Lesson 1: The Water Cycle

“How are clouds made?” “Where does water come from?” “What makes the rain?” Young students are naturally curious about water. Your students, however, will most likely have studied the hydrologic cycle before. If your class thinks this lesson is too simple, just tell them it is a review lesson. Let them show you how much they already know!

1. Have students read Lesson 1.

2. Ask discussion questions:

• Why do we say that the same water has been used “from one generation to the next”?
• How much of the Earth is covered by water? (Use a globe to show the large amount of water covering the Earth.)
• Is there really enough water?
• What could happen if water didn’t evaporate?
• What causes water vapor to condense?
• What would happen if water didn’t fall back to Earth?
• Name four forms water can take as it falls back to the Earth’s surface.
• Where does the water go when it falls from the sky?
• Does the water cycle ever stop or take a break? What would happen if it did?

3. Discuss the diagram of the water cycle. Discuss the concept of a “cross-section” illustration. Compare it to a layer cake. Explain that cross sections will be used throughout WaterWays to show areas underground that we normally couldn’t see.

4. Have students look up “aquifer” in the glossary. Explain that aquifers will be covered in more detail in a later WaterWays lesson.

5. Have students read and discuss the “Imagine that!” box. (Use the last question in the box for an optional creative writing assignment.)

FCAT-style questions based on the content of Lesson 1 have been prepared to assist students in preparing for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

• Lesson 1 FCAT-Style Questions
• FCAT Reading Rubric
• Sample Responses

1. Ask students to shut off their monitors. Pass out drawing paper.

2. Have students draw an illustration of the water cycle with arrows showing the path water takes through the cycle. Ask them to label condensation, precipitation, evaporation, percolation and the aquifer.

3. FCAT-Style Questions, Lesson 1 Online Quiz or Lesson 1 Quiz worksheets may be used.*

Special note about cooperative groups:

Many of the experiments in WaterWays work best if carried out in small groups. Most experiments pages ask that you divide your class into cooperative groups. Each group should have three to five members who are assigned specific tasks to accomplish as part of the team. Listed below are some suggestions for specific job titles and descriptions.

• The group reader is responsible for reading instructions orally to the group, one step at a time.
• The materials handler gathers needed supplies and brings them to the experiment area.
• The materials measurer measures the materials as stated in the experiment.
• The group recorder records any information on charts, as needed.
• The group speaker shares the results during class discussion and asks the teacher any questions that come up during the experiment.
• The group manager checks to be sure that everyone else is doing their job and also supervises group cleanup.

Various “assistants” can be assigned as needed in order to give each child a specific job. Be sure to use the titles consistently throughout the WaterWays program so time can be spent completing the experiment rather than explaining tasks. Students soon learn what to expect with each job title. Also, be sure students change “jobs” with each experiment so they can learn all tasks.

Every member of the group must work with any and all questions that may come up before asking the teacher for help.

1. Many of your students may have made terrariums before. You can have the class make one terrarium, or you can divide the students into cooperative groups, with each group building a terrarium or each student constructing their own. (If you have several terrariums, you can place them in different locations around the room and examine what happens in each one. If each student has their own, the students can take their terrariums home and watch what happens there.)

2. Have students read Let’s build a terrarium in Lesson 1 Experiments.

3. Have each student begin the Make A Prediction lab report worksheet.

4. Have students complete the terrarium experiment and answer the “What do you think?” questions. (Some types of 2-liter soda bottles may be used for this experiment. Remove the black part on the bottom, cut off the top of the bottle, put the gravel, soil and plants in the black base, water the plants and then invert the clear plastic dome over the plants to complete the terrarium.)

5. Have students complete the Make A Prediction lab report worksheets and discuss.

6. Read and discuss “Make a difference!”

7. Do the extra activity “Where does the water go?” as a class experiment or assign it as homework.

Use every activity and experiment in WaterWays as an opportunity for learning something, even if it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted! Try to determine what happened, and remind your students that this is what scientists do. Explain that sometimes scientists conduct the same experiment over and over again. They will change one part of the experiment each time in search of an answer to a problem. We recommend that you try each experiment before using the experiment with your class.

Answers for the FCAT-style questions and the online and offline quizzes can be downloaded at answers.html. The quiz answer keys are password-protected. You can obtain the password by registering via a short form.