Rivers of the World

5 Twenty Minute Programs
Grade(s): 7 – 12
Curriculum: Geography

Each program concentrates on one segment of a single river, with the various themes incorporated: physical "river" geography, weather, human settlements, and environmental change. Despite their distant location and overpowering size, these world rivers still show the universal "river-like" features that pupils should recognize. They have sources, a catchment area/drainage basin, meanders, gorges, flood plains, and estuaries, and exhibit signs of erosion, transportation and deposition. There is a wide range of settlements along these from remote indigenous forest people to capital cities. We see transport on the rivers, from canoes carved from forest trees to sea-going ships. We see how the water from the river is used for irrigation, for drinking, and for generating power and other industrial processes. In each case, there are environmental issues: water management, flood prevention, pollution control and concerns for the river and its wildlife.

Teacher Guide: 32 pages includes a planning grid; 15 photocopiable activity sheets, teacher notes including location maps and fact files. A Resource Pack includes the Teacher Guide,15 color photographs and a poster. $25.95

Programs:

  1. The Orinoco: The Natural River (19:24)
    The Orinoco is one of the world's most beautiful and natural rivers. Starting as a small stream in the mountains of central Venezuela, it passes through rich tropical forests, where the Piaroa people still live by the river in their traditional way, before reaching the Atlantic Ocean in a river delta of damp forests and mangrove swamps.
     
    4. The Angara: Power from the River (18:45)
    The Angara starts from Lake Baikal in Central Asia, before flowing north into the Arctic Ocean. Winters here are long and cold, but nature provides for the people who live in villages around the lake. Downstream from the city of Irkutsk, the How of the Angara is harnessed by huge hydroelectric dams that supply heavy industry in the region.
  4. The Danube: Transport on the River (18:45)
    The Danube is the second longest river in Europe and runs for nearly 3000 kilometers from Germany to the Black Sea. For most of its length, the Danube is a managed river, with barrages, locks and canals for shipping. The swampy Danube Delta poses problems for river traffic but is home to indigenous people and unique wildlife.

  5. The Nile: River of Life (19:08)
    The Nile is the longest river in the world, starting in the mountains of Central Africa and flowing north to the Mediterranean Sea. Since ancient times, the waters of the Nile have provided water for drinking, irrigating crops and transport, in this otherwise inhospitable desert region.

  6. The Mississippi: Taming the River (18:25)
    The Mississippi is the largest, longest and most important river in the United States of America, flowing south from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It has always been a battle to control the Mississippi's natural desire to overflow its banks and destroy property, and to silt up and obstruct vital shipping routes - a battle the river often wins.

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