Texas TEKS 7.11.A

Science7th GradeEarth and space

The Standard

analyze the beneficial and harmful influences of human activity on groundwater and surface water in a watershed

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students trace how runoff and infiltration carry the effects of human actions through a watershed. They compare harmful actions, such as fertilizer use and paving, with helpful actions, such as planting buffers and treating wastewater.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a map or scenario, students identify the human action and explain its effect on water quality or supply. They support the explanation with a clear cause-and-effect chain involving surface water, groundwater, or both.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think groundwater is an underground lake that is separate from rivers and lakes. They may also assume soil removes every pollutant, or that all human activity harms water.
How to Assess It: Give students a simple watershed map with a farm, parking lot, wetland, and wells. Ask them to trace one harmful influence and one beneficial influence on surface water or groundwater.

Lesson moves

Build a foil watershed, sprinkle cocoa as pollution, spray rain, then add sponge vegetation and compare runoff.
Write a claim naming one human action that helps water quality and one that harms it, then support each with a cause-and-effect chain.
Sort scenario cards into helpful, harmful, or mixed, then earn a point by explaining whether each affects runoff, infiltration, or both.
Walk the school grounds, trace water from pavement to a drain or soil, and propose one change that would reduce pollution.

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