ED 345 Calvin College Lesson Plan

Teacher: Kristina Wicks

Date: 11/30
Subject/Topic/ Theme: Science/How Humans Affect the Water Cycle and How it affects
people/Hydrosphere
I. Objectives
What is the main focus of this lesson?
The focus of this lesson is how humans affect the water cycle and how the water cycle affects our world.
How does this lesson tie in to a unit plan?
This lesson connects the water cycle (hydrosphere) to everyday life as students discuss and consider
how humans affect it and how it affects our world.
Objectives:
Standards:
Assessments
Scott Foresman:
Students will:
1. Students will discuss how
1. Discuss what the water
humans effect the water
1. Students will learn how the
cycle affects and what
cycle by completing the
hydrosphere interacts with other
affects the water cycle.
How Does Human
spheres (geosphere,
atmosphere, and biosphere).
2. Present how humans
Activity Affect the Water
2. Students will learn how humans
affect the water cycle.
Cycle worksheets and
impact the water cycle.
3. Connect hydrosphere to
presenting their findings
other spheres.
to the class.
Next Generation Michigan Standards:
1.

Develop a model using an

example to describe ways the
geosphere, biosphere,
hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere
interact.

II. Before you start

Differentiation:

Materials:
Classroom setup:
III. The Plan
Time Parts
10
Introduction/
min
Motivation

Assign more challenging topics to kids that need a challenge. Choose

topics that are less challenging for kids that need more support and just
need to know the basics.
26 How Does Human Activity Affect the Water Cycle worksheets
Whiteboard/marker
Draw water cycle drawing on whiteboard before class period
Draw flow chart on board before class period
Students will sit in 2 rows of 6-7 students in each row. Students will put
desks together when they work in groups.

Teacher & Student Activities

Ask students to turn in water cycle assignments.

Address student question from first lesson (KWL). Question: Why are the oceans salty and fresh water
not salty?
Draw a picture of the water cycle on the white board. When precipitation falls from the skiy to the land, it
wears away the land. What word do we use to describe the land beign worn away? Erosion. We learned
this when we talked about the geosphere. When liquid water erodes the land, salts and other minerals are
picked up as the water runs off back to another body of water, like an ocean. Now this water with salt in it
is in the ocean, making the ocean even saltier. Now lets think about an example. When it is hot youre
your body sweats salt water. When that sweat evaporates, is there anything you notice? If there anything
left behind? Salt is left on your arm. The water evaporates but the salt stays right where it was. This is
what happens to the salt that is in the run off. When this salty water falls back into the ocean, the salt is
left behind, while the water evaporates. The water keeps moving through the rest of the water cycle.
Opening discussion:
The water cycle is always moving water from one place to another place. We have talked about five steps
of the water cycle. These steps can take a long or short time. Whether they go faster or slower depends on
a number of things.
Lets talk about a few examples of how the water cycle can be affected:
Scenario 1: Suppose that the ground that the precipitation is falling on is rocky. How would rocky soil
affect the water cycle? What part of the water cycle would it affect? How would this be different if the
ground was full of soil instead of rock? (Draw picture of rocky soil and not rocky soil)
Scenario 2: Suppose that the area where the precipitation falls has no plants. How do you think that will
affect the water cycle? What part of the water cycle will it affect? How would it be different if there were
many plants in this area. (Draw picture of trees and other plants)
Scenario 3: Suppose that the temperature in Michigan starts to decrease a lot. Imagine that Michigan is 10
degrees colder throughout the year than it normally is. What parts of the water cycle would be affected?
Why would they be affected?
Use one of these examples above to walk through how to fill out the How Does Human Activity Affect
the Water Cycle worksheet. Draw the flow chart on the board and fill it in together.

25
min

Development

The water cycle can be affected by many things. Humans affect the water cycle and its parts. Sadly,
humans affect the water cycle in many bad ways. We will be thinking about how the water cycle is
affected by humans today.
Teacher will put students in groups (groups of 2-3 or of 4-5). Students may use kindles to research if
needed. Each student group will fill out and turn in the How Does Human Activity Affect the Water

Cycle? Worksheet. Students will work for 10 mins and present for the last 10-15 mins. Explain that these
worksheets and presentations do need to be taken seriously. The worksheet needs to be finished and
turned in at the end of class. The presentation is supposed to teach the class in 2-3 minutes about one way
that humans negatively affect the water cycle.
How humans affect the water cycle:
- Deforestationmore run off
- Paved roadsprevent run off
A Group: Engie, Arsema, Kayla, Tobin
B Group: Eleanor, Kyla, Makeda
- Irrigate cropsreduces water run, reduces collection
A Group: Eva, Amajay, Zoe
B Group: Tommy, Naia, Prashansa
- Global warming (increasing temperatures)more evaporation, more condensation, more
precipitation, more run off, more collection
A Group: Tellios, Jacob, Mayah
B Group: TeQuan, Harold, Evan
- Damsmore evaporation because of greater surface area, less run off, more collection
A Group: Danny, Aden, Emma
B Group: Josiah, Quincy, Isaiah
- Drinking waternot a significant amount taken to negatively affect water cycle (mention this to
students).
Discuss the topics below with the remaining time or discuss at the beginning of the review period next
class.
How are humans/other spheres effected by the water cycle:
- What happens when there is not enough rain?
Droughtbiosphere, not enough precipitation
- What happens when there is too much rain?
Floodsgeosphere, too much precipitation that flows over the surface of the land
- How does the hydrosphere affect the geosphere?
Erosiongeosphere, precipitation wears away rocks
Collect worksheets from each group to be looked over.

5 min
Closure

Review:
1. What are some ways humans affect the water cycle? Deforestation, irrigation, climate change
2. How is the water cycle effected? Temperature change
3. How are humans affected by the water cycle? Drought, floods, erosion

Reflection:

I was nervous before teaching the lesson. I did a lot of research for this so that I would be able to
answer any questions that students had. I thought the lesson might go quickly, so I wrote down many examples
of how humans affect the water cycle and vis versa. I was so wrong about how long this lesson would take.
This lesson could take four days total. However, I did not have that amount of time to spend. So instead I
chose to spend two days on it, particularly focusing on how humans affect the water cycle.
I misinterpreted how long it would take to talk through one example scenario with them and fill out the
flow chart. It could have gone faster if I would have just told them what the right answer was after a few
minutes. However, I decided on the fly, that it was more important for them to think deeply about a few
examples from my lesson. So, when I presented the rocky land idea, I let them freely discuss their hypothesis.
As these students shared their ideas, I wrote their ideas up on the board. Most of the ideas had to do with the
speed of the wat. Most students thought that rocks would slow down the water. So I put slow, neutral, and fast
on the board. Then I told the students to put their heads down and choose which they thought would happen to
the water. Like I said before, most of the students chose slower, which was the opposite if what was really
true. So, I could see that I needed to make another on the fly change to my lesson. Most students have
experience growing plants in school and doing carious experiments with them (changing variables to see how
they affect the plants growth). I drew a picture of a plant in a container full or dirt and a picture of a plants in a
container full of rocks. I asked them what would happen to the water when it was poured into each continer. I
gave students a lot of wait time to think about this question. If I taught this again, I would have students turn
and talk before they shared their thoughts. Some students mentioned that the water would be soaked up by the
dirt, but that it would not be soaked up by the rocks. Other students said the water would move faster through
the rocks than the dirt because of the gaps between rocks. These responses made me rejoice! Although the
discussion took the whole class period, it was one of the best discussions I have led. I let students figure it out
themselves rather than telling them the right answer. I wish that I had more time to talk over some of the other
scenarios.