Earth and Environmental Science · Week 8 · Water in the Desert
The Shrinking Salton Sea
Simulating the Salton Sea water balance and listening to how shrinking shorelines affect nearby families and wildlife.
- Students will
- Students use simple math to model the Salton Sea's water balance, explain how inflow and evaporation changes make it shrink and grow saltier, and test one management choice to see whether fish and the birds that eat them can survive, considering stability and change.
- SEL skill
- Listen to how a shrinking shoreline affects different people and describe their point of view
- What it looks like
- Students practice empathy by listening to how a shrinking shoreline affects families and wildlife.
- Content focus
- The shrinking Salton Sea
- Format
- Role play
Social awareness
Social awareness is seeing a situation through someone else's eyes and showing empathy, especially for people whose lives differ from yours. More social awareness activities
What you get
A teacher guide with what to say, step by step, plus student pages and a supports page for students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs. Print or Project it, or assign it in Google Forms and Google Docs for Google Classroom. Your first 10 activities are free.
Standards
- HS-ESS3-3: High School Earth and Space Science performance expectation
- Science and engineering practice: SEP5 Using mathematics and computational thinking
- Crosscutting concept: CCC7 Stability and change
- CA Environmental Principles and Concepts: Principle II: People influence natural systems
- Literacy in science: RST.11-12.3 Follow a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments or taking measurements.
- Traditional course: Earth and Environmental Science
Fits these textbook chapters
Textbook names are used only to help you find activities that fit what you teach. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with these publishers.
More social awareness activities for Earth and Environmental Science
- Spheres That Interact Social awarenessAnalyzing data on feedbacks among Earth's spheres and seeing how one person's change ripples through a group.
- Urban Heat Islands Social awarenessMeasuring surface temperatures around campus and considering who lives and works in the hottest places.
- Working in the Heat Social awarenessCommunicating the warning signs of heat illness for farmworkers and athletes and practicing noticing when someone needs help.
- Feeding the Nation from the Desert Social awarenessArguing how water and climate made the valley a winter vegetable center and honoring the farmworkers who make it happen.
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RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.