5 minutes Participants use paper to make models of river basins made up of many smaller watersheds. As a bathtub catches all the water that falls within its sides, a river basin sends all the water falling on the surrounding land into a central river and out to an estuary or the sea. A river basin drains all the land around a major river.
Watersheds drain smaller areas of land around a smaller river, stream or lake.
The landscape is made up of many interconnected basins, or watersheds. Within each watershed, all water runs to the lowest point - a stream, river, or lake. On its way, water travels over the surface and across farm fields, forestland, suburban lawns, and city streets, or it seeps into the soil and travels as ground water. Large river basins like the Neuse or Cape Fear are really giant watersheds, made up of many smaller watersheds. In North Carolina, everyone lives in a river basin.