Indiana Social Studies 5.G.3
The Standard
Locate the continental divide, the major drainage basins/watersheds, major sources of freshwater in the United States, and identify their impact on local and regional communities.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students find the continental divide and major U.S. drainage basins on a map. They identify freshwater sources, including rivers, lakes, and groundwater. They explain how those sources affect nearby towns and larger regions.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a U.S. map, students can mark the divide and outline the Mississippi, Columbia, Colorado, and Great Lakes basins. They can explain how a river supports shipping or how groundwater supplies farms.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may label only a river as its watershed, missing the land that drains into it. They may mistake the continental divide for a river or assume all freshwater comes from lakes.
How to Assess It
- On a U.S. map with rivers shown, have students mark the continental divide, shade the Mississippi and Columbia basins, and circle the Great Lakes. Ask them to write one way a marked water source affects a community.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use a relief map and blue yarn to mark the divide, then draw arrows showing which way water flows on each side.
Ask: How might a town's water use change if its river also supplies farms downstream? Write two choices and who each affects.
Give pairs a river map and cards labeled Ohio, Snake, and Gunnison; match each river to the Mississippi, Columbia, or Colorado basin.
Show a local water utility page naming its water source; students write one way a drought could affect their community.
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Printable 5.G.3 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 5.G.2
Use maps and globes to locate states, capitals, major cities, major rivers, the Great Lakes, and mountain ranges in the United States.
- 8.G.2
Identify the major mountain ranges and river systems of the United States and explain the importance of these physical features in the development of America.
- 8.G.7
Identify and interpret maps, graphs, and charts showing the distribution of natural resources such as forests, water sources, and wildlife in the United States ...
- 8.G.5
Using primary and secondary sources, identify ways people modified the physical environment as the United States developed, and describe the impacts that result...
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