Watershed Curriculum Module
Introduction to the Watershed Curriculum Module
The Center developed the Watershed Curriculum Module (WCM) to provide teaching lessons to integrate the watershed approach into existing course work. The module provides instructional material for field-based and classroom exercises to reinforce the understanding about the impacts of land use and land cover on stream health, identification of pollutant sources in a watershed, and practices to mitigate the impacts of development. The materials are designed to enhance a student’s critical thinking skills by applying knowledge learned in the classroom to ‘real world’ examples, to define and test hypotheses, and integrate multiple sources of information to analyze data and make recommendations for future management decisions.
The WCM is designed to be integrated into existing curriculum for upper level undergraduate level courses (e.g 300 or 400). However, the material may be applied to other levels of study and will depend on the specifics of the course itself, and the instructor’s desired outcome for the class.
WCM does not comprehensively address the topic of watersheds, urban hydrology, stormwater management, or environmental planning but is designed to build upon courses that discuss these topics. A description of each unit within the WCM is available to AWSPs members and includes topics on watershed assessment methods, impacts from development and best management practices, and a modeling scenario. To complete the individual units, students should have a basic understanding about the hydrologic cycle, the definition of a watershed, land use and land cover types and the land development process, specifically for the “Watersheds and Growth” exercise.
A list of suggested background reading material specific to each exercise is provided within each exercise instructions. In addition, general watershed and stormwater resources are available for free download at the “Publications and Goods” section on the Center for Watershed Protection website at www.cwp.org.
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