Activity Template Subject Area(s) Associated Unit Associated Lesson Activity Title Header Science and Technology The Water Cycle Water City Image 1 ADA Description: Graphic of rain Drop Caption: none Image file name: Source/Rights: Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved. Grade Level 5 (4-6) Time Required ~ 5-7 days (you will need one to two days to teach the concent of the water cycle. You will need one day to show the students how to use the SimCity program. You will need one to two days to allow the students to plan and build in the SimCity program. You will need one day to allow for the students to present their piece of land to the class. ) Group Size 2 Expendable Cost per Group $20 to purchase the SimCity game for the computers Summary Students will learn about the processes of the water cycle. Students will then use SimCity to plan, design, and construct a city that would be optimal for the water cycle to work. The students will use their knowledge of what they have learned in order to do this. Once their SimCity is built, the students will present their piece of land to the class. Through out the construction of the land, the teacher should be monitoring students to make sure they are on task and producing meaningful work. The students will be assessed on how well they incorporated landforms that would aid in the water cycle. They will also be assessed on how well they can explain how this piece of land can but used during civil engineering construction. Engineering Connection When civil engineers are chosen to design a new building, housing development, or any other structure they need to keep in-mind the water cycle. They need to make sure they are already not destroying what is already there to help the water cycle carry through, or they might need to build something to help the water cycle carry through such as a man-made lake. Engineering Category
(1) Relates science concepts to engineering (3) provides engineering analysis or partial design Keywords Condensation, design, evaporation, infiltration, precipitation, runoff, SimCity, transpiration, water cycle Educational Standards NJCCCS o 5.4.C.1 - Select a technological problem and describe the criteria and constraints that are addressed in solving the problem. o 5.8.B.2 - Describe and illustrate the water cycle o 5.10.B - Human Interactions and Impact o 8.2.A.2 - Describe how components of a technological product, system, or environment interact. o 8.2.C.2 - Explain reasons why human-designed systems, products, and environments need to be monitored, maintained, and improved to ensure safety, quality, cost efficiency, and sustainability. Pre-Requisite Knowledge Students should be familiar with landforms and what is required in order to complete a design and make assignment. Learning Objectives After this activity, students should be able to: Identify the parts that make up the water cycle Use SimCity appropriately with little to no help from the teacher Explain how certain structures can effect the water cycle and how it can be changed Design an optimal city for the water cycle to carry out optimally Materials List Each group needs: SimCity Introduction / Motivation You have a few options depending on what the weather is like outside, so take your pick and choose what you believe will work best with your students and the resources you have. Option 1 (Cloudy Day) Take your students outside and walk around the school grounds. As you are walking with your class, have the students observe their surroundings and the feel of the atmosphere. Make sure the students are also looking up into the sky. Ask: What do you notice about the clouds and the sky?
Possible answers: (clouds are big, clouds look full, sky is dark, sky is grey) remember you never want to make a student feel like their answer is wrong, for this is just the beginning of the lesson and the students don t know all the answers yet. If I student gives an answer that you don t necessarily agree with ask: And why do you think/say that? Next you want to ask: How does the atmosphere/air feel? Possible answers: (cold, wet, damp, etc). After a few answers have been given ask the students: What do you think might happen in the next day or so? Most likely the students will answer they think its going to rain, some might have even seen a weekly forecast and know it is going to rain. Next ask: Do you think that the trees, grass, road, ground, soil, etc have any relation to the rain falling from the clouds? When students answer yes or no, make sure to ask them why they think yes or no. This is the perfect opportunity to assess your student s prior knowledge of the water cycle. Next you will want to tell your students: Today we are going to learn about the water cycle, how many of you have heard of the water cycle? (some might raise their hands) Before we being to learn about what makes up the water cycle, I want to head back inside and show you a video that will help you gain some background knowledge about the water cycle. Take the class inside and watch Bill Nye the Science Guy s video Water Cycle Jump. This video can be accessed via YouTube if your school does not have the video on hand and is only 1 min and 30 seconds. Once the class is settled. Before you press play tell the students: As you watch the video I would like for you to write down any words that you hear that you think are important and we will share with the class after the video is over. Option 2 (Can be done on any weather type day) Have the students close their eyes. Say: Think about a rainy day. What happens when it rains? How does the temperature feel outside? What do you see? Think about what happens before it rains. What does the temperature/atmosphere feel like? What do you see? How do the clouds look? Think about what happens the next day after it rains. What does the temperature/atmosphere feel like? What do you see? How do the clouds look? Give the students a few minutes to think about everything. Also make sure you give them time to think about when it rains before you ask them to think about before it rains and the same for after it rains. After a few minutes have past and the students have had enough time to think say: Open your eyes. Who can share with me what they saw? You might want to right some responses on the board. Also tell the students: If one of your classmates saw something you saw, just quietly raise your hand so I know you saw the same thing. This is the perfect opportunity to assess your student s prior knowledge of the water cycle.
Next you will want to tell your students: Today we are going to learn about the water cycle, how many of you have heard of the water cycle? (Some might raise their hands) Before we being to learn about what makes up the water cycle, I want to show you a video that will help you gain some background knowledge about the water cycle. Have the class watch Bill Nye the Science Guy s video Water Cycle Jump. This video can be accessed via YouTube if your school does not have the video on hand and is only 1 min and 30 seconds. Once the class is settled. Before you press play tell the students: As you watch the video I would like for you to write down any words that you hear that you think are important and we will share with the class after the video is over. Vocabulary / Definitions Word Definition Condensation The opposite of evaporation. Condensation occurs when a gas is changed into a liquid. Infiltration An important process where rain water soaks into the ground, through the soil and underlying rock layers. Runoff Much of the water that returns to Earth as precipitation runs off the surface of the land, and flows down hill into streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes. Evaporation The process where a liquid, in this case water, changes from its liquid state to a gaseous state. Precipitation When the temperature and atmosphere pressure are right, the small droplets of water in the clouds form larger droplets and precipitation occurs. The raindrops fall to earth. Transpiration As plants absorb water from the soil, the water moves from the roots through the stems to the leaves. Once the water reaches the leaves, some of it evaporates from the leaves, adding to the amount of water vapor in the air. This process of evaporation through plant leaves in classed transpiration. Procedure Background In order to complete this lesson and activity you need to be familiar with the water cycle. The water cycle is going to be taught before the activity is done, so it is important to know the water cycle very well. You will be able to obtain some knowledge by reading the lesson plan, but I recommend doing some further research. In oder to complete the lesson activity (SimCity) you need to have background knowledge on different land forms. You will need to know how to use SimCity. If you are good with technology, this should not take you very long. You want to make sure you know how to use the program well because you need to show the kids how to use the parts of the program they will need to design and build their piece of land. You should also be familiar with the design and make aspect of technology and familiar with the design loop. Students will be using these two aspects of technology education in order to complete their SimCity creation and their model of their SimCity.
Before the Activity Make copies of any supplement worksheets provided. Have SimCity installed on the computers in the computer lab. With the Students 1. Pass out the water cycle fill in the blank worksheet and the water cycle vocabulary worksheet. 2. Go over the water cycle with the students explain each step. Have the students fill in the definition of each aspect of the water cycle on their vocabulary worksheet. Also have the students fill in the word on their fill in the black worksheet. Make sure you explain what happens at each step. Also make sure you explain parts of land that aid in each aspect. For example a lake helps aid in evaporation and hills would help with runoff and the collection of the land. 3. If you have a computer available in your classroom you can show the class Thristin s Water Cycle. It is an animated explanation of what happens during the water cycle (http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html) 4. Pass out the second fill in the black worksheet for the water cycle. Have the students compete it independently. You can use this sheet as an assessment to evaluate their understanding of the water cycle before beginning the SimCity activity. 5. Go over with the class how civil engineers have to consider the water cycle when constructing something such as a building or a housing development. 6. Have the class explain to you how when building something it is important to consider the water cycle. Also have the class explain what would be needed in the surrounding area in order for the water cycle to carry out. 7. Split the class into their groups of two. Use your teacher discretion. They can either pick their partner or the teacher can assign partners. Do what works best with your class dynamics. 8. Explain to the class that over the next few days they will be using a program called SimCity to build a piece of land that would allow for the water cycle to work best. Inform the students that you will be grading them on how well their piece of land would allow for the water cycle to work best. Also tell the class that they will be presenting their piece of land to the class and how their piece of land would allow for the water cycle to happen when a civil engineer comes to construct something on that piece of land. 9. Take the class down to the computer lab and have them sit at a computer next to their partner. 10. Once the students are seated remind them of the computer lab safety and they are not to be using any other program besides SimCity. 11. Have the students open the SimCity program. 12. Go over the SimCity program with the students. Show them the different aspects of the program and how everything works. For this part of the activity let each student work on a computer so they can get familiar with the program. When it comes time to build their piece of land with their partner they will only need one computer. 13. Students will get at one computer with their partner and being to design and build their piece of land. 14. As the students are working walk around and check on their progress. Make sure they are including things that would help in aiding the water cycle. Ask the students
why they are including certain things into their design. This is another way you can assess your students understanding of the water cycle. 15. If a group finishes and they have time they may add buildings to their land, which can aid in their presentation to the class. 16. Students will present their piece of land to the class, and will receive a grade for this activity. Attachments Safety Issues None Assessment Pre-Activity Assessment Title: Students will be pre-assessed during the introduction. You will use the students responses to your questions as your pre-assessment Activity Embedded Assessment Title: 1) The fill in the blank water cycle worksheet the students are going to be required to turn in. 2) As students are working on SimCity you will walk around and assess the students as they are working. Ask the students questions about what they are doing on the program to assess that they have remembered what was taught about the water cycle and how civil engineers need to consider the water cycle when building. Post-Activity Assessment Title: Students will be assessed on their presentation given about their land piece they created. As part of the assessment students will need to use the vocabulary words that were taught while explaing their piece of land and be able to explain how they thought like a civil engineer while building. Activity Extensions An extension to this activity could be having the students build their city again with various materials provided in the classroom. Students would be able to change part of their SimCity design and part of the redesign aspect of the design loop. Additional Multimedia Support See Lesson References See Lesson Owner MaryKate Buffett, The College of New Jersey, Department on Technological Studies.