Find out how rain becomes river water in this free KS3 Geography worksheet on the drainage basin system - no preparation needed, just download and use. Perfect as a lesson starter, homework task, or quick revision activity for students aged 11-14.

A drainage basin is the area of land that a river and its tributaries collect water from. Geographers treat it as an open system, because water enters it as inputs and leaves it as outputs.

Three questions, 13 marks in total: a 2-mark multiple choice question on the main input to a basin; a 5-mark fill-in-the-blank with a word bank covering interception, throughfall, stemflow, transpiration and outputs; and a 6-mark written task explaining why a basin is an open system. Clear mark allocations and ruled answer lines make it quick to set and quick to mark, and it fits neatly on a single page. A full answer key with marking guidance is included. Comes as a PDF and an editable Word file (DOCX).

Want more? The full 100-mark premium worksheet goes deeper into infiltration, throughflow, surface runoff and how the route water takes decides whether a river floods. A complete lesson bundle combining the full worksheet and extension activities is also available on the iNewittAll TES store.

Google Classroom ready.

drainage basin
drainage basin system
drainage basin worksheet
open system
inputs and outputs
interception
transpiration
stemflow
throughfall
rivers
KS3 Geography
Year 7 Geography
Year 8 Geography
free worksheet
geography worksheet