(gentle music) (children chattering) - All right, boys and girls, if you could come this way.

As scientists, I want you to think, what do you notice and what do you see?

And I want you to share that with me and I want you to share that with other Wyoming kids.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Watersheds, on this episode of NatureWY.

- We are about to go to where we can really get a good look at the mountains.

- [Narrator] Fact: Watersheds start from the highest points of land in your area.

- Wow, take a look, you guys, at this view.

Is there any water up there?

- [Children] Yes.

- How do you know?

- There's a couple of streams and rivers.

- Streams, rivers.

Do you agree?

- [Children] Yes.

- Okay.

Point to where you think there might be water.

- [Student] Um, right there.

- Trace with your finger where you think the water might go.

Is there just water on the mountain?

Or is there water here?

- Oh, there's a stream right there.

- Do you hear it?

Where do you think that water came from?

- The water's coming from the snow from the top of the mountain from melting over the winter.

(bell dinging) - [Narrator] Lois is exactly right.

Let's take a closer look.

(gentle music) A watershed is an area of land that acts like a funnel.

All the water that comes into the land, either by snowfall or by rain, moves from higher points to lower points.

As water moves to lower points, it forms tiny trickles, then larger streams, rivers and lakes.

All humans, animals, plants and wonderful creepy crawlies depend on water to live.

(horse neighing) Some of the water that falls on Wyoming eventually gets to the ocean.

Because we all depend on water for life, we all need clean watersheds.

- Because we are finding water up here, and this is called a watershed, we're going to be following water and how water moves from a high point to a low point.

Sound good?

All right, let's explore.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] We explored and found a low point.

Some of the water that falls into our watershed up high on the mountain seeps into the soil.

Some of the water lands on rocks and moves back into the air as the rocks dry.

Some of the water is a cool drink for insects or animals or plants.

Some moves on with gravity, down through the watershed, forming tiny streams that collect into bigger streams, like this one.

Do you think this stream joins others to form a big river?

Do you think it ends up in a pond or lake?

Or maybe it goes downhill all the way to the ocean?

- Anywhere you go, there's going to be somewhere your water comes from.

And when you wanna look for your water, you wanna look up.

You know what?

I think we can make one.

- [Child] What?

- I think we can make our own watershed.

We are going to make our paper mountain watershed.

We are going to color the ridges as blue as we can get and then we're gonna make it rain to see what waterways you create, what your watershed looks like.

- [Narrator] For instructions on how to make your own watershed model, visit wyomingpbs.org/naturewy.

- [Breanna] Look!

Look what's happening.

Look what's happening.

A river's coming out of your mountain lake, Callon.

That is so amazing, look at it spreading downhill.

Wow.

What is this starting to form down here?

These rivers are gathering a big pool of water.

- [Girl] A lake.

- [Breanna] Did you form a mountain lake here?

That's incredible.

Do you think the fishing would be good there?

- [Girl] Yeah.

- [Breanna] Nice, cold, cool water coming from the snow and the rain?

Absolutely.

- [Narrator] From Science Kids and us at Wyoming PBS, we invite you outside to safely discover and explore your own watershed.

Thanks for watching.