Teacher's Resources

 
This section is designed to help you make learning about the river fun for your students. It contains links to the best river lesson plans and curricula, activities and experiments we could gather.

Try them out. If you would like to share your own river work with other teachers and students, please contact us by email.

Lesson Plans and Curricula

Activities and Experiments

Additional Resources and Support
Lesson Plans and Curricula

Adopt-A-Watershed -- This site has developed a K-12 curriculum for exploring watersheds.

Iowa Public Television: Mississippi River Science (2000) -- Download over 30 assignments for your middle school classroom. These activities comply with McRell Standards and Benchmarks and NCTM standards. They are divided into Sciences, Social Sciences, Language Arts and Math.
Grade
Title
Description
Source
3-5
 Students learn about the historic and continuing importance of the Mississippi River in American life.
3-8
 This site allows students to complete a virtual scavenger hunt and answer questions about the Mississippi River.
3-8
 Students research and design a timeline illustrating historic exploration of the Mississippi River.
6-12 
Students create a table with information about wetland loss in various states along the Mississippi River.
6-8  
 Students write a report about one of the states along the Mississippi River.
3-8
 Students learn about hydroelectricity and make a model of a water turbine.
K-5
 Students create posters about protecting rivers in their state.
3-8
 Students learn about the history and sounds of blues music, make instruments and compose blues music for kids.
3-8
 Students first construct a model of a river channel, then create a flood and record their observations.
K-5
 Students create a class book about the wildlife that lives in and near the Mississippi River.
6-12 
Students use the resources provided by an online collaborative project about the Mississippi River region.
3-12
 Students create maps showing the locations of ten famous rivers in the world, and write facts about each river under the maps.
K-12
 Students read legends about rivers and write their own.
K-12
 Students create a class book about aquatic life in or near local rivers.
3-12
 Students use online or library sources to complete a worksheet about rivers and water.
K-8
 Students complete hands-on activities and experiments with a river theme.

Activities and Experiments

Grade
Title
Description
Source
 
 Students will experiment with a simulated river bed. They learn that erosion takes place more quickly with a young, fast-moving river than with a slow, older river.
 
 Students measure and compare sedimentation in a nearby waterway.
Students learn how a turbine and generator work on a dam.
K-5
 Students can conduct three experiments: 1) Underwater Eye, 2) How Old is that Fish?, and 3) Make Your Own River.

Additional Links

Education World: websites for teaching about rivers

Rivers of Life: links categorized by topic

Rivers Project: river organizations and related river sites


River Organizations

American Rivers is the premier organization active in restoring America's rivers. Their website contains a list of the most endangered American rivers, as well as the latest strategies for saving and nurturing rivers. The site has a lot of information and many links.

Big Rivers is a magazine about the Upper Mississippi River. It offers links to other sites and to the Upper Mississippi River Events calendar.

Mississippi River Cooperative Resource Association is an organization dedicated to promoting research about the Mississippi River.