Summary:

There are three parts to this unit:  Stream Habitat Assessment, Macroinvertebrate Analysis, and Macroinvertebrate Design Challenge. These activities have been developed to build upon one another. However, they can also stand alone and be taught independently of one another. The intent is that teachers will adapt/change the items to meet the needs of their classroom. Done in conjunction with each other, students will have experience analyzing and interpreting the biotic and abiotic factors in streams and designing and testing a macroinvertebrate sampler that mimics their streams habitats. This unit asks students to consider what actions could be taken to reduce human impacts and improve stream quality. However, it does not include the application of these actions.

Essential Questions:

• What do the abiotic and biotic components of our streams tell us about their quality?

• What are some ways we can organize living things?

• What are some reasons we might want to organize living things?

• What can the macroinvertebrates live in streams tell us about the quality of our streams?

• What can we do to improve the macroinvertebrate community in our stream?

• What can we do to mitigate the impacts of human activity on our streams?

• How we can collect macroinvertebrates without harming our stream habitat?

• How can we engineer a macroinvertebrate sampler to best mimic our stream habitat? 

Click Here to Access the Lessons

These videos and lessons plans were created in partnership with WGVU, the Lower Grand River Organization of Watersheds, and Brenda Perry from Kent Innovation High. They were made possible through a grant from the Wege Foundation through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative.