The Watershed Game: Classroom Version is a large-format board game adapted for whole-class
use with an optional electronic scorecard. It helps students understand the relationship between
land uses within a watershed, water quality, and their community. Working in teams, students
apply tools (prevention, practices, plans, and policies) to decrease water pollution while balancing
financial resources. The goal of the activity is to reduce nonpoint source water pollution from
various land uses to the stream without going broke.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand that sediment and phosphorus are natural parts of healthy ecosystems.
• Describe how human activities associated with various land uses within a watershed may pollute a stream with excess sediment or phosphorus.
• Understand how excess sediment and phosphorus can affect the health of a stream by limiting its ability to support fish and wildlife or human uses like swimming and safe drinking water.
• Practice working cooperatively in Land Use Teams to evaluate the costs and benefits of tools that decrease nonpoint source pollutants and calculate pollutant reductions achieved by the tools the team chooses to purchase.
• Complete a team worksheet and present a summary to the class describing team choices to reducewater pollution.
• Discover that various land use teams must work together as a whole watershed, pool their money and agree to pay for additional tools to meet the Watershed Clean Water Goal.

The Watershed Game is designed for middle school (grades 6 – 8), but can easily be extended to upper elementary and high school.