Teaching About the Hydrosphere by Clay Cotey, Washington Middle School

Target Audience: This unit was developed for an 8th grade science class however would be appropriate from 6-9 grades depending upon local curricula.

Unit Overview: The goal of this unit is to provide an introduction to the Earth’s hydrologic system including the cycling of water in the atmosphere and the movement of water on the surface of the planet using the Great Lakes watershed as an example. This will lay the foundation for the next unit which is Human Impacts on the Environment. The unit includes five days of instruction and one day for reviewing and administering final quiz evaluation.

Sources Consulted: Col, Jeananda. Enchanted Learning. http://www.EnchantedLearning.com 1996 Holling, Holling Clancy. Paddle to the Sea. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA. Izaak Walton League of America. 1995. Hands On Save Our Streams: The Save Our Streams Teacher’s Manual for Grades One through Twelve. Gaithersburg, MD. Lake Superior Center. 1996. Lake Effects: The Lake Superior Curriculum Guide. Duluth, MN. U.S. EPA and Government of Canada. 1995. The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book. USGS Water Science for Schools. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleguess.html. 2004 Western Regional Environmental Education Council. 1987. Aquatic Project WILD. Boulder, CO.

Objectives: Upon completion of this unit, the student will be able to: 1. Diagram the water cycle identifying the phase changes involved. 2. Identify the relative scarcity of surface freshwater on Earth 3. Trace the flow of water from the school yard to the ocean. 4. List five ways humans use the Great Lakes.

Michigan Content Standards Science V.2.MS.1 Use maps of the Earth to locate water in its various forms and describe conditions under which they exist. V.2.MS.2 Describe how surface water in Michigan reaches oceans and returns. V.2.HS.1 Identify and describe regional watersheds V.3 MS.3 Explain the behavior of water in the atmosphere. Mathematics II.3.2 Continue to make and apply measurements of length, mass, time, temperature, Area, volume, angle; classify objects according to their dimensions. II.3.6 Apply measurement to describe the real world and to solve problems. III.1.1 Collect and explore data through observations, surveys, measurement, sampling techniques and simulations. III.1.2 Organize data using tables, charts, graphs, spreadsheets and data bases.

Teaching Unit Day One: Water on Earth Terms: atmosphere, ground water, surface water, fresh water, saltwater, glacier The Earth is called the Water Planet because it is the only known place in the universe where water can exist in all three phases. From space it even looks blue since 2/3 of the surface is covered by water. This would give us the idea (especially living in the Great Lake State) that water is plentiful. In reality, more than 99% of all of that water is unavailable or unsuitable for many human uses. This demonstration shows the relative scarcity of fresh surface water (lakes, rivers, and streams). It is adapted from Save our Streams p.10-15. 1. Have students brainstorm the locations that water is found on the planet. Write their answers on the board. Cluster their answers by categories. Salt Water Oceans

/ Ground Water

Fresh Water Æ Glaciers I \ Surface Atmospheric Water Water Lakes Clouds Rivers Water Vapor Streams

2. Fill a five gallon bucket with water. Explain to the class that this represents all of the water on Planet Earth. Ask a student to remove all of the fresh water on the planet (about 2 cups). Explain that the remaining water is salt water in the oceans and is not available for our use. From those 2 cups of freshwater ask a student to pour out all of the unfrozen fresh water on Earth (1/2 cup). Explain that the rest of the fresh water is locked up frozen in glaciers and not available for our use. Finally, from the ½ cup of unfrozen fresh water remove all of the unfrozen fresh surface water (a single drop). The remainder of the ½ cup represents water underground and in the atmosphere which is predominantly unavailable for human use. That single drop is the relative amount of fresh surface water on Earth including all lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers. 3. Oral Quiz Questions (5 point) 1. Why is most of the water on the planet unfit for drinking? 2. Of the fresh water on the planet, where is most of it? 3. If five gallons represented all of the water on Earth, how much of it would be fresh surface water in lakes, rivers, and streams? 4. Explain why it is important to understand how scarce fresh surface water is here on Earth. (2 points) Day Two: Life of a Water Molecule Terms: phase change, physical change, evaporation, water vapor, condensation, clouds, precipitation, rain, snow, runoff, ground water, transpiration. 1. Guide the students in a discussion while diagramming the water cycle on the board. Picture Lake Superior on a nice warm day. What is happening to some of the water? (Evaporating) This evaporated water is called water vapor, single molecules breaking free from the surface with the help of the sun’s energy. We can’t see them but they are floating around everywhere. Remember those humid days last summer – there was even more water vapor in the air then. They are still the same water molecules only now they are in the gas form instead of liquid. It is still H2O but has undergone a physical change. What happens when this rises up in the sky and cools off? (makes a cloud). Water vapor condenses, another phase change, when it cools off. What happens when even more vapor condenses? (It rains) When too many molecules condense on the water droplet it no longer can float and gravity pulls it to the Earth as some form of precipitation, either rain, snow, sleet, or hail. Precipitation that falls and strikes the Earth could do two things, what are they? (Soak into the ground or run off the ground into a stream) Water the soaks in we call ground water and water that runs off we call run off. Eventually runoff reaches other bodies of water where it may be evaporated back into the air. What might happen to water in the ground? ( Get taken up by plants or a well) Some of the water taken up by plants gets used for photosynthesis and some evaporates from their leaves. This is called transpiration. 2. Life Story of a Water Molecule. Students will write the fictional story of the life of a water molecule as it goes through its many changes. The adventure should

follow the general form of the water cycle and must include ten of the terms above used appropriately. Length will be 150 words minimum. Day Three: Where does Water go After School Terms: area, volume, runoff, impermeable surface. This activity is adapted from Aquatic Project WILD p. 75-78. Students measure the dimensions of the school ground and use these to calculate the area. The area is then used to calculate the incredible volume of water that falls during a single storm. Students will then use a topographic map to identify the watershed and path of runoff to Lake Superior. Rainfall is one of the ways that water returns to the Earth and reenters our habitat. Especially in highland areas, few people ever realize the tremendous volume of water that is produced by a single rain event. Upon striking the Earth this water has to either soak in or runoff. Water that soaks in recharges our ground water. If we look around we see more and more surfaces that water can’t soak into, these are called impermeable surfaces and will be discussed in the next unit – Human Impact on the Environment. Water that runs off the schoolyard, buildings, parking lots, playgrounds, sidewalks, and lawn picks up chemicals, sediments, and nutrients on its way downhill. Water always flows downhill. This may lead it to a ditch which empties into a creek which empties into a river eventually ending up in Lake Superior. 1. In groups of four, students go outside and map the dimensions of the school yard in meters. Make a sketch of the grounds with the distances written on it. We will use this for calculations when we get back inside. 2. Calculate the Area of the school grounds. Area= length X width (for rectangles) Students must show their calculations on paper including the formula. A=LxW= 3. Calculate the volume of rain that fell during last Sunday’s rain event Volume =length X width X height or Volume = Area X height The school’s rain gauge recorded that we received 3 cm of rainfall (or .03 m) So Volume = Area X .03m To give you an idea of how much water that is: This room has a volume of 360 cubic meters. How many times could that Single rain event fill up this room? 4. Where does all that water go? It can’t soak into the building, parking lots, or sidewalk: These are all impermeable. Use the topographic maps to follow the water downhill to the nearest body of water. Follow this to Lake Superior. List all of the bodies of water that the school’s runoff travels through on its way to Lake Superior.

5. Homework Assignment: Sketch a map of your yard at home and measure your yards dimensions. Make your measurements in feet if you do not have a meter stick. Calculate the area like we did in class. Our area gets an average of 34 inches (0.86 meters) of rainfall each year. What is the volume of water that falls on your yard? Look on a map to find the path that water from your yard takes to Lake Superior. List the bodies of water along this path. Day Four: Paddle to the Sea Give each student a page of the book Paddle to the Sea. Instruct them to read the page to themselves and be ready to give the class a summary of their page. Have the students tell their summaries and assist them in placing a pin flag in the appropriate location to mark their segment of the journey on a map of the Great Lakes region. They should also tell the class what human uses of water were identified in their leg of the journey. When all students have presented, show the video version to the class. Day Five: Graphing Great Lakes Data 1. Instruct students to construct a graph of the surface elevations of the five Great Lakes on graph paper. Then on the same sheet they will graph the maximum depths of each lake. Remember to subtract the maximum depth from the surface elevation to find the graph point for maximum depth. This is somewhat confusing because they will be graphing negative, meaning below sea level numbers. Also graph the average depths of each of the Lakes. This graph is best described as a floating bar graph and is meant to approximate the depth profile of the Great Lakes System similar to Lake Effects p. 45. Depth data can be obtained from The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book p. 4 or Lake Effects p. 215. 2. Using maps posted around the room guide the students to finding the name of the water bodies that connect the Great Lakes and lead eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. Connect the bars on the graph with lines representing these water bodies. Label these lines with the names of the appropriate river, lake, or canal. 3. Complete these graph analysis questions: 1. What surprises do you notice concerning the depths of the lakes? 2. Which Lake probably has the largest volume? 3. Some people consider Lake Huron and Lake Michigan to be all one big lake. Why might they think this? 4. Which lake do you think would take the longest to get polluted? The shortest? 5. From Lake Superior to Lake Huron the water drops 27 feet. How can ore boats make the “drop”? 6. What is the big drop between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario? How do boats make it by that obstruction? Day 6 Answer any review questions the students have, then administer the quiz.

Name______________

Introduction to Water Quiz

The URL for this page is http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleguess.html

Write the term that should be used to label each of these locations on the diagram above: 1. H- _____________________ 2. L- _____________________ 3. K- _____________________hint: evaporation from plants 4. B- _____________________ 5. J- ______________________ 6. E- ______________________ Study the diagram above to answer these questions. 7. What state or phase is water in at G? 8. What phase or state is water in at I? 9. What is the phase change between G and I? 10. What is the phase change between I and B?

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/greatlakes.shtml On the Great Lakes Map above complete the following tasks: 11. Place a star where you are on the map. 12. Draw an arrow from where you are along the path that water takes to the Atlantic Ocean. 13. Label the St. Marie’s River. 14. Label the Detroit River. 15. Label the Niagra River. Answer these questions using your knowledge about the Great Lakes. 16. Which Great Lake is the deepest? 17. Which Great Lake is the largest? 18. Which Great Lake is not on the Canadian border? 19. Which Great Lake is the shallowest? Name five different ways humans use Great Lakes water? 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Why is it important so protect fresh water lakes and streams?

Overall Assessment A variety of assessment tools are used to benefit a variety of learning styles. Daily measurement of student understanding is used to provide reinforcement and encourage review of instruction. Assessment items previously listed include: Day 1: Oral Quiz (5 points) Day 2: Life Story of a Water Molecule (10 points) Day 3: Where does Water go After School homework (10 points) Day 4: Oral Summary (ungraded) Day 5: Graph and Graph Analysis Questions (15 points) Day 6: Unit Quiz (25 points)