Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin

In this virtual workshop, we will review strategies for how to facilitate the Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin Data Puzzle in your middle and high school science classrooms. Participants will engage with the teaching materials (teacher guide, slide deck, student worksheet, and answer key) from both the teacher and student perspective and upon completion, be prepared to implement the Data Puzzle in their classroom.

Participants seeking a 3-hour PD certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder for completing the Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin virtual PD should submit their answers to the questions/tasks below using this Google Form. 

Please email jonathan.griffith@colorado.edu when you have submitted your Form.

Declining water levels in two of the largest reservoirs in the United States, Lake Powell, and Lake Mead, provide visible evidence for the 2000-2021 megadrought (a period of extreme dryness that lasts for decades) in the Colorado River Basin. Scientists studying weather and climate in this region are analyzing temperature and precipitation patterns over time to determine the root cause of the ongoing megadrought. After analyzing authentic datasets, students come to the conclusion (as scientists have also done), that rising temperatures and the resulting increase in evapotranspiration rates are largely responsible for the megadrought in the Colorado River Basin.

Between 2001 and 2015, Lake Mead’s water surface elevation dropped by over 143 feet. Image from the National Park Service.

The Data Puzzle includes three main components, it is important to understand the differences between the materials. BEFORE you dive into the virtual workshop, please complete the following tasks:

• Open the teacher guide. Note that the teacher provides some short facilitation tips and some additional materials you can use to differentiate the curriculum.
• Flip through the slide deck. Note that the opening scenario is only on the slides, not on the student worksheet. 
• Print the student worksheet. Note that the student worksheet has the background reading and space for students’ models. 

Now that you understand the goal of the Eliciting Students’ Ideas practice and have heard some tips about how to facilitate the opening scenario, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by reflecting on the opening scenario and “Stop and Think” questions below.

After bringing out student resources about the opening scenario, it’s important to help students make connections between the opening scenario and the science investigation they are about to engage with in the Data Puzzle. Embedded in the slide deck are specific discussion prompts to help students make these connections and a slide (see below) that introduces the hydrologist featured in the Data Puzzle who is trying to figure out the cause and impact of the current megadrought in the Colorado River Basin.

It's time to learn more about the featured scientists’ research by engaging with the interactive reading as part of the next practice, “Identifying Important Science Ideas."

Now that you understand the goal of the Identifying Important Science Ideas practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

It's time to test your prediction for the investigative question by analyzing and interpreting a dataset collected by the featured scientist(s) as part of the “Supporting Ongoing Changes In Thinking" practice.

Now that you understand the goal of the Supporting Ongoing Changes in Thinking practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

Analyzing data is a challenging task for many students, especially when they  have not collected the dataset themselves.  What does a point represent? What do the axes mean? It’s important for students to be able to answer these and other questions BEFORE they are asked to identify patterns in a dataset.

The datasets above show the average temperature and precipitation for the Colorado River Basin from 1900-2021. Data was curated from NOAA Climate at a Glance.

We recommend creating a list of Back Pocket Questions (BPQ) that you could use as you move from table to table to help students focus on the task, recall earlier class discussions about a particular science idea, or to challenge students to connect any patterns they’ve identified back to the investigative question. See this practice document (page #4) for example BPQs.

Now that you understand the goal of the Constructing Evidence-Based Explanations practice and have heard some facilitation strategies, it’s time for you to think about how you might implement this practice in your own classroom by completing a series of tasks and reflecting on the “Stop and Think” questions below.

After gathering evidence (interactive reading and temperature/precipitation data interpretation), it’s time for students to construct a final model to explain the investigative question, “What is causing the megadrought in the Colorado River Basin?” But what even is a model? If your students have not constructed a model in your classroom, use the slide deck to introduce the concept of a scientific model and to facilitate a discussion around what should be included in a model and what a model should look like.

• Slide Deck link

After students construct and share their models representing the cause of the current megadrought, watch NASA’s “Megadroughts Projected for the American West” video to see what NASA scientists are predicting about future megadrought conditions in the United States.

After students construct their final models for the investigative question, we challenge students to apply these new science ideas to new situations (e.g., social justice issues, climate solutions, or related phenomena) through a “Digging Deeper” question(s). We encourage you, the facilitator, to use these questions as is or adapt them to connect to topics you’ve previously covered in class or other local phenomena.

Review the “Additional Teacher Materials and Extensions” section on the last page of the teacher guide for more information about the work presented in the Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin Data Puzzle and extension materials including NOAA data interactives, videos, and podcasts.

The Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin Data Puzzle is NOT intended to be an activity that is distributed to the student to be completed as homework. Instead, it is meant to be a collaborative effort by the teacher and students to make sense of new science phenomena. Before implementing the Megadrought in the Colorado River Basin Data Puzzle in your classroom it’s important to review all of the materials available to you (teacher guide, answer key, slide deck) and to be prepared to facilitate lots of small group and whole class discussions!