Pre-Visit Activities : River Erosion : Assessment
Sixth - Eighth Grade Online Curriculum : Watersheds

Assessment
Students will write a report of their inquiry experiment in which they write their hypothesis down, list the materials they used, describe the experiments they conducted, record the data and observations they collected and write a conclusion describing whether their experiments supported their hypothesis or not. 
Scoring Rubric (Out of 5 points): In their report:  

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Cross-Curricular Extensions
Math Extension
Students will calculate the rate of flow for a local stream or river. Students will drop a natural, biodegradable object in the water, such as a leaf or twig, at a designated start point. The students will time how long the object takes to travel five meters. This will be repeated five times. Students will graph the data and calculate the average time it took the object to travel five meters. Students will use this to calculate rate of flow (meters/second) and compare this with the amount of sediment (the murkiness) they observe in the water.

Social Studies Extension
Students will enact a state assembly debate in which students take opposing views on whether a dam should be re-licensed in South Carolina. The class as a whole will vote at the end.

Language Arts Extension
Students will create a travel brochure for a canoe trip through one of the watersheds of South Carolina. The brochure will describe the different rivers they can travel down in South Carolina and what they can expect on the trip.