Stage 3: Plan the Learning Experiences
1. Introductory Discussion: How do we use water in our everyday life? Create
a list on chart paper that can be accessed throughout the unit. Where
does water come from? Where does water go when we pour it down the
drain or spill it on the ground? So if the water just goes down the drain,
how is water always available to us?
2. Introduce the Unit: Inform the students that we will be learning about
where water comes from and how it water is available to us on Earth in a
unit about the water cycle. You will be learning about the various steps
that are in the water cycle, the different forms of water, how water is
wasted and conserved, how water is polluted, how we use water in our
daily lives, and the fact that although water may seem readily available to
us but it actually is not to every person on Earth.
3. Read the students a book that introduces the steps of the water cycle.
Talk about each step of the cycle as you read the book. Be sure to talk
about the different forms of precipitation. After reading the book, have the
students write in their science journals one new fact that they learned
from the book.
4. Complete experiments for each of the steps of the water cycle:
a. Evaporation: place a cup of water under a lamp and come back to it
at the end of the science period, what happened to the water in the
cup?
b. Precipitation: Make it Rain in A Jar
c. Condensation: Make a cloud in Jar
5. Have the students create an individual KWL chart about stages of water.
At this point, only fill in the K and W columns.
6. Conduct an experiment that shows the freezing and melting of water.
After completing the experiments, have the students add to the L column
of their KWL chart.
7. Different forms of precipitation activity: introduces them to the idea of
rain, snow, sleet, and hail.
8. For homework, provide the students with a blank diagram of the water
cycle. Have them label the various steps as well as types of precipitation.
9. Have a full class discussion about each of the steps, evaporation,
condensation, and precipitation. As a class, come up with a definition for
each of these steps. Add them to the science vocabulary wall.
10. Teach the students the water cycle song.
11. Have the students complete a short quiz covering the steps of the
water cycle, different forms of precipitation, and stages of water.
12. Conduct a class discussion about how the water cycle affects our daily
life and the life of other living things on Earth. What other living things
need water to survive? (ALL living things!)
13. Class Debate about the importance of water in our lives, the students
will defend their opinion of how water impacts our life and why we need it
to survive. The students will prepare arguments for both sides of the
debate.
14. Implementation of PBE #1: Uh Oh! The Water Cycle Broke Down
15. Have the students self access their PBE experience with the following
questions:
a. Did you put forth your best effort?
b. What choices did you make that helped you focus throughout the
experience?
c. Give yourself a grade and explain why
16. Presentation of videos to local news station producer
17. Introduce the concept of pollution with the BrainPop video title Water
Pollution. Once they watch the video, have them create a list of all the
ways that water can be polluted in their science notebooks. Once they
create the list, have them answer the question how can reduce the
amount of pollution to our water supply?
18. Class discussion about how pollution affects other living things in our
world.
19. Read the book Did a Dinosaur Drink This Water?
20. Following the reading of the book, Ask the question: is all the water in
our world fresh water? What about the water in our oceans, is that fresh
water? State the fact that only 1% of Earths water is actually fresh water.
Most of the water on Earths surface is actually ocean water.
21. Write a letter to a friend telling them about the fresh water that is
available to us on Earth. Where is most of our water located? Does every
person in the world have equal access to fresh water?
22. Introduce the topic of conservation of water with a book. After reading
the book, ask them to come up with a real life example of when they
wasted water. Create a list on a large piece of paper that can be accessed
later. Then have them come up with 2 ways they can conserve water in
their own home. Have them raise their hands to share and put them on a
large piece of paper that can be accessed later in the unit.
23. Ask the students what some of the different perspectives about
conserving water may be. Why might we want to conserve water? Why
might it not be the worlds greatest idea to conserve water?
24. Complete a sort of methods of conserving water and methods of
wasting water
25. Implement PBE #2: Drought Season
26. Have the students self access their PBE experience with the following
questions:
a. Did you put forth your best effort?
b. What choices did you make that helped you focus throughout the
experience?
c. Give yourself a grade and explain why
27. Video about conserving water to fill time between due date of PBE and
mayor presentations.
28. Presentations of PBE products to the mayor.
29. Implement the contract with clear expectations as way to review for
the end of unit test.
a. My Life as a Water Droplet
b. Water in Rain: BrainPop video & quiz
c. Vocabulary Memory
d. Hide and Show
e. Pollution Newspaper Article
f. Water Cycle Diagram
30. Take one last look at all the lists the students created throughout the
unit: Everyday uses of water, ways we can conserve water, and methods
of wasting water. Ask the students how the water cycle is connected to
life on Earth. Have them reflect to this question using the lists on the
board and other resources they have created during this unit (ie: hide and
show and other materials created during contract time, PBE posters that
will posted around the room, notes in science notebook)
31. End of Unit Test which will cover the steps of the water cycle, everyday
uses of water, conservation & wasting of water, pollution, importance of
water towards all living things, and if all our water is fresh or not.
*Throughout the course of the unit, the student will complete daily exit
tickets providing them the chance to self reflect on the content as well as
themselves a learner. The questions about the content would include a
variety of activities throughout the unit. The ones I would most likely include
are 3-2-1, What do you want to know more about, real world connections,
name your favorite thing from todays lesson and give three facts about it,
and make up your own test question. The questions about themselves as a
learner would probably be similar throughout the unit. I would include Did
you make good choices during the lesson today? What did you do to help
yourself as a learner today? Rate your engagement today on the scale of 1 to
5. How can you improve your engagement in the next lesson?
