A Model of the Middle Rio Grande Valley

River of Change: River Model Activities

"Changing River," the core activity, is simply the process of laying out the model and making the transitions between Rio Bravo, Rio Manso, and Rio Nuevo. Although this many be a time-consuming activity the first time, students quickly acclimate to this task and will soon be able to set up each of these scenarios in a matter of minutes. Spanish Version

The rest of the activities are based on the "Changing River" activity. Recognizing that the time constraints of each class will vary, there is flexibility in these modeling exercises. Not every class will be able to participate in every activity, and there is no specific order for introducing the remaining activities. In practice we have found that these remaining activities work well alone in separate sessions or combined together. These two approaches for using this chapter are outlined on the next two pages.

"Cottonwood Creation" helps students understand how cottonwoods are established and why cottonwood trees in the valley are declining. This two-step activity includes a germination step, where students toss cotton balls and determine which locations are likely to allow seeds to germinate, and the "Root Race" when the young seedlings are trying to survive their first season by reaching their roots to the ground water table.

"Who Lives Where?" builds the students' understanding of the animals' life in the bosque and river. Students read about an animal's characteristics and place a picture of the animal on the model in the appropriate habitat. In this edition of the guide, there are two sets of animal cards for different levels of readers. Some cards have also been added for classes focusing on upper watersheds north of Cochiti Lake. Spanish Version

"Who Grows Where?" is similar to the animal game, but with plant cards instead. Spanish Version

"Working Water" takes an in-depth look at the agricultural systems of water management and how these support agriculture as well as wildlife.

"Bosque Chaos" is a game that uses dice to help students see the role of change and chaos in annual flooding patterns in Rio Bravo, then compare the linear types of changes in Rio Manso and a combination of cyclical and linear changes in Rio Nuevo.

Follow this link to view a sample setup of the three rivers.
Follow this link to view two approaches for implementing the River of Change activities.