by : Erik J. Shuping Grade: 6th(-8th) Objectives: The comprehensive science students will be able to list all of the five major stages in the water cycle on the evaluation at the end of the lesson. The students will show an understanding of related topics including, clouds, rain patterns, and states of matter on the evaluation at the end of the lesson. The students will explain how the water cycle relates to the scientific disciplines of biology, physics, and earth sciences on the evaluation at the end of the lesson. Sunshine State Standards Covered: The Nature of Matter: Standard 1 (SC.A.1.3): The student understands that all matter has observable, measurable properties. [States of Matter/Water page] Point 1: Identifies various ways in which substances differ (e.g., mass, volume, shape, density, texture, and reaction to temperature and light). [States of Matter/Water page] Point 6: Knows that equal volumes of different substances may have different masses. [States of Matter/Water page, Oceans, Evaporation, and Accumulation pages] Processes that Shape the Earth: Standard 1 (SC.D.1.3): The student recognizes that processes in the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere interact to shape the Earth. [All the five main pages, Specifically the Rain Patterns and Desert Formation page] Point 3: Knows how conditions that exist in one system influence the conditions that exist in other systems. [Rain Patterns and Desert Formation page] How Living Things Interact with Their Environment: Standard 1 (SC.G.1.3): The student understands the competitive, interdependent, cyclic nature of living things in the environment. [Evaporation, Accumulation page] Point 5: Knows that life is maintained by a continuous input of energy from the sun and by the recycling of atoms that make up the molecules of living organisms. [Evaporatin, Rain Patterns and Desert Formation page] Standard 2 (SC.G.2.3): The student understands the consequences of using limited natural resources. [Rain Patterns and Desert Formation page] The Nature of Science: Standard 2 (SC.H.2.3): The student understands that most natural events occur in comprehensible, consistent patterns. [Water Cycle page, the whole lesson] Point 1: Recognizes that patterns exist within and across systems. [Water Cycle page, the whole lesson] |
|
This lesson is intended to introduce the water cycle to the students in a fun, visual, and self-taught fasion. The lesson points out all of the major steps in the water cycle as well as going more in-depth into related topics such as clouds and the physical states of matter, specifically water. The students will be allowed to explore the web pages at their own pace and therefore will be allowed a chance to spend as much time as they need to understand the information presented. It is intended that this lesson be supplemented with other lessons and activities, preferably outside activities, to further explore points not made in the lesson and to reinforce the points that are made. When combined with other activities, this lesson should provide a very good foundation for learning the water cycle. This lesson will also provide a good introduction or reinforcement for other lessons such as the physics of liquids, gasses, and solids. |
This lesson will work best if each student has access to a computer with high-speed internet access. 1.) Have your students open up the main webpage, or do it yourself beforehand. 2.) Explain the buttons and how they work. This will probably not be necessary for most students but at least make sure that your students know that the following words are buttons: Condensation, Precipitation, Accumulation, Oceans, Evaporation, and Evaluation. 3.) Have the students click on the evaluation button and explain the purpose of this page to them. "Please click on the word that says evaluation. This page is very important as it tells you what you should focus on while you are learning about the water cycle on the different pages. This page also provides links to every page in the lesson in one convenient location. Pay attention to what is said for all the different pages, if something is mentioned here, it will be on your exam." This page also has a link to download a sample exam, I suggest downloading and copying the exam well beforehand. 4.) Go back to the main page and give your students a quick tour of the pages in the lesson. You can start on any link you like, just make sure that you emphasize to your students that there is no proper beginning or end the water cycle and they should explore it on their own in any order that they wish. -Condensation= "Click on the Condensation button. Scroll down to the bottom. On the bottom of every page is a link to the main page titled home. Click on that to go back to the water cycle page. Scroll back up. Now notice that you can directly link to certain other pages that aren't the main page. Also notice that not all the other pages are linked. There is a reason for this and I want you to think about why these pages are linked but others are not. Some of the words on the page are white. These are important words or terms that you need to be able to define and answer questions about on the exam. Finally notice that there is a link to clouds. This link is not available on the main page because it is not one of the 5 categories directly involved in the water cycle. It is still a part of the water cycle and so it is linked here where it is most appropriate. Click on the clouds link now please." -Clouds= "As you can see, this page has more white terms to learn and it is more specific in scope than the previous page. All of the side pages, Clouds, Rain Patterns and Desert Formation, and The States of Water, will be more information intensive than the others so spend more time with these pages. Also be sure to check the evaluation page to see what you should be concentrating on. Now from here, notice that you can go to the precipitation page. Click on this link please." Continue on in this fashion until you have introduced all of the major pages. It is not intended for you to read these pages with your students or point out the important terms or lessons on each page, that's for the students to do themselves. 5.) After the students can properly navigate the website, allow them time to explore the lesson on their own while you're there to help them with any questions that arise. 6.) I suggest giving them the rest of the class period if you're on a 50 minute schedule. They should hopefully have had enough time to see the entire lesson in this remaining time. The next day, teach another lesson, preferable an outdoor activity, about the water cycle. This will help to reinforce what they saw the last time. 7.) After the other activity, use the third class period to give your students a chance to re-examine the material and then in the last 30 minutes give them the exam. |