Julie Gonzalez

Lesson Title:

The Hydrologic Cycle

Grade:___7_____

Goals or Objectives:
1) Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the hydrologic cycle.
2) Students will be able to explain the hydrologic cycle by completing a worksheet.
3) Students will understand that thermal energy plays a key role in the cycle.
Grade Level Guide: Content Standards
NGSS Content Curriculum
Common Core State
Standards
MS-ESS2-4: Develop a model to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6describe the cycling of water
8.7 Integrate quantitative or
through Earth's systems driven
technical information
by energy from the sun and the
expressed in words in a text
force of gravity.
with a version of that
ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in
information expressed
Earth's Surface Processes
visually (e.g., in a flowchart,
diagram, model, graph, or
table).

Interdisciplinary Connections
Language Arts: Students will
express literacy by articulating
answers using complete sentences.
Math: Students will demonstrate a
knowledge of math by measuring
water.

Academic Language: Hydrologic cycle, water cycle, matter, solid, liquid, gas, porous, thermal energy,
evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection, transpiration, run-off, ground water, and infiltration.
Students Needs:
Prek-2: Students will already understand that water is in the atmosphere. Water can be a solid, a gas and
a liquid.
Grades 3-5: Students should know that water is present in soil; water is a non-living resource, the states
of water and how water can change the surface of Earth.
Grade 6: Students must understand that the changes in the state of water are related to motion of atoms
(changes in energy). Water flows through rock and soil (porosity and permeability).
English Language Learners

Special Needs (can be a group such

as struggling readers or
individuals)
ELLs will be able to learn terms
Children with any reading disorder
from the video that I will play to
will benefit from me reading the
introduce the lecture. If Spanish is
instructions aloud. Besides my verbal
the native language of any of my
direction, students will have written
students, I will be able to speak and directions with visuals if necessary.
translate for them. For the
Assignments during lecture will be
experiment portion of the period,
brief and short to aid to any child
pairing the ELL students with a
with ADHD/ADD. Besides shorter
buddy will allow them to receive assignments, the ability to work on
help from fellow classmates and
an experiment will allow those
these smaller groups will allow for children to move around and have a
me to give personalized and
break during the transition period.
individualized help if needed.

Materials:

tin

-computer
-converter
-projector
-speakers
-hot and cold water
-goggles
-lab coats
-clear plastic bowl or pot
-coffee mug or
-large rubber band or lid
-matches
-water bottles
-worksheets

Language Function: Students will be expected to incorporate the new terminology into their answers. I
will ask them questions such as: What are the different state of water? What is thermal energy?
What is the hydrologic cycle? Can anyone explain the hydrologic cycle to me using all the terms we
learned today?
Lesson Plan
Before: Before beginning lecture I will have to students answer some questions in their science journals
and then we will briefly go over them to make sure they know the right answers. After getting a few
slides into the lesson to clarify and define the hydrologic cycle, I will show a video to engage the
students and introduce key terms of the lesson.
During: After the video I will continue to teach the lesson and cover key terms that were mentioned in
the video. As the lesson continues, students will be requires to take notes and will be encouraged by the
fact that there will be a quiz after the lesson and experiment. Once I have finished reviewing the key
terms and explaining how the water cycle works, I will pass out a worksheet that will reinforce the
knowledge learned during the lesson. (This will also help me to evaluate how much information the
students learned.) After the worksheet is competed, I will correct their answers and begin the
experiments. For the first experiment Creating a water cycle, I will be the facilitator and the students
will observe. After finishing the first experiment I will begin the second experiment, to allow
experiment one sufficient time to produce results and I will have the students come back and observe it.
To begin the second experiment I will make students pick a paper out of a cup, so they will be randomly
assigned a certain part. There are a total of four parts or trials allowing each of the students to have the
opportunity to do one. In experiment two, the students will fill the water bottles with the water that is
needed, but since this experiment requires the use of a match, I will light the match for the students.
After: As we complete each trail of experiment two, I will have the students write down their answers
and observations in their worksheets I will ask them questions such as: What ingredients are necessary
to form a cloud? What difference did the temperature of the water make? After the second
experiment observations are done I will have the students return to observe the experiment one results.
While observing the results, I will ask them question about the water cycle, to make sure that they
understand the water cycle is visible in the different material and processes used and observed.

Assessment:
Type of
assessment
(formal or
informal)

Description of
assessment

Modifications to the
assessment so that all students
could demonstrate learning

Evaluation Criteria- What

evidence of student learning
(related to the learning objectives
and central focus) does the

Informal

Students will be
required to
complete a lab
packet and be
subject a class
review game, if
time permits.

Students will be able to

complete the worksheet due to
the fact that they will be
working in pairs. As the
students are to be completing
the worksheet I will be asking
them questions to help them
realize the correct answers and
I will give them an example of
what I wrote in my lab packet.
If there is still confusion the
student can ask their lab
partner or the teacher.

assessment provide?
The assessment allows for
students to demonstrate their
knowledge of the material
covered. Students will be able to
put the scientific method into
practice. Lastly, this lesson will
force students to use information
learned from previous grades,
such as the states of matter, atoms,
and cloud formations.

Resources:
Experiment: http://thewaterproject.org/resources/lesson-plans/create-a-mini-water-cycle.php
http://thewaterproject.org/resources/lesson-plans/condensation-experiment.php
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Cloud-in-a-Bottle
http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/CloudLab.html
Worksheet: http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/AmandaKipfer/water-cycle-assessment-poster-toillustrate
Videos: http://thewaterproject.org/resources/the_water_cycle_presentation.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeuJh2LjeWc&list=PLln48OYZV9kYfEwR38yuqlXaG6dph6rBI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHjDT9pYxRA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=LHjDT9pYxRA&list=PLln48OYZV9kYfEwR38yuqlXaG6dph6rBI&index=7
Info: http://thewaterproject.org/resources/the_water_cycle.asp
Analyzing Teaching: To be completed after the lesson has been taught
What worked?
What didnt? For whom?
Adjustments
What instructional changes do you need to make as
you prepare for your next lesson?

Proposed Changes

Whole class:

If you could teach this lesson again to this group of

students what changes would you make to your
instruction?

Groups of students:
Individual students:

Justification
Why will these changes improve student learning?
What research/theory supports these changes?