Learning Goals
Students will be able to investigate how water moves through streets, storm drains, soil, sand, gravel, and native plants to explain how runoff can be slowed and cleaned.
Students will be able to observe and record how different materials change the speed and cleanliness of runoff in a simple water test.
Students will be able to identify local insects, birds, and soil needs that native plants can support in a school garden.
Students will be able to explain how Kumeyaay stewardship and community water care show that people can protect land and water together.
Students will be able to synthesize family and immigrant community stories about water, home foods, and helpful plants into ideas for a school garden.
Students will be able to prototype and revise a low-tech native garden plan that shows plant spaces, drainage paths, and materials that help runoff flow more slowly.
Students will be able to communicate a user-centered garden solution using drawings, labels, and oral explanation for families and community guests.
Products
Drain Detective Runoff Research Page and Mini Garden Prototype
Each student creates one research page with observation drawings, a simple runoff test, and a written or dictated claim about which materials helped water move more slowly and cleanly. They also build one low-tech mini garden prototype showing how a native plant choice could support water, soil, and living things.
Class Native Garden Plan, Problem Statement, and Community Showcase Board
Teams combine their individual research to write one shared problem statement and create a large labeled garden plan with drainage paths, native plant spaces, and short community-story captions. The board is designed for the Community Waterkeepers Fair and explains how the final solution responds to user needs, water care, and habitat support.
No rubric has been generated yet.