Week 10: Water
Weeks 10, 11, and 12 make up a three-week cycle about water (Hydrophere). Currently, you are in Week A: Teacher As Researcher.

This week, try an activity with your students and analyze what happens. Use the resources listed under Readings, discuss your observations with your teammates, then submit your individual analysis to your Portfolio. Discuss what makes an effective activity with your team and submit a set of criteria to your Portfolio for a grade.

Assignments

Individual: (by midnight Tuesday) Review the Individual Goal and Rubric for your work this week. Read the essential questions and other resources below. Do an activity with your students. Catch a Globe: How Much of Earth Is Covered with Water Evaporating Water: Now You See It, Now You Don't! Freezing Water: Ice is Nice The Proportion of Water on Earth That Is Fresh Post reflections about what students learned from the activity in Teacher as Researcher in the Classroom. Respond to teammates' reflections in Teacher as Researcher in the Classroom. Revisit and revise your criteria for effective concept-building activities in Teacher as Researcher in the Classroom.

Submit your individual observations, reflections and criteria to your Portfolio in the Classroom for a grade.

 

Team: (by midnight Sunday) Review the Team Goal and Rubric for your team's work this week. Revisit and revise your criteria for effective concept-building activities and the learning and teaching strategies that make them work with your teammates in the Teacher as Researcher in the Classroom.

Submit your team criteria with rationale and reflection on the team process to your Portfolio in the Classroom for a grade.

Essential Questions about Water
What do you know about water? What are your key questions? As you do the activities with your students, notice how they address questions like these:

• How does water change?
• How does water move?
• How does life depend on water?
• How does water affect the land?

Readings

1. Earth seems to have a lot of water. In fact, 75% of the planet is covered by water. Since water is everywhere (even in the deserts), and all life requires water to be alive, it can be considered the circulatory system of Earth. Not only is "food" for life on Earth obtained from water, but water also provides the solution to transport nutrients to and within living organisms. The unique characteristics of water as a universal solvent and its behavior when changing states seem almost counter intuitive and even miraculous.

2. Water is deposited on (or moved to) dry land because of the "water cycle." Water is a major contributor to shaping the lithosphere and also provides energy to drive the atmosphere. Further investigation reveals, however, that in spite of this apparent limitless resource, Earth does not really have much water as a percentage of its total volume (a 3-foot diameter model of Earth would have only one cup of water). Thus, water is actually relatively very scarce.

In the National Science Education Standards the methods for developing student understanding are described as they relate to the concept of water:

1. During their early years, children's natural curiosity leads them to explore the world by observing and manipulating common objects and materials in their environment. Children compare, describe, and sort as they begin to form explanations of the world.

2. Developing a subject-matter knowledge base to explain and predict the world requires many experiences over a long period.

3. Young children bring experiences, understanding, and ideas to school; teachers provide opportunities to continue children's explorations in focused settings with other children using simple tools, such as magnifiers and measuring devices.

Web Sites

• The Hydrosphere Defines the spheres: Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere, Geosphere and Anthrosphere
• You will find this site about hydrology information a useful starting point for interesting water resources on the Web.

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