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Topic: Water Cycle Lesson Title: Water Cycle in a Bag – Pre-visit Lesson Plan to the Wetlands Pachinko Exhibit at the Infinity Science Center Grade Level: K-2 Science Domain: Earth and Human Activity Purpose: Students will learn about the water cycle by developing a model in a bag and observing the changes over several days. Students will connect the model of the water cycle with our natural world and learn why it is important to keep our natural water sources clean.

Connecting to the Next Generation Science Standards: 1st Grade Earth’s Place in the Universe standards focuses on the following:

1-ESS1-1. Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted. 1-ESS1-2. Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year. The lesson plans below are written specifically for kindergarten and second grade students, but first graders will be able to connect the sun’s energy as important role in the water cycle through the experiences outlined below. Students who demonstrate understanding can: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.* (K - ESS3-3) The materials/lessons/activities outlined below are intended to help students reach the Performance Expectations listed below.

Performance Expectations:

Connections to Classroom Activity Students:

Science and Engineering Practices Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in K-2 builds on prior experiences and uses observations and texts to communicate new information. • Communicate solutions with others in oral and/or written forms using models and/or drawings that provide details about scientific ideas.

I can communicate to others (teacher, classmates, parents) what I have learned about the water cycle using words and/or pictures.

Disciplinary Core Ideas ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems • Things that people do to live comfortably can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things. ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions • Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solution to other people.

I can ask questions and talk to others about ways in which I will not hurt the land, water, air, and other living things in the world.

(Will be addressed in the “After” lesson)

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project

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Crosscutting Concept Cause and Effect • Events have causes that generate observable patterns.

I can ask questions to learn more about the weather in my world and look for daily patterns.

Students who demonstrate understanding can: Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area. (K-2nd Grade - ESS2-2 Earth’s Systems) The materials/lessons/activities outlined below are intended to help students reach the Performance Expectations listed below.

Performance Expectations:

Connections to Classroom Activity Students:

Science and Engineering Practices Developing and Using Models Modeling in K-2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to include using and developing models (i.e diagram, drawing, physical replica, diorama, dramatization, or storyboard) that represent concrete events or design solutions • Develop a model to represent patterns in the natural world.

I can build a model of the water cycle, observe the changes in the model and make connections to the real world.

Disciplinary Core Idea ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and large-Scale System Interactions • Maps show where things are located. One can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

I can locate a local river, wetland, or lake such as the Pearl River Wetlands and/or Lake Pontchartrain on a map and trace the path of the water to the Gulf of Mexico.

Crosscutting Concept Patterns • Patterns in the natural world can be observed.

I can observe water in a cup and my water cycle bag and compare it to the outside world.

Statement of Learning Objective: The students will use prior experiences and activities in the classroom to describe the water cycle and how people affect the land, water, air, and/or living things in the local environment in positive and negative ways. Common Learner Misconceptions: Students may think: • Water in a cup or open container may be absorbed by the container, changes in the air, disappears, or dries up and goes into the air. (Water in an open container evaporates, changing from a liquid to a gas.) • Condensation is when air turns into a liquid. (Condensation is water vapor in the air that cools enough to become a liquid.) • Water is only evaporated from the ocean, rivers, wetlands or lakes. (Water can be evaporated from animals, plants, puddles, and the soil in addition to bodies of water.)

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project

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Materials: Teacher: Chart paper, markers, tape, and ruler Clear plastic cup and permanent marker For each child: • 1 quart size re-sealable bag • Black permanent marker – may be shared between students • A container with damp potting soil or humus – Fill cups with 4 tablespoons of soil for each student • Small cup with 3 or 4 tablespoons of water • 1 dried lima bean per child – may be purchased at the grocery store • Straws – optional, needed for gently blowing air into the bag before sealing Teacher Preparation: Fill small cups with at least 4 tablespoons of damp soil and set up a distribution center for the students to pick up materials. Vocabulary: Water cycle Soil Sun Energy Condensation Evaporation Accumulation Water vapor Precipitation Safety: Students should be careful when collecting the materials and clean up spills immediately. If students use the straw to blow air into the bag, then remind them to not suck on the straw. Demonstrate with a bag by inserting a straw only partially into a bag and seal the bag around the straw. Blow one gentle puff of air, pull out straw, and seal quickly. If you have any safety concerns with using the straw to blow air into the bag, then discard this idea. There should be enough air inside the bag when the students seal the bag. Adaptations/Accommodations for Exceptional Students: Students with special needs or English Language Learners may need additional support. Assign a peer to help students with the experiences in the classroom. When needed label each of the materials in the experiment with the English word and the student’s native language. Literacy Connections: Books: (Read aloud books and show videos whenever appropriate throughout the unit.) Carle, Eric. 10 Little Rubber Ducks. New York:Harper Collins Publishers, 2005. Print. Lyon, George Ella & Katherine Tillotson. All the Water in the World. New York: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2011. Print. Multimedia: NOAA Trash Talk Videos: http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/discover-issue/trash-talk Trash Talk Videos: There are 6 short videos, designed for World Ocean Day on June 8th, but can be incorporated at the end of the lesson to help students understand the need everyone to do his/her part in taking care of trash and recycling. Website for World Oceans Day http://www.worldoceansday.org/

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project

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5E Instructional Process: Engage: (1 class period, 30 minutes) Activity 1. Hold up a clear plastic cup with water in it and ask, “What’s in my cup? (water) Where does water come from?” (Fill cup ¾ of the way full with water.) 2. Using a permanent maker, draw a line on the cup where the water line is located and write the date. Tell students that we will observe what happens to the water in the cup over the next few days. Measure the water line on the cup with a ruler or depending up the age of the students, use a straw and draw the water line on the straw, record on chart paper with the title, “Cup of Water Experiment.” Ask students what they think will happen to the water in the cup. Will it stay the same or change in some way? (Measure the water in the cup over the next several days, draw a line, date, and compare to the original measurement. The water level will go down, due to water evaporating, which is one important step in the water cycle.) 3. Place a “Do Not Disturb” sign near the cup of water and ask the students to not pick up the cup since it is part of a class experiment. 4. Give each student a sheet of paper and a pencil and ask them to draw a picture of what happens when it rains outside. Ask the students to write down what they happens when it rains outside. 5. The pictures and the explanations will serve as a formative assessment and will help you to determine student’s misconceptions about the water cycle prior to visiting the Infinity Science Center. The students will complete the same task after the lesson. Collect the student work and review after the lesson to determine conceptual understanding of the water cycle. 6. After collecting the student work, display chart paper with the following question: “Where does water come from?” and list the student’s answers. (faucet, clouds, rain, river, lake) 7. Say, “All of the water on earth keeps moving and changing every day. The water in the Pearl River and in other rivers and lakes are constantly moving and changing. How does water change outside? Where does the water go after it rains?” (Students may notice that after it rains, there are puddles, but eventually the puddles go away. Some of the water seeps into the soil, but some water changes into an invisible gas called water vapor.) “Water goes through a cycle. A cycle is something that happens over and over again.” Share examples: seasons, life cycle, students may mention a bicycle, etc. 8. Display a map of your local area or state with rivers, wetlands, lakes, or oceans displayed. Model how the water in a river flows from one place to another. What happens to a river when pollution, such as a trash is thrown in the water? Where does the trash go? Does it affect plants, animals, and the environment? 9. Tell the students we will be going to the Infinity Science Center for a field trip soon and that our experiment will help understand one of the new exhibits called the Wetlands Pachinko Exhibit. 10. End today’s lesson by asking the student’s to think about how plants and animal use water. Guiding Questions • What’s in my cup? Where does water come from? • How does water change outside? • What happens to a water source, such as a river is polluted with trash? • Where does the trash go? • How does trash or pollution affect plants, animals, and the environment?

Explore: Day 2 (30 minutes) Gather materials: For each student: Paper, pencil, resealable quart size bag, water in a cup, dampened soil in a container, paper towels for cleaning up, lima bean seed and a permanent markers in various colors, if available, if not, a black marker will suffice. (Recycle materials whenever possible to reuse again for another activity in the classroom.) Activity 1. Ask, “Yesterday, you drew pictures of what happens when it rains outside. What happens when it rains? What needs to happen outside for it to rain?” (Students should be able to share about clouds, rain, and then usually the sun comes out and the water in the puddles “go away or disappear”. Students may or may not know that they energy from the sun plays an important role

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project

5 in the process of evaporating the water.) 2. “Yesterday, I also asked you to think about how plants and animals use water. What did you discover?” Students may share how plants need water in order to grow and that animal’s drink water just like humans drink water. If plants and animals do not have water then they will evidentially die. 3. Observe the “Water in the Cup” experiment and ask if anything has happened over night. Depending up the temperature in the classroom, the water level may have stayed the same or decreased due to evaporation. Have a student measure the water level, draw a line, and record the measurement on the class chart. 4. “Today we are going to do a water experiment in a bag. Why do we need rain?” (Students may share about plants, animals, and human needing rain.) 5. Set up a student distribution center for students to pick up the necessary materials. Depending upon the age of your students, you may decide to model how to create the experiment or give them the materials and let them decide how best to create the experiment. 6. Directions for the Water Cycle in a Bag: • Students will write their name and date in the upper left hand side of the bag and the date. • Next, they will draw a sun on the top part of the bag where it opens up. If needed, model how to draw the sun on chart paper. (The sun represents the energy needed for plants and animals to live on earth.) • Next, the students will draw clouds and rain drops falling down to the bottom of the bag. (The clouds and rain will represent part of the water cycle.) • Next, students will add a small cup full of damp soil in the bag in the bottom of the bag to represent Earth. (The soil represents the earth and most plants need soil in order to grow.) • Drop the lima bean in the bag, gently cover with damp soil, and pour a small cup of water in the bag to moisten the soil. It should be damp, and not filled with water. (The lima bean will represent plant life.) • Air needs to be inside the bag. If needed students may blow gently in the bag with a straw. Care needs to be taken when blowing in the bag, so soil does not get in anyone’s eyes. (Air is an invisible gas surrounding the earth and is a mixture of mostly oxygen and nitrogen.) • Tape the bags in a sunny spot such as a window. (Radiant energy or light travels from the sun to the earth and passes through the window to the bag. Radiant energy powers the water cycle.) 7. Set up a separate water cycle bag and place small pieces of trash such as plastic and paper in the bag along with the lima bean seed. Tell the students this will be a model of a “Polluted River” bag. Make predictions about what will happen to the trash in the bag and record on chart paper. 8. Clean up desks and Distribution Center Guiding Questions 1. What needs to happen outside in order for it to rain? 2. Why do we need the rain? 3. What happens to trash or pollution in a river? Where does it go?

Explain: (15 – 20 minutes a day for 1- 5 days to measure, and chart changes in cup and bag) Activity 1. Observe, and measure the water in the cup every day with the ruler or the straw. “Is the cup in the water the same, more, or less?” Depending upon the temperature in the classroom, the water in the cup should be decreasing. “Where did the water go? Did someone pour it out? Why or why not?” Ask if the students have observed puddles outside for several days and explain that because of the energy from the sun causes evaporation to occur. When water evaporates it changes from a liquid to an invisible gas called water vapor. It doesn’t just disappear into the sky. 2. Over the course of several days, observe, measure, and record the height of the water in the cup. You may choose to record the height on a class chart or in the student’s notebook.

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project

6 3. Students should also record the changes in their bag hanging in the window. They should begin to see water droplets forming on the inside of the bag and the water droplets will roll down into the soil. Eventually, due to the warmth of the soil from the sun’s energy and the water cycling in the bag, the seed will germinate and begin to sprout. Depending upon the time of the year and a student’s conceptual understanding, use the information from the Explore section in parenthesis to help students understand what is happening in their bag. 4. Record observations of the “Polluted River” bag on the class chart. 5. Students may observe the inside of the bag looking “foggy” this is an example of condensation and is similar to a cloud forming outside. Condensation occurs when a gas changes to a liquid. Guiding Questions 1. Is the cup in the water, the same, more, or less? 2. Where did the water go? 3. Did someone pour it out? Why or why not?

Elaborate: Activity 1. Fully understanding the water cycle and its role in the outside world is often difficult for K-2 students to fully grasp. Providing a model that a student can observe, and record observations helps him or her to develop conceptual understanding of how the inside the bag cycles continuously from liquid, gas to liquid again. Use books and multimedia listed as well as suggestions from your school Media Specialist to help students further their understanding of the water cycle. 2. Introduce the water cycle terms: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, accumulation. With teacher help and modeling a student will begin to understand that water on earth is used over and over and that continuous movement is called the water cycle. 3. Over the course of several days, students may begin to notice that the trash is not changing rapidly. Plastic bags and bottles can take many years to break down and decompose. 4. Discuss ways in which students can be responsible citizens for trash and to recycle at school and home if it is available. Guiding Questions 1. What are the steps in the water cycle? 2. Why is it important to place trash in the right container?

Evaluate: Activity 1. Prior to coming to the Infinity Science Center, ask your students to the same question from the first lesson, “What happens when it rains outside?” Discuss how the water in the cup, from the first lesson was a “model” of the water cycle. What happened to the rain or water inside the cup? We made a small model of the water cycle and at the Infinity Science Center we will see a larger version of a wetland area. 2. Next, draw their attention to the “Water Cycle in a Bag” experiments hanging in the window. What has happened since we started the experiment? Students should seed a lima bean seedling growing in the bag. Ask, “Did we add any more water to the bag after the first day? Listen to student responses and clarify any misconceptions. 3. The water cycled inside the bag and students may have been able to observe condensation, precipitation, and accumulation of water in the bag. Evaporation is an invisible gas, so we are not able to “see” it happen, but condensation is the result of evaporation and then the water cycle begins again. 4. Compare the trash in the “Polluted River” bag and decide if the plastic and paper is decomposing in the bag. “What happens to trash thrown in the lakes, rivers, and wetlands? What can we do to help?” 5. Give each student a new sheet of drawing paper and ask them to draw and explain, “What happens when it rains outside?” Ask the students to use words and pictures in their drawings. 6. Continue to observe the bags and if possible transplant the seedlings in soil. Clean up the bags and dispose of all materials properly.

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project

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Guiding Questions 1. What happens when it rains outside? 2. What happens to trash thrown in the lakes, rivers, and wetlands? What can we do to help?

Ellen Thompson, Science Consultant with Design Force: Infinity Science Center Project