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In this lesson, students engage in a creative design process to develop a final design for the rain garden, using the base map produced and selected in Part 2. In the process, they learn how to visually represent plants and other garden features and what native plants will work well in their garden. This is the final lesson before installation of the rain garden.

In this lesson, students conduct a site inventory about the area selected for the rain garden, including existing structures and natural features, and measure the area of the impervious surface (the source of runoff) to determine the size of the garden. They record the information on a Google map to create a hand-drawn base map of the site. This lesson prepares students to create the final rain garden design and planting plan for the rain garden in Part 3.

This lesson assumes you have already determined that a rain garden might be a good project for your class and that you have generally located where you want to install the garden; for example, a location where a downspout spills water onto an impervious surface or lawn, or where stormwater runs off pavement. The lesson includes background content and context for students to understand how rain gardens address and fit into larger stormwater management issues and approaches. In the lesson, students develop a proposal and presentation to school stakeholders to install a rain garden on school grounds. The lesson lays the foundation for Parts 2-4: siting, designing, and installing a rain garden.

High school students may be familiar with the idea that they live in a watershed. They may even have engaged in individual community or school projects, such as stream clean ups or water testing, that benefit or relate to their watershed. Yet, in most cases, students have not explored how the watershed works or identified how the various parts—different land uses and types, different stakeholders—contribute to the whole.

Understanding a watershed as a whole provides a real-world basis for systems thinking and deeper ecological understanding. It also offers a venue for students to identify and explore different levels and kinds of engagement in science, activism, and policy.

As an introduction to this toolkit, students will view and discuss the video The Source of Life that follows the journey of water from an area of rural Colombia to its capital city, Bogotá. They use the video as a jumping off point to explore the issues facing the watershed in which they live and to identify ways they can become involved in protecting their water along its journey. The toolkit provides online resources for understanding watersheds, connecting to local watershed resources, engaging in watershed activities in the classroom, and identifying opportunities for watershed activism. It also includes a list of suggested projects that can make use of the resources.

Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems modeled on biological entities and processes. For millennia, humans have studied nature to design useful items in areas from transportation to entertainment. From using birdwings as inspiration for human flight machines, to modeling the nano-structures in the eyes of moths for anti-glare screens, we have looked to the wild to improve our lives.
In this lesson, students view a video that follows the journey of water from an area of rural Colombia to its capital city, Bogotá. They learn about a special ecosystem high above the city and some of the unique plants there that make it possible for Bogotá to have clean water year-round. Students will use these plants as inspiration for their own efforts at biomimicry.