Driving Question
What is the value of water?
Big Idea
The natural water cycle is a continuous loop of changing states of matter powered by the sun. Even though some are more “visible” than others, but if we look closely enough, we can still find evidence of stages like evaporation in our environment.
Summary
Students will understand how the interaction between the natural water cycle and the natural watershed depends on gravity and topography, everywhere and all the time.
Engage
Setting up:
Students will go outside for this part of the lesson to observe and document evidence of the water cycle in their own schoolyard. Before they go outside, use the Student Slide Deck to review the water cycle as follows:
Slides 3 and 4: Watch one of the Water Cycle videos to review the process, or use one of the diagrams.
Slide 5: Review the natural water cycle components
After reviewing the diagram or video, use Slide 5 to look at all the parts of the water cycle
Ahead of time, search google maps and project a satellite view of your school– make sure it is a view of the entire school property that includes the sidewalk, the school building and the schoolyard
Orient them to this map view of their school. Print out copies of this map for students in preparation for an outside activity that uses this map.
Students will annotate the map with predictions and actual observations. (After their walk they will compare with what they actually saw on their walk to what they predicted
Before going outside, ask students to predict what stages of the water cycle they might see outside? Where might they find evidence? Will they actually see evidence of each of all the stages or just what is “left behind” (e.g a puddle or debris collected in the storm drain) ?
Once you are back in the classroom , you will ask students to discuss how their predictions compared with their actual observation,
Explore
Go outside
Take students for a walk in the schoolyard with their maps in hand
Prepare a note-taking tool of your choice for them to use once outside. This can be done in their notebooks, a two-column checklist, or whatever works well for them to be able to take notes outside and discuss and review back in the classroom after the outdoor portion.
If possible, take this walk just after a rainstorm! If it has not rained recently, take some water with you to pour on various surfaces and a tennis ball. Observe what happens to the water and have a discussion about how water travels from a high spot to a low spot (there may even be a drain in your schoolyard) .
A tennis ball is a great way to show students how gravity is at work in their schoolyard. Allowing the tennis ball to roll models how water moves by gravity downhill through the schoolyard
Look for evidence of precipitation (rain) and condensation (clouds).
Students mark their maps with water cycle vocabulary, but this is a way to see evidence of the water cycle in the real world.
Explain
Back in the classroom, review the four main components of the water cycle (condensation, precipitation, evaporation and runoff)
Ask students to name the stage of the water cycle they observed .
Elaborate
Here are some prompts to help guide the group discussion and connect back to the stages of the water cycle
- What did you predict? What did you observe? How did they compare?
- Did you look up? Were there clouds in the sky as evidence of “condensation”?
- Did you see any storm drains? Was any litter collected around it? Why?
- Did you observe any trees, plants, soil? (This would be considered pervious surfaces in that water can “infiltrate”
- Did you explore the parking lot ? Play equipment? (If these are impervious surfaces, water will “runoff”
Extension
Discuss if there are any days that they experience a problem with water drainage in their schoolyard?
Talk to the building engineer to find out about problem areas on the schoolyard for flooding to start to get a sense of the impact?
Teacher Support
What evidence of the components of the water cycle can you see?
What forces drive the water cycle?
Students will be able to:
Review the basic four components of the water cycle.
Observe how topography and gravity affect the flow of water.
Google Satellite or Google Earth Map of school, including schoolyard and sidewalk
Tennis Ball
If you want an extension activity, set up a close water cycle in a bottle for students to observe over time.
WATER CYCLE Model:
Clear Water Bottle
Paper Towel
Plastic Cup
Water
Sunny Window
BASIC WORDS: COMPONENT PARTS OF THE NATURAL WATER CYCLE
Condensation (noun)
The part of the water cycle in which a vapor or gas is converted to a liquid
Evaporation (noun)
The process by which liquid changes into vapor.
Infiltration (noun)
The part of the water cycle in which water passes through (a substance) by filtering or permeating or penetrating its pores.
Percolation (noun)
The part of the natural water cycle in which water moves slowly downward through the porous ground
Precipitation (noun)
The part of the natural water cycle in which rain, snow, sleet, or hail falls from the atmosphere to the ground.
Recharge (verb)
The replenishment of an aquifer by the absorption of water.
Stormwater Runoff (noun)
The part of the water cycle in which water flows off the land into the nearest body of water
Transpiration (noun)
The part of the water cycle in which water is absorbed by living things, like plants and trees and evaporates into the atmosphere
Watershed (noun)
The region or area of land that drains into the nearest river or stream or other body of water.
Gravity (noun)
The force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass.
Groundwater (noun)
Water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock.
Hydrology (noun)
A science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on and below the earth’s surface and in the atmosphere.
Surface Water (noun)
Water that collects on the surface of the ground.
Topography (noun)
The study of elevation, or the peaks and valleys of a landscape, and how they affect the flow of water
- Students will describe how water changes from one state to the other and why that is important to understand.
- Students will observe and identify evidence that the interaction between the natural water cycle and the natural watershed depends on gravity and topography everywhere and all the time.