Unit Eight Plans: Water and the West

Learning Objectives

Oregon's Common Curriculum Goals:

Civics

• Structure,Function and Role of Government
1. Describe the organization, responsibilities and interrelationships of local, state and federal government in the United States.
• Roles, Rights and Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens
1. Describe personal, political and economic rights of citizens in the United States.
2. Describe participatory responsibilities of citizens in the community and in the political process (becoming informed about public issues and candidates, joining political parties/interest groups/associations, communicating with public officials, voting, influencing lawmaking through processes such as petitions/initiatives).
• International Relations
1. Explain how nations interact with each other, how events and issues in other countries can affect citizens in the United States and how actions of the United States can affect other peoples and nations.

Economics

• Understand that resources are limited.
• Understand economic trade-offs and how choices result in both costs and benefits to individuals and society.

History

• United States History
1. Understand and interpret events, issues and developments within and across eras of United States history.
• Historical Relationships
1. Analyze cause and effect relationships, including multiple causations.
2. Interpret and reconstruct chronological relationships.
3. Recognize and interpret change and continuity within four broad content themes: interaction of people, cultures, and ideas; economic and technological developments and their impact on society; American politics and political thought; role of the United States in the world.
4. Understand relationships among events, issues and developments that cross spheres of human activity (i.e., economic, social, political, cultural).
5. Understand how contemporary perspectives affect historical interpretations.

Geography

• Physical and Cultural Characteristics of Places and Regions
1. Understand the social, cultural and economic processes that change the characteristics of places and regions over time.
2. Compare physical and human characteristics of places and regions.
• Interaction Between Physical and Human Systems
1. Describe the consequences of humans changing the physical environment and how human changes in one place affect other places.
2. Understand how differing points of view, self interests and global distribution of natural resources play a role in conflict over territory.
3. Describe how physical charcteristics of places and regions affect human activities.
4. Understand the geographic results of resource use and management programs and policies.

Social Science Analysis

1. Define and clarify an issue so that its dimensions are well understood.
2. Explain various perspectives on an event or issue and the reasoning behind them.
3. Identify, analyze and select a course of action to resolve an issue.

Content Goals:

• Students will identify key issues relating to water policy in the American West.
• Students will understand the important events in the development of the West's water resources.
• Students will understand the effects of water development on natural systems and the environment.
• Students will identify the roles of the government and the individual in shaping and creating water policy.
• Students will analyze the water situation of the West to predict future trends and recommend strategies for utlizing water resources.
• Students will apply their understanding of water issues to a particular aspect of water history, policy, development, or other related topic, by using technology skills, library skills, and presentation skills to research and develop a web page and classroom presentation.

Content Resources

Readings:

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner. Penguin Books. New York. 1993.

• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Mathematical - Logical, Spatial) -

Web page project description.

Sample Web Projects

"The Colorado: A River Drained Dry" by Jim Carrier. National Geographic. June 1991. v. 179(6) pp. 4-34.

The Colorado River: A River at Risk by Jim Carrier and Jim Richardson. Westcliffe Publishers, Inc. Englewood, CO. 1992.

"Dire Straits" by Jon Bowermaster. Bazaar. July 1993. pp.125-126+.

• Individual Assignment (Linguistic) -

Dire Straits Article questions

"A Fight Over Liquid Gold" by Paul Gray. Time. July 22, 1991. v. 138(3) pp.20-26.

"The Last Drops" by Eugene Linden. Time. August 20, 1990. pp. 58-61.

Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity by Sandra Postel. W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 1997.

New Courses for the Colorado River edited by Gary D. Weatherford and F. Lee Brown. 1986.

The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbbia River by Richard White. Hill and Wang. New York. 1995.

A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia by Blaine Harden. W.W. Norton & Company. New York. 1996.

A River No More: The Colorado River and the West by Philip L. Radkin. University of Arizona Press. Tuscon. 1981.

Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the growth of the American West by Donald Worster. Oxford University Press. New York. 1985.

Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West by Donald Worster. Oxford University Press. New York. 1992.

Water: A Natural History by Alice Outwater. Basic Books. New York. 1996.

Videos:

Cadillac Desert: Mulholland's Dream

Cadillac Desert: American Nile

Cadillac Desert: The Last Oasis

Cadillac Desert: The Mercy of Nature

The Colorado River

Where Did the Colorado River Go? NOVA production distributed by Time-Life. 1974.

Links:

Controlled Flooding of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon: Selected Photos

Explore the Colorado River

Cadillac Desert (PBS Series)

Grand Canyon Flood! (PBS Series)