Part One: Interactive Map of Colorado
Using an interactive map, students generate questions about Colorado water to explore. Students turn layers on and off to identify relationships between different data layers.

Part 2: Watersheds
Students will use a piece of paper to create a model of Colorado’s topography. After exploring their model and a video, they will develop a working definition of a watershed and why watersheds are important in Colorado.

"To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together”

- Barry Lopez

Part 3: Continental Divide
Using a map using existing rivers as clues, students will estimate and draw the location of the Continental Divide in Colorado. They will then compare their estimate to the Divide's actual location.

Part Four: Your Watershed

Create a model of how water flows where you live. Using another online mapping tool, identify your watershed and how it fits in the larger watersheds of Colorado.
By the end of the week, learners will be able to
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​*  Explain how data can help us understand how water, people and land interrelate 
*  Generate an explanation of a watershed and how land within a watershed affects the flow of water. 
*  Synthesize information to explain why the majority of water in Colorado is found on the Western Slope. 

Part One

Explore the human connections with water and environment in Colorado with an online interactive map

Part Two

Model a watershed and generate an explanation for the importance of watersheds in Colorado

Part Three

Estimate the location of the Continental Divide  in Colorado and conceptualize how this impacts water flow.

Part Four

Find your watershed and explore its place within the larger basin and state of Colorado.
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​Additional online water education resources are available. Visit us to see more lessons and videos.