Water Ya Know About Dat?

Summary:This lesson can be used as a follow-up to the "Water Project" lesson or can stand independently.

There are 4 sets of questions which accompany a reading about water. While all students read the same text, each student answers a different question set. Students are placed in groups of 4, with each of the 4 sets of questions represented. The group then completes a set of synthesis questions which require draw upon all 4 sets of questions.

Category: cooperative learning, reading activity

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will master the following terms as they relate to water: polarity, surface tension, capillary attraction, solubility, density.
2. Students will describe the relationship between polarity and 3 properties of water (surface tension, capillary attraction, solubility)
3. Students will describe the relationship between density and phase changes in water.
4. Students will construct a concept map summarizing 5 properties of water (surface tension, capillary attraction, solubility, phase changes, density)

Materials:

• One copy of the Reading Seminar hand-out for each student (Appendix A)
• Deck of playing cards.

Sequence and duration of each part of lesson:
Duration: 1 - 1.5 class periods (Depending if Individual Questions are completed in class or are assigned as homework.)

Sequence: If this lesson is being used independently, students will determine their "specialty" area in one of 4 topics, based upon the card they choose randomly when the groups are being made.

If being used in conjunction with the Water Project lesson, students will have previously selected and studied one of the following topics: surface tension, capillary attraction, solubility, phase changes, or density. Having completed a project on one of the five properties of water studied, each student will be considered a "specialist" in his/her project subject. To reduce the number of specialists, solubility and phase changes will be combined into one subject area. Students will be placed in groups of 4, with each subject represented by one specialist. That is to say, a group will consist of one person who did their project on surface tension, another who did capillary attraction, a third who studied either solubility or phase changes, and a fourth who did their project on density.

To make the groups, use a deck of playing cards. After putting the cards in order, reduce the size of the deck so that there is one card per student; one quarter of the cards should come from each suit and the same numbers should be represented in each suit. For example, if there are 32 students in the class, the reduced deck will consist of the ace through 8 of each suit. Each suit will represent one of the specialty subject areas (surface tension=spades, capillary attraction=hearts, solubility/phase changes=diamonds, density=clubs)

If using this lesson plan independent of the "Water Projects" lesson, students simply select a card randomly from the reduced deck. The suit of their card reveals the set of questions they will answer independently. The number of their card is their group number.

If using this lesson in conjunction with the Water Projects lesson, students select a card randomly from the suit which represents the topic about which they wrote their Water Project. For example, all the surface tension specialists will randomly select a "spade" card. All the capillary attraction specialists will select a "diamond" card and so on. To assemble the groups, use the number of the cards as the group numbers. This will ensure groups of 4 with all 4 specialty subject areas represented.

After completing the reading independently (Appendix A), students will answer the individual questions that correspond to their specialty subject area on the Reading Seminar Student Worksheet (Appendix B). Students will then share the information about their subject area with the rest of their group. The group will answer the "Group Questions" together and create a concept map. See Appendix C for a sample concept map.

Evaluation: Evaluation is based on the Reading Seminar Student Worksheet (Appendix B)

Related Resources

Liem, Tik. Invitations to Science Inquiry, 2nd edition, Science Inquiry Enterprises, Chino Hills, CA: 1987.