Daniel Quillen
Danielle Longe
MS-ESS2-4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and force of gravity. {Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the ways water changes its state as it moves through the multiple pathways of the hydrologic cycle.}
Prior Knowledge: The students will need to have the understanding of the basic water cycle (Evaporation, Condensation, precipitation). Students will also need to have the basic computer skills to access the internet and follow along with the Web Quest Activity.
Materials Needed:Large clear plastic tub, small bowl, plastic wrap, water, sand, heat lamp, and projector, Computer / Laptop.
Engage: The students will be engaged in a classroom discussion where they will be presented the basic topic of “The Water Cycle”. In this discussion the class will be asked questions about what they already know about the water cycle and additional questions to get their brains thinking about where the water goes after it rains.
1)What is the Water Cycle?
2)Where does precipitation come from?
3)Where does the water go after it rains?
4)What causes the earth to have a worldwide water cycle?
(We will be recording the responses on the white board/ chalk board.)
Once we finished the class discussion they class will watch a short video clipping to grasp the children’s attention in an eye catching manor. <
Explore:Here we will explain to the students that we are going to take some sand, a clear plastic tub, and a bowl of water to create our own controlled environment to demonstrate the water cycle. At this point we will break the class up into groups of 4 and have 5-6 stations set up around the classroom for each group to go and wait for further instructions to start the activity.
We will then ask the students to place two scoops of sand on each side of the glass bowl of water to create their two land masses surrounding the body of water.
Once the students have created their land masses, we will instruct the students to tightly place plastic wrap over top the plastic tub and put pieces of ice along the top of the plastic wrap to create the cooler atmosphere. Once all the groups had successfully created this structure we will then go along and place the heat lamps along the side of the stations to beginning the heating of the water to begin the water cycle.
After placing the heat lamps along the side of the containers, we will then ask the students to go back to their seats, were we will explain that it will take a little bit of time for the water to be heated to begin evaporating to start our water cycle. At this point the class as a whole will start working on a vocabulary sheet and illustrations to further their knowledge of the water cycle.
Explain: Upon finishing the classroom activity at the end of the day, we will play a second video to help elaborate and provide more definitions for the students for concepts they might not fully understand. <
This video will go into great depth in explaining how the effect of gravity can influence the water cycle, from causing rain droplets to form at larger sizes. But more importantly, how the effect of gravity will help the creation of rivers and streams to help navigate the rain back to the main water sources such as lakes, and oceans.
This video will in addition go into detail about how gravity can pull water below the earth’s surface and create what we call the “water table” and “ground water”.
Elaborate: The elaborate portion of the lesson will be an online home assignment for the students to participate in. During this activity the students will experiencing what is known as a “Web Quest”. This is where we will send the students home to go to a specific web site that has been pre-determined by us to look up key pieces of information on key topics. The website which will be used for the web quest activity will be:
Evaluate: Since the entire class will be participating in the Web Quest activity, we choose to make the Web Quest part of our evaluation process. The students will be asked to answer questions, which are based on the web quest activity and bring the answers back to class on the next class period. At this point these papers will be collected by us and we will continue the evaluation in a more fun and competitive manor of a game of jeopardy on the water cycle.
References: