Virginia SOL 6.8

6.8 is a Standards of Learning science standard. These are the key ideas and practices under it.

• 6.8.a

  a watershed is composed of the land that drains into a body of water

• 6.8.b

  Virginia is composed of multiple watershed systems which have specific features

• 6.8.c

  the Chesapeake Bay is an estuary that has many important functions

• 6.8.d

  natural processes, human activities, and biotic and abiotic factors influence the health of a watershed system.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students identify watershed boundaries and trace runoff from higher land into streams, rivers, and larger bodies of water. They locate major Virginia watersheds and explain how the Chesapeake Bay mixes fresh and salt water. They use biotic and abiotic evidence to explain how natural events and human actions change watershed health.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Given a map, a student can outline a drainage area and predict where rain or a pollutant will flow. The student can connect Virginia rivers to their receiving waters and explain how an estuary provides habitat, nursery grounds, and sediment filtering. They can judge watershed health using data such as dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nutrients, and organism counts.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think a watershed is only the water, rather than the land area that drains into it. They may assume all Virginia water flows into the Chesapeake Bay, or that the bay is entirely fresh water. They may also confuse living indicators with nonliving water measurements.

04

How to Assess It

Give students a contour map showing a stream flowing toward the Chesapeake Bay, a ridge, a farm, and a factory. Ask them to mark the watershed boundary, trace runoff, and predict one effect on the bay.

1. 01

   Build a crumpled-paper landscape, mark ridgelines, spray colored water, and trace where runoff collects.

2. 02

   Write a claim explaining whether heavy rain or fertilizer runoff poses the greater watershed threat, using two pieces of evidence.

3. 03

   Match Virginia river cards to their receiving waters, then race to arrange tributaries from smallest stream to final outlet.

4. 04

   Use a local water-quality report to judge stream health from dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nutrients, and macroinvertebrate data.

• 3.7

  The student will investigate and understand that there is a water cycle and water is important to life on Earth. Key ideas include

• 3.6

  The student will investigate and understand that soil is important in ecosystems. Key ideas include

• 6.6

  The student will investigate and understand that water has unique physical properties and has a role in the natural and human-made environment. Key ideas includ...

• K.4

  The student will investigate and understand that water is important in our daily lives and has properties. Key ideas include