National park

Description

Lassen National park

Select a major stream within your area(Reading peak, CA) and type the name into the search box on River Runner. If your selected quadrangle does not have a stream with a drainage path that shows up on RiverRunner, expand your search to outside the chosen quadrangle to another stream within the park.

*If you are working with an Alaskan park, you will need to use RiverRunner global, as the original RiverRunner only charts paths for the contiguous United States. You may use this link: https://river-runner-global.samlearner.com/

**If you have tried both RiverRunner and RiverRunner Global, but still can’t get a drainage path charted for a water body in your park, you may need to track the water body yourself using your knowledge of determining flow direction on topographic maps and following a stream out of your park all the way to base level. This will require you to rely heavily on your map reading skills and you may need additional help from your instructor.

1. How many bodies of water overall are included in this drainage path? Write a list of them in order from the first body of water in the drainage network to the last. How do the stream lengths change between the first water body to the last within your drainage network? Why would stream lengths change in this manner?
2. Describe the compass direction of movement of this drainage network (north, south, east, or west). Explain why the drainage network moves in this manner. What major body of water does the last stream in this drainage system drain into?
3. As you let the downstream path play, describe how the topography of the landscape changes. Additionally, describe how the stream channels in the drainage system change. How does one relate to the other?
4. National parks are protected areas; however, the stream system extends beyond the boundaries of the national park. Any activity upstream may affect the water flowing through the park, and any activity downstream may affect the water after it leaves the park. Explain how different environmental practices in one area versus the other may affect people living along the river downstream and usage of this resource.

Part 2: Finding Research Resources

In the Unit 7 research assignment, you used both TopoView (provided by the USGS) and ArcGIS to gather the necessary information you needed to complete your topography research for your park. In this research activity, you relied on RiverRunner to give you an idea of how water flowed within your park. Additionally, you may have relied on information you found on your national park’s website or the USGS website to help you answer some of the questions asked. This project is heavily research-based and will require you to rely on a variety of resources to gather all of the appropriate information. The last slide of your final presentation will be a Reference slide, where you will list all of the resources you have used. This part of this activity will give you a chance to find some of the resources you’ll need for your project as well as teach you how to properly cite those sources.

Finding Sources

The USGS website and your park’s National Park Website can be a great start to your research. However, you will need sources beyond these two to complete your research. Every park is unique, therefore every student should have a unique set of resources for their research. These should be valid and credible sources. They may include articles about current events concerning your park, geologic hazards affecting your park, information on the rock types found in your park, etc. – anything that may give you appropriate information to help you complete this project. Credible sources are the foundation of scientific writing. Below are examples of credible vs. non-credible sources. While Wikipedia can be a good starting point for research, the information there is gathered from other sources that may or may not be credible. Therefore, Wikipedia is considered a Non-Credible Source.

Credible SourcesNon-Credible Source

National GeographicAny social media site

Google ScholarGoogle (general search)

NASA/NOAAPrager University

NPR, AP, Reuters (or unbiased news Wikipedia

sources that produce articles supported by

facts/observations)

Citing Sources

The information gained from credible sources should be cited properly. Because this is a geology course, you will follow the Geological Society of America (GSA) format.

**NOTE: this is NOT MLA or APA. This is a writing format adopted and used by scientists across disciplines. It may look different from what you are used to, but it is a much simpler format when citing scientific publications. Also, notice that web addresses are not included in the works cited. All credible resources, while most likely found on the internet, will have the components necessary to properly cite them on a works cited page: name of the author(s), title of the publication, year the work was published, journal/news source of publication. Volumes and page numbers may be left off if citing an internet article. Web addresses and dates of retrieval should not be included on your works cited page.

Works Cited Page

One author (GSA format):

Last name, first name/initial (year) Title of article. Name of Journal/Publication, volume number, page numbers

Example (internet-based article):

Peterson, Molly (2018) What happens when you buy a house in a disaster zone – and no one told you? The Guardian, US Edition.

Multiple authors (GSA format):

Last name, first name and Last name, first name (year) Title of article. Name of Journal/Publication, volume number, page numbers

Example (internet-based article):

Stafford, Rick and Jones, Peter.J.S. (2018) Reusable coffee cups are just a drop in the ocean for efforts to save our seas. The Guardian, US Edition.

For this project, citing sources such as NASA and NOAA will be slightly different. Each have numerous subprograms that may provide useful information for your paper. On your works cited page, you should list the page your information came from (they all have names), the subprogram, and the full administration name:

Example:

Ocean Acidification: The Other Carbon Dioxide Problem. PMEL Carbon Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Information gathered from NASA or NOAA sites is public information, and is considered to be up-to-date, so there is not a need to include a date.

In the space below, list and properly cite 3 sources of information that do NOT include the USGS or your park’s NPS website.