayons or colored pencils. Each group should cut apart the puzzle pieces. Only two pieces—the source and the mouth—must be placed in the certain positions. (Note: The width of the river is the same in every piece except at the dam and reservoir.) You or your students can include additional elements that would enhance students’ understanding of river conservation by drawing pieces or cutting pictures from magazines.

As students assemble their rivers, ask questions such as:

• What physical features might be near the source of a river? (steep slopes)
• What might be upstream from a dam? (a reservoir) What would be near a dam? (a power plant)
• What would you find near a big city? (sewage treatment plant, water treatment plant)
• Where will the river need to be cleaned—upstream or downstream of things that cause pollution? (clean up, or restore, downstream)

Groups should move puzzle pieces around freely until they’re satisfied with their river. The groups can name places (Duncan’s Dam, Maggie’s Megalopolis). Have each group tape or glue puzzle pieces on construction paper, color their river, and give their river a title.

When rivers are complete have a representative from each group explain why they assembled their river as they did (remind students, there was no wrong way to assemble the rivers). Emphasize that all rivers are different, and have different conservation needs. The important thing is that students understand that a river is part of a river system, and that things within the system (the watershed) could affect the entire system.

You’ll make your river from puzzle pieces. (Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.) Cut the pieces apart. To assemble your river, move the puzzle pieces around freely. Only two pieces of your river must be positioned in certain places: the source and the mouth. When you’re building your river, look at the river system diagram for more clues. Where might a farm be located? A wetland? Do any pieces belong together (for example, the dam and the reservoir)? What belongs in an urban area? In a rural area?

When your team is satisfied with your river, tape the pieces together on construction paper, color the river, and give the river a title.

Pick one person from your team to explain to the class how your group decided where to put the different pieces.

As you can see from your river, people need rivers, and people change rivers. People also need to preserve rivers. Imagine a hot summer day when you want to cool your feet in a stream, but you can’t because it’s so dirty. Or having a picnic on a riverbank, but the river smells so bad that you don’t feel like eating. Practicing conservation decreases harm to the environment so that people and wildlife can safely use rivers. It’s up to everyone who lives downstream (and that’s each of us) to help preserve and restore rivers!

Take Action—Geography Action!
The Environmental Protection Agency offers guidelines for cleaning streams. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Students can take part in “Save Our Streams,” a grassroots river conservation program that’s been monitoring water quality for more than 30 years. Click on “Stream Doctor.” (Izaak Walton League of America)

There are dozens of things that you and your family, friends, or classmates can do to protect rivers. (American Rivers)

Test your skills at the Watershed Game, and find more activities to do at home, at school, in your community, or on your computer. (National Geographic Society)

If you want to protect a river in your state, contact your congressman or senators via the National Wildlife Federation Web site. (National Wildlife Federation)

Whatever you decide to do, tell us about it! Fill out the Geography Action! survey, and learn what other students are doing for rivers!

“River Puzzle” activity adapted from Joan Stone, Teacher-Consultant.

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Photographs (left to right): Thomson River, Longreach, Queensland, Australia, by Roff Martin Smith; Wilberforce Falls, Hood River, Northwest Territories, Canada, by Todd Buchanan

Illustration (right): Dragonfly, copyright Corbis

© 2001 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.