Crumple a Watershed

A watershed is an area of land that collects water from rain or snow. The water collected in the watershed seeps into the ground or flows downstream into rivers, streams, and lakes. We all live in a watershed!

Let's make a paper model of a watershed!

Materials needed

8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper

Wax paper, slightly larger than sheet of paper

Two water soluble markers (black and blue work well),

Spray bottle with water

Stapler or tape

Procedure

Staple or tape the sheet of paper to the piece of wax paper.
With the wax paper facing up gently wad the paper. Don’t scrunch it too much!
Pull the edges of the paper to straighten the paper and lay the paper wax side up on table.
You should have areas that are upraised and some areas that are not.
Use the black marker to trace all the upraised areas. These areas represent ridgelines.
Use the blue marker to fill in low areas. These areas represent valleys where water will flow or collect.
You may have to color these areas several times to produce thick lines.
Make it rain! Set the spray bottle to the lightest setting. Spray all areas of the wax paper.

Materials: copy paper, wax paper, stapler, 2 washable markers, spray bottle with water

Staple (or tape) the piece of wax paper to the sheet of copy paper.

With the wax paper facing up, gently crumple the paper. Don't scrunch too much!

Pull the edges of the paper out to reveal raised areas. Color these ridgelines on the wax paper with one marker.

Color the low points, or valleys, with the other marker. You may have to color the areas several times to make thick lines.

Make it rain! Set the spray bottle to the lowest setting. Spray water on the ridgelines and valleys.

Observe the movement of the water. Where did the water collect? How many watersheds were created? If the markers represent pollution how would this affect your watersheds? Did the pollution move from one area to another when it rained?

Can you identify these parts of the watershed on your model?

The headwaters are the places where streams begin, usually the highest point.

Small tributary streams flow into one another to make larger streams. Larger streams join to form rivers.

A floodplain is an area that can become flooded when a river or stream overflows.

An estuary is the area where the river meets the ocean. Fresh water from the river and salt water from the ocean mix here.

A ridgeline is the top edge of the mountain that divides one watershed from another.

Precipitation is water that falls to the earth as rain and snow and flows into streams and is absorbed into the ground for plants to take up in their roots.

Not sure what to do? Watch this demonstration.

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