Extra Credit – Hydrology
1. The city of Charleston, South Carolina, is located on the Atlantic coast. The city of Macon, Georgia, is located about 340 kilometers inland to the west. Predict which city is likely to be cooler in the summer. Explain your answer in terms of specific heat. Draw a diagram to illustrate your explanation.
2. Make a graph of your household water-use data. Write about where and when you use the most and least amounts of water and a possible explanation. Compare your data with national data, how does your usage compare? What steps can you take to save water?
3. Make a working model of an artesian well. Demonstrate this for the class.
4. Make a poster showing an underground dry well and a working well. Label all the parts of your illustration. Include a write up explaining how the well works.
5. At home, observe how water runs off different surfaces and materials. What happened to the water in each case? How does this relate to the role of wetlands in controlling floods? Why would floods be more frequent if wetlands were paved over? You can make a poster or a Power Point illustrating your results and your explanations.
6. Create a public service announcement, television spot, newspaper ad, transit ad, poster, or skit designed to increase public awareness of the importance of wetlands. You can focus on wetlands in general or a specific wetland in our community or another region.
7. Make a poster or Power Point illustrating and explaining the differences between a swamp, a marsh, and a bog. What criteria is used to classify the different types of wetlands?
8. Make a chart comparing and contrasting the characteristics and formation of rivers, ponds, and lakes. This should include physical characteristics and significant details how they are formed, and the types of plant and animal life found there.
9. Imagine that you are an organism that lives in a pond, lake, or ocean. Write a short story describing your habitat and everyday activities. Keep your story scientific. Include illustrations. You can present this as a childrens book or another format of your choice.
10. Make a poster illustrating the water cycle. Label all processes and locations. Make your poster colorful.
11. Collect or draw pictures of the different sources of water (oceans, ice, rivers, lakes, groundwater, etc.) Identify and explain the relative availability of each type of source. You can also include a map showing where they can be found.
12. Make a poster with captions that illustrates how buoyant forces act on various objects.
13. Research the shapes of various boats and ships. Relate the shape of the boat or ship to its function (carrying freight or passengers) and to Archimedes’ principle. Prepare a short report with illustrations.
14. Make a series of drawings showing the various ways that water changes from one state to another. Use captions, labels, and arrows. Color the drawings.
15. Make a presentation explaining the various properties of water (capillary action, surface tension, universal solvent, specific heat, cohesion, adhesion, polarity, etc.) Include illustrations and examples for each.
16. Research irrigation practices in Onslow County, North Carolina, or the Eastern US region. Start your research by checking the North Carolina Department of Agriculture web site. Include the major agricultural crops produced by the area you selected. Prepare text and find illustrations that support your finding. Arrange your writing and illustrations in an easy-to-follow format on poster board.
17. Design a simple survey with “yes” and “no” questions and some multiple choice questions to determine “Why do people buy bottled water instead of using tap water?”. Put this survey online (ask Mrs. Anderson for help with this) and have multiple students take the survey. Write several paragraphs explaining the results.
18. Make a table of Freshwater Pollutants. List at least 10 kinds of pollutants, 1-3 examples for each kind of pollutant and 1 – 3 sources for each. Put your table on a poster.
19. Write a “warning label” that can be pasted on a gasoline pump. In your label, include a paragraph describing how burning gasoline can cause acid rain. Be sure to explain the reaction that takes place when certain chemicals are released into the atmosphere and react with water. Also describe the effects of acid rain.
20. Use print and internet sources to research the ten worst droughts in the past 100 years. Provide a brief description of the weather conditions and duration of each draught, its location, and effects, and the estimated casualties and loss of resources.
21. Research how cloud seeding produces rain during draughts. Where is this process used? How effective is it? Should it be allowed? Why? Why not?
22. Great white sharks, giant kelp, grunions, anemones, and barnacle depend on the tides to survive. Find out more about this topic and make a news report.
23. Make a presentation of the various properties of ocean water (salinity, temperature, gases, pressure). Explain what each of these properties is and how they interact with each other. Use labeled illustrations to help with your explanations.
24. Build a three-dimensional model of a marine habitat and include some of the organisms that live there. Include the significant physical features of the habitat and create a life-size model of one organism that lives in the habitat. Write an explanation of how the organism is adapted to its habitat.
25. Investigate the journey of the HMS Challenger. Draw the route of the voyage on a world map and include dates and captions that describe important events.
26. Compare and contrast the benefits of scuba and submersibles. Present your results.
27. Make a three-dimensional model of the ocean floor (Atlantic or Pacific). Label all the features.
28. Collect photographs of ocean organisms. Identify the organism by its name and how it is classified (plankton, nekton, or benthos). List adaptations that make the organism well-suited to its way of living. Make a display of the labeled photographs and lists.
29. Draw a concept map that includes the three types of marine organisms, their characteristics, and examples.
30. Draw an intertidal zone environment, such as a beach, tide pool, or rocky coast including organisms that might be found there. Label the tide levels and the organisms.
31. Investigate the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Much scientific research has been carried out in this area. You can research the causes and effects of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and the results of cleanup efforts.
32. Make a poster with labeled pictures of organisms that live in mangrove forests or salt marshes.
33. Prepare and present a “weather report” for the bottom of the neritic zone off the coast of North Carolina. Address the temperature, pressure, sunlight, currents, waves, and water clarity.
34. Prepare and present a “fishing report” for the neritic zone off the coast of North Carolina. Your report should include abundance and vriety of life, availability of nutrients, and any problems, such as over-fishing or pollution. You should also consider the effects of El Nino and La Nina.
35. You are a scientist studying a coral reef located near a tropical island. A forest on the island has been cut down. As a result, soil erosion is increasing. Write an editorial for the local newspaper explaining how this could affect the coral reef.
36. Draw a concept map about ocean pollution. The map should include natural and human causes of ocean pollution, their sources, and their effects.
37. Imagine you are a delegate to the United Nations and they are meeting to discuss a major mineral deposit that has been discovered in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Take on the role of the delegate from either the nation that discovered the deposit, the nation with the technology to mine the deposit, or the closest nation to the deposit. Write a speech you would deliver to the UN as to why your country should be declared the owner of the deposit or why your country should have the right to mine the deposit.
38. Suppose you were going to travel to the deepest part of the ocean floor in a submersible. Write about your journey, describing each feature of the ocean floor you see along the way.