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Bring the Watershed into Your Classroom
Transform how your students see their local environment with Professor Higbee's® Stream & Lake Maps.
Textbooks tell students about the water cycle. Our maps show them exactly where that water flows — in their own backyards, their own watersheds, their own region. Used in middle school classrooms, high school Earth and Environmental Science courses, and university-level hydrology and geoscience programs, Professor Higbee's® Stream & Lake Maps are the only primary and secondary watershed boundary maps available anywhere, they provide a hands-on, visual foundation for teaching watershed ecology, stream networks, and human impact on the environment.
Free Classroom Resources
Download our two free guides to help you evaluate and implement Professor Higbee's® maps in your classroom or district.
Administrator Brief
A concise overview for principals, curriculum directors, and purchasing administrators. Covers product details, pricing, NGSS alignment, and ordering instructions.
Free Download
Reading the Water
A complete four-lesson inquiry unit for Grades 6–12. Includes NGSS-aligned activities, student worksheets, discussion questions, and an assessment rubric.
Free DownloadThe Paper Classroom Set
What's Included
- 30 precise, full-color state watershed maps
- Reading the Water curriculum guide (4 lessons)
- NGSS-aligned activities for Grades 6–12
- Available for 22 states
- Durable cartographic paper — classroom ready
NGSS Aligned
The Reading the Water curriculum unit is directly aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards for Earth and Space Sciences.
HS-ESS2-5
Properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
HS-ESS2-2
Changes to Earth's surface and feedbacks across Earth systems.
HS-ESS3-1
Natural resources, natural hazards, and human activity on Earth's surface.
No Budget? No Problem.
Our $299 Classroom Set is perfectly priced for DonorsChoose, where projects under $400 have the highest success rate. Download our pre-written project toolkit and submit your application in under 30 minutes.
Download the DonorsChoose Toolkit →Get in Touch
Questions about ordering, curriculum, or setting up a vendor account? We respond within one business day.
{% form 'contact' %}Bring the Watershed into Your Classroom
Transform how your students see their local environment with Professor Higbee's® Stream & Lake Maps.
Textbooks tell students about the water cycle. Our maps show them exactly where that water flows — in their own backyards, their own watersheds, their own region. Used in middle school classrooms, high school Earth and Environmental Science courses, and university-level hydrology and geoscience programs, Professor Higbee's® maps provide a hands-on, visual foundation for teaching watershed ecology, stream networks, and human impact on the environment.
Download Free Curriculum Guide
Ready-to-Teach: Reading the Water Inquiry Unit
We know preparation time is scarce at every level. That is why we developed Reading the Water, a complete 4-lesson inquiry unit designed specifically for use with our maps — no additional materials required.
Aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS HS-ESS2-5, HS-ESS2-2, HS-ESS3-1) and adaptable for introductory college courses, this curriculum challenges students to delineate watershed boundaries, classify stream orders, and trace the downstream impact of human settlement — all using the visual evidence on the map in front of them.
What is included:
- 4 complete lesson plans with measurable learning objectives
- Step-by-step instructor procedures and guided discussion questions
- Built-in modifications for regional map variations (including Michigan)
- Optional field extension for local stream observation
Equip Every Student
Paper maps are the ultimate consumable learning tool. Students can trace streams, draw watershed divides, and annotate human settlements directly on the map — and take it home at the end of the unit. Our standard Classroom Set includes 30 state-specific maps, sized for a typical class at any level. At just under $10 per map, it fits within standard teacher grant limits, DonorsChoose project budgets, and university department supply budgets.
Most Popular for Classrooms
Classroom Set — 30 Folded Maps
$299.00
Includes free digital download of the Reading the Water Curriculum Guide
Select Your State & Add to CartBest for Repeated Use
Classroom Set — 30 Laminated Maps
$599.00
Write-on / wipe-off surface. Use semester after semester.
Select Your State & Add to CartEducator Voices
What Educators Are Saying
"Recently a priority for TU is identifying areas where there are barriers to aquatic organism passage. Many of these streams that appear unimpeded actually have culverts that are too small to allow trout and other organisms to follow the lines that flow so freely on the map. In my job we refer to streams by a six-digit code, so this map is how I learn their names."
Kathleen Lavelle
Trout Unlimited — Pennsylvania Coldwater Habitat Program
"Students used the map to trace connections between their neighborhood streams and major waterways like the Chesapeake Bay. Seeing those connections on a real, detailed map — not a textbook diagram — made the concept of a watershed click in a way nothing else had."
Jennifer McCarthy
Retired 5th Grade Science Teacher — Liberty Elementary
As Featured In & Recognized By
"The Stream Map of Pennsylvania includes every running waterway in the state, some of which are not indicated on existing maps."
— PA Department of Environmental Resources
"It is amazingly detailed and names some creeks in the Mohawk Valley that can't even be found on topographic maps."
— John Pitarres, Observer-Dispatch, Utica, NY
"If you're looking for the most definitive maps ever created depicting every single creek, river, stream, pond and lake, then Professor Higbee's Stream Maps are without question the finest."
— Howard Brant, Newark Star-Ledger
"Higbee developed the legendary Stream Map of Pennsylvania, a chart so detailed that the tiniest and remotest waterways — mere capillaries on the Pennsylvania landscape — show up in living color. Every stream is there. Not a single one is left out."
— Pennsylvania Trout, Publication of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited
"This dedicated scholar spent no fewer than 30 years hand-drawing a complete stream map of Pennsylvania, including 45,000 miles of rivers, streams and creeks."
— Outdoor Life Magazine
College & University Use
From Introductory Courses to Graduate Fieldwork
Our maps are used at the university level in hydrology, geoscience, environmental studies, and geography courses — anywhere instructors need students to engage with real watershed data in a tactile, visual format that no digital tool replicates.
Because our maps show stream order, watershed boundaries, lake and pond locations, and human settlement patterns at a scale that fits on a desk, they work equally well for a freshman Earth Science lab, a junior-level hydrology problem set, or a graduate seminar on land-use change and water quality.
University instructors can order any quantity — from a single map for a seminar discussion to a full class set of 30 or more. We accept university purchase orders and can provide a W-9 and vendor registration documents on request.
Contact Us for University Orders →“Ideal for courses in watershed hydrology, stream ecology, and environmental policy — anywhere you want students working with real geographic data rather than a textbook diagram.”
— Add your university instructor quote here
Custom Orders
Need a quantity other than 30? We fulfill custom orders for university courses of any size. Email education@educatormaps.com with your course enrollment and preferred state map.
Need Funding? We Can Help.
We believe every classroom should have access to high-quality geographic tools. If your department budget is tight, there are millions of dollars in grant funding available for environmental and STEM education at every level. We have compiled the resources you need.
Fastest Option — K-12
DonorsChoose
Our $299 Classroom Set is perfectly priced for DonorsChoose, where projects under $400 have the highest success rate. Download our pre-written project toolkit and submit your application in under 30 minutes.
Download the DonorsChoose Toolkit →Up to $5,000 — Grades 6–12
Toshiba America Foundation
Grades 6–12 teachers can apply for grants up to $5,000 for project-based STEM learning. Applications are accepted four times per year, with deadlines on March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1.
Visit the Toshiba Foundation →$500 – $2,500
State Environmental Education Funds
Nearly every state Department of Environmental Protection offers annual grants for classroom environmental education materials — available to K-12 and community college instructors. Check your state's DEP or Department of Education website for the next open application window.
College & University
Course Supply & Lab Budgets
At under $10 per map, a class set of 30 typically falls within a single course's supply or lab materials budget. University instructors can also request funding through NSF TUES/IUSE grants for undergraduate STEM curriculum development, or through their department's instructional improvement funds.
Learn about NSF IUSE Grants →School Districts, Universities & Educational Distributors
Are you a district purchasing agent looking to equip multiple schools, a university department coordinator ordering for several courses, or an educational distributor interested in carrying Professor Higbee's® Stream & Lake Maps in your catalog?
We accept standard Purchase Orders (POs) from K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities, and offer competitive wholesale margins for approved educational distributors. Please use the form below or email us directly at education@educatormaps.com. We will respond within 24 hours with our W-9, bulk pricing tiers, and vendor onboarding information.
Need Help Funding Your Classroom Set?
We have created a free DonorsChoose Toolkit with everything you need — pre-written project descriptions, NGSS rationale, and step-by-step instructions to get your maps funded at no cost to you or your school.
Get the Free DonorsChoose Toolkit
