Prek-2 A1

Science Curriculum Preview Committee Clarification of Learning Results

Revised 04/29/04

3-4

F4. Illustrate how water and other substances go through a cyclic process of change in the environment.

Curriculum Organizing Questions

Where do we find water?

How does water change with temperature?

What happens to water left in an open container?

What happens to water left in a closed container?

How does water cycle through the environment?

Elaboration
Students must have many opportunities to observe properties of water in different conditions. While they can easily understand liquid water changing to solid ice, it is more difficult for them to understand that water does not simply disappear when it changes to a gas. Students should perform many experiments with water and be encouraged to relate their classroom experiences to the natural world.NSES p. 126.

Specific Ideas

When liquid water disappears, it turns into a gas (vapor) in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water. Clouds and fog and made of tiny droplets of water. Benchmarks 4B3

Matter cycles through solid earth, oceans, atmosphere, and organisms.

The water cycle consists of water precipitating (raining), accumulating (in puddles, ponds, lakes and oceans) evaporating (becoming water vapor in the hot sun), and condensing (forming clouds in the cold air of the sky). Benchmarks 6-8 4B7.

Developmental & Instructional Implications
Students' ideas about conservation of matter, phase changes, clouds, and rain are interrelated and contribute to understanding the water cycle. Students seem to transit a series of stages to understand evaporation. Before they understand that water is converted to an invisible form, they may initially believe that when water evaporates it ceases to exist, or that it changes location but remains a liquid, or that it is transformed into some other perceptible form (fog, steam, droplets, etc.) Benchmarks p. 336.

Examples

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Curriculum Organizing Questions	Where do we find water? How does water change with temperature? What happens to water left in an open container? What happens to water left in a closed container? How does water cycle through the environment?
Elaboration	Students must have many opportunities to observe properties of water in different conditions. While they can easily understand liquid water changing to solid ice, it is more difficult for them to understand that water does not simply disappear when it changes to a gas. Students should perform many experiments with water and be encouraged to relate their classroom experiences to the natural world.NSES p. 126.
Specific Ideas	When liquid water disappears, it turns into a gas (vapor) in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water. Clouds and fog and made of tiny droplets of water. Benchmarks 4B3 Matter cycles through solid earth, oceans, atmosphere, and organisms. The water cycle consists of water precipitating (raining), accumulating (in puddles, ponds, lakes and oceans) evaporating (becoming water vapor in the hot sun), and condensing (forming clouds in the cold air of the sky). Benchmarks 6-8 4B7.
Developmental & Instructional Implications	Students' ideas about conservation of matter, phase changes, clouds, and rain are interrelated and contribute to understanding the water cycle. Students seem to transit a series of stages to understand evaporation. Before they understand that water is converted to an invisible form, they may initially believe that when water evaporates it ceases to exist, or that it changes location but remains a liquid, or that it is transformed into some other perceptible form (fog, steam, droplets, etc.) Benchmarks p. 336.
Examples