Water, Water Everywhere
06 Water, Water Everywhere
5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, and polar ice caps, and does not include the atmosphere.]
Before: You may do this activity as a demonstration or as an experience for students. You will need an apple for each person involved. If students are to cut the apples, provide good quality plastic knives. Get approval before having students use knives. You may wish to prepare a slideshow with pictures of the places where water can be stored. Prepare copies of the Graphing Water handout. The hundredths circle in this document was retrieved from http://www.eworkshop.on.ca/edu/pdf/Mod27_template_hundredths_circle.pdf. Colored pencils or similar will be useful in this activity.
Seek: Show the globe and the apple. Explain that the apple represents the surface of the Earth in this simulation. Have students describe what the Earth’s surface looks like. Think about all the ways you use water. How much water do you think is available on the Earth for us to use?
Try: Cut the apple in half and then one half into fourths. Set aside three of the fourths and explain/elicit that this represents ocean water. Since the ocean is salty, we cannot drink it, and a great deal of energy is needed to remove the salt and make it drinkable.
The remaining quarter is land. One half of this piece (⅛ of the total apple) is uninhabitable - too dry, wet, cold, or hot for people to live. Set it aside.
Cut the remaining ⅛ of the apple into four equal pieces. Take one of these pieces (1/32) and explain that this represents the amount of land used to grow food for the entire world’s population.
Cut off a tiny slice of the 1/32. This represents the drinkable water, about 0.03% (three hundredths of one percent) of the Earth’s surface.
Expand: What does this tell us about the availability of drinkable water on Earth? Explain that the next activity will delve more deeply into where water can be found on Earth.
Seek: Call students’ attention to the ¾ and tiny slice more that represented water in the Apple Earth simulation. Now we are going to graph how much of the world’s total water is found in various places. Where do you think we can find water on Earth? Look at the globe and name the hydrosphere as all the water on Earth, from hydros - water.
Try: Have students use the Graphing Water handout to graph the relative percentages of salt water, ice, and fresh water on the Earth. Encourage them to use representative colors/pictures to decorate their graphs.
Expand: Use student graphs and the resource at http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.waterdist/global-water-distribution/ to discuss implications, such as needing to keep fresh water clean and how important ocean health is for our planet.
Make Connections: Have students reflect in pictures and words.
Extension Lesson: Moving Water Cycle
Before: This requires preparation ahead of time. For each of the categories of instruction slips, tape an appropriate label to a cup or similar. Cut apart the instruction slips and put them in their cups. Place the cups all around the room, in places where they will be easily accessible to students. Moving Water Cycle materials
Seek: Do you remember the water cycle? Elicit ideas from students and show the Scholastic Study Jams video: http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/ecosystems/water-cycle.htm.
Try: Explain to students that they are going to be water molecules go through the water cycle. Divide students into groups so that there are approximately the same number of students starting at each cup. (They will not stay in these groups, however.)
Students should draw a slip of paper from the cup where they are standing, read it, put it back, then follow the instructions on the slip. Sometimes the slip will direct them to another location; other times they are to stay at the same cup.
After completing the instructions on one slip, students should draw another.
Allow the process to continue for about 10 minutes. All students may not visit all categories in that time, however.
Expand: Discuss students’ experiences. Where did they spend the most time? Did they go to some cups more than others? How does this relate to what they’ve learned before about the water cycle?
Show the interactive poster at http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle-kids-int.html.
Make Connections: Why is water essential to life on Earth? Why is the water cycle important?
Extend: Students might make a comic strip showing the adventures of a water molecule.
5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, and polar ice caps, and does not include the atmosphere.]
- Most of the Earth’s surface is water.
- Most of this water is found in oceans or ice (glaciers or ice caps).
- Only a very small amount of the water on Earth is clean and fresh for us to drink, irrigate, etc.
- All water on earth is recycled through the water cycle.
- Graphs and charts can be used to analyze information.
Before: You may do this activity as a demonstration or as an experience for students. You will need an apple for each person involved. If students are to cut the apples, provide good quality plastic knives. Get approval before having students use knives. You may wish to prepare a slideshow with pictures of the places where water can be stored. Prepare copies of the Graphing Water handout. The hundredths circle in this document was retrieved from http://www.eworkshop.on.ca/edu/pdf/Mod27_template_hundredths_circle.pdf. Colored pencils or similar will be useful in this activity.
Seek: Show the globe and the apple. Explain that the apple represents the surface of the Earth in this simulation. Have students describe what the Earth’s surface looks like. Think about all the ways you use water. How much water do you think is available on the Earth for us to use?
Try: Cut the apple in half and then one half into fourths. Set aside three of the fourths and explain/elicit that this represents ocean water. Since the ocean is salty, we cannot drink it, and a great deal of energy is needed to remove the salt and make it drinkable.
The remaining quarter is land. One half of this piece (⅛ of the total apple) is uninhabitable - too dry, wet, cold, or hot for people to live. Set it aside.
Cut the remaining ⅛ of the apple into four equal pieces. Take one of these pieces (1/32) and explain that this represents the amount of land used to grow food for the entire world’s population.
Cut off a tiny slice of the 1/32. This represents the drinkable water, about 0.03% (three hundredths of one percent) of the Earth’s surface.
Expand: What does this tell us about the availability of drinkable water on Earth? Explain that the next activity will delve more deeply into where water can be found on Earth.
Seek: Call students’ attention to the ¾ and tiny slice more that represented water in the Apple Earth simulation. Now we are going to graph how much of the world’s total water is found in various places. Where do you think we can find water on Earth? Look at the globe and name the hydrosphere as all the water on Earth, from hydros - water.
Try: Have students use the Graphing Water handout to graph the relative percentages of salt water, ice, and fresh water on the Earth. Encourage them to use representative colors/pictures to decorate their graphs.
Expand: Use student graphs and the resource at http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys.waterdist/global-water-distribution/ to discuss implications, such as needing to keep fresh water clean and how important ocean health is for our planet.
Make Connections: Have students reflect in pictures and words.
Extension Lesson: Moving Water Cycle
Before: This requires preparation ahead of time. For each of the categories of instruction slips, tape an appropriate label to a cup or similar. Cut apart the instruction slips and put them in their cups. Place the cups all around the room, in places where they will be easily accessible to students. Moving Water Cycle materials
Seek: Do you remember the water cycle? Elicit ideas from students and show the Scholastic Study Jams video: http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/ecosystems/water-cycle.htm.
Try: Explain to students that they are going to be water molecules go through the water cycle. Divide students into groups so that there are approximately the same number of students starting at each cup. (They will not stay in these groups, however.)
Students should draw a slip of paper from the cup where they are standing, read it, put it back, then follow the instructions on the slip. Sometimes the slip will direct them to another location; other times they are to stay at the same cup.
After completing the instructions on one slip, students should draw another.
Allow the process to continue for about 10 minutes. All students may not visit all categories in that time, however.
Expand: Discuss students’ experiences. Where did they spend the most time? Did they go to some cups more than others? How does this relate to what they’ve learned before about the water cycle?
Show the interactive poster at http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle-kids-int.html.
Make Connections: Why is water essential to life on Earth? Why is the water cycle important?
Extend: Students might make a comic strip showing the adventures of a water molecule.