What's a raingarden? In this lesson plan, explore how they can protect rivers and creeks from stormwater pollution, and how you can build one.
In unbuilt areas, stormwater that is not infiltrated into the soil will flow over the ground. If there are agricultural chemicals and other pollutants on the ground, this gets carried along with the stormwater.
In urban areas, rainwater from the roof of your house, driveways, roads and footpaths is carried away through drains and pipes. It can also carry with it anything that is lying in the soil or drains – cigarette butts, cans, paper or plastic bags, detergents, oil, fertilisers, leaves, garden clippings, animal droppings and sediment from soil erosion, building sites and unsealed roads.
All of this can end up polluting our waterways.
Download the lesson plan
This lesson plan contains modules explicitly linked to the Victorian Curriculum.
Activities
Activity 1: How does a raingarden help protect waterways?
Students explore what raingardens are and the ways that they can protect waterways.
Activity 2: Where is my local waterway?
Students investigate their local catchment and identify potential sources of pollution.
Activity 3: Building a school raingarden
Students explore the feasibility of building a raingarden in the school.
Victorian curriculum links
- VCGGK105: Classification of environmental resources and the forms that water takes as a resource
Geography > Geographical knowledge > Water in the world - VCGGK106: Ways that flows of water connect places as they move through the environment and the ways this affects places
Geography > Geographical knowledge > Water in the world - VCGGK107: The quantity and variability of Australia’s water resources compared with those in other continents and how water balance can be used to explain these differences
Geography > Geographical knowledge > Water in the world - VCGGK112: Influence of accessibility to services and facilities; and environmental quality, on the liveability of places
Geography > Geographical knowledge > Place and liveability - VCGGK120: Spiritual, cultural and aesthetic value of landscapes and landforms for people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, that influence the significance of places, and ways of protecting significant landscapes
Geography > Geographical knowledge > Landforms and landscapes