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AAASMichigan State UniversityNorthwestern UniversityUniversity of Michigan

Center for CurriculumMaterials in Science

This work is funded by the National Science Foundation (ES 0101780 and 0227557). Any opinions, findings and recommendations expressed in the materials are those of the authors.

Sixth grade Earth Scienceunit: “How Does Water ShapeOur World?”

Development team:

Ann Rivet, Jenny Ingber, Lou Ellen Finn,Matthew Rossi, Eunmi Lee, Kemi Jona, &

Danny Edelson

Teachers College, Columbia University

Northwestern University

Sixth grade Earth Science unit:“How Does Water Shape Our World?”

Goals for the session:• Content goal: To explain phenomena, such as

erosion and deposition, using qualitative data.• Practice goal: To introduce Investigations and

Qualitative Data Collection as practicesemployed by Earth Science to determine “Howdoes water shape my world?”

• Pedagogy goal:• To understand the role of investigations and data

collection, and the importance of it through the unit,and across units.

Session overview

• Set up the context for Earth Science• Experience shortened version of two

related activities• Gather data from a stream table

demonstration and then have theopportunity to design an investigationto test variables on stream tables

• Discuss results and debrief theactivities, practices, and learning goalsfor Earth Science

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Driving Question

How Does Water Shape Our World?• Provides anchoring context for all lessons• Revisited throughout the unit• Motivating and engaging for middle school

students

Case Studies andNational Parks

•What is a casestudy and why is ituseful for teaching?•Why HawaiiVolcanoes NationalPark and GrandCanyon NationalPark?•Group Cases—Anopportunity toapply

Introducing the Unit in LS1: How DoDifferent Places Look Different?

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LS 2: How Does Water MoveThrough Our Parks?

• Lesson 3: Find evidence of water inreservoirs

• Lesson 4: Determine how water movesbetween reservoirs

• Lesson 5: Simulate water movementfrom reservoir to reservoir

• Lesson 6: Apply what has been learned togroup parks

LS 3: What Effects Does Moving WaterHave On Land?

• Lesson 7: Teacher demonstrates theuse of stream table models (expressedmodels) to gather data as evidence ofwater changing the shape of land

• Lessons 8 and 9: In depth discovery ofweathering, erosion, and deposition

• Lesson 10: Students investigatestream tables.

Learning Performance andBenchmark for Lessons 7 and 10

Benchmarks4C, 2. Some changesin the earth's surfaceare abrupt while otherchanges happen veryslowly. The earth'ssurface is shaped inpart by the motion ofwater and wind oververy long times, whichact to level mountainranges.

LearningPerformancesStudents predict effectsof moving water onearth materials.Students describeresults of moving wateron earth materials.

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Where are the water reservoirs?

Where are the water reservoirs?

What do you think made thelandforms look the way they do?

•How can water cut theland and create a deepcanyon as you see inthe Grand Canyonpicture?•How can water movethe sand, pebbles andboulders you see in theHawaii Volcanoespicture?•How has water shapedyour localenvironment?

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Features of the stream table andhow to use it

What kinds of data can be obtained fromthis model and how this data can berecorded?

Activity Sheet 7.1

Record your observations on theactivity sheet.

Connect back to case studies andDQ

What observationscan you make ofthe picture?

How can you usethis data asevidence of waterchanging the landlike it did on thestream table?

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Connect back to case studies andDQ

What observationscan you makeabout this picturethat shows howwater might havechanged the land?

Debrief Lesson 7

Debriefing:• Content knowledge: What are the main content ideas that

can be explained by this demonstration? Why might wehold off on using the terminology here?

• Practice (DGOA): How can this activity promote studentsskills of DGOA (Qualitative)?Why use a model for gathering this data?

• Pedagogy: What is the advantage of using case studies?What other real-world connections can be made with kids?In what ways might you need to modify this activity for thestudents? What are the challenges for the teacher in thisactivity? What must the teacher be sure to do (and not do)when having a classroom discussion?

Setting Up Lesson 10

In lessons 8 and 9 concepts ofweathering, erosion, and depositionhave been explored in depth.

Why now is an appropriate time to do aninvestigation on erosion anddeposition?

What aspects of investigations will beintroduced?

What are the connections between DGOAand investigations?

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Designing our investigation inLesson 10

What questions do we have aboutstreams? Or erosion? Or deposition?

What variables can we manipulate toanswer these questions?

What is a condition?

Conduct your investigation using ActivitySheet 10.1

Jigsaw to share findings

Was your group able to answer yourquestion?

Was your prediction correct?

What did you discover from thisinvestigation?

What else might you want to know?

How can we connect this back tothe real world?

Troubleshooting

What issues might we face doingthis with students?

How can we trouble-shoot issues inadvance with students?

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Learning Performance andBenchmark for Lessons 7 and 10

Benchmarks4C, 2. Some changesin the earth's surfaceare abrupt while otherchanges happen veryslowly. The earth'ssurface is shaped inpart by the motion ofwater and wind oververy long times, whichact to level mountainranges.

LearningPerformancesStudents predict effectsof moving water onearth materials.Students describeresults of moving wateron earth materials.

Remainder of Earth Science

Lesson 11: Applying new understandingsof weathering, erosion, deposition togroup parks.

Lesson 12: Sedimentary rocks, rockcycle

Lesson 13: Landform creation based onrole of rocks

Lesson 14: Applying rock cycle andlandform understandings to groupparks, tying it all together andestablishing how water shaped eachpark for peers in China.

Investigations in IQWST

• In the 6th grade students will makepredictions and ask questions aboutphenomena that can be answeredthrough investigations.

• All 6th grade units work with aspects ofinvestigations.• DQ and DQB emphasize inquiry and the questions

may lend themselves to investigations.• Highly scaffolded practice. In most cases

investigations and/or the design of investigations aredemonstrated by the teacher.

• Students will slowly become more involved indesigning their own investigations in the 7th and 8th

grade

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Data Gathering, Organizing, andAnalyzing in IQWST

• DGOA appears in all of the IQWSTunits, but the kinds of data andmethods of gathering this data isdependent on the type of activityor investigation.

• Data can be used as evidence.

Learning Goals: Data Gathering

• Students will determine whether collecteddata is quantitative or qualitative.

• Students will record data in an orderly andorganized manner.

• Students will evaluate measurements as theyare made (if possible) in order to determinewhether they are reasonable, as determinedby prior expectations.

Learning Goals: Data Organization

• Students will construct tables of data (Select theappropriate number of columns, label tables so thattheir purpose and content is apparent, and identify theunits for each column in tables).

• Note that at 6th grade students are not expected tocreate their own graphs, but they should be able toread and interpret the data when presented in graphs(bar-charts and scatter-plots).

• The 7th and 8th grade units will introduce a moreindependent approach to data organization andconstruction of data tables by the students.

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Learning Goals: Data Analysis

• Students will evaluate measurements in orderto determine whether they are reasonable, asdetermined by prior expectations.

• This often appears as a “compare” exercise wherestudents compare their predictions to theiroutcomes.

Challenges of DGOA andInvestigations

• Over the past 3 days you haveengaged in numerousinvestigations. Based on thisexperience as well as yourprevious classroom experiences.What challenges do you foreseein terms of DGOA andInvestigations.

Summary

• DGOA is related to all of the scientificpractices in IQWST

• DGOA appears in different contexts andforms throughout a unit and from unit tounit

• Data can be gathered to answer the inquiryquestions that are in the units and thosethat organically come up within yourclasses

• In Earth Science students employ aspectsof all of the scientific practices that havebeen building up over the year. Thesepractices will continue to be revisited andextended over the course of 7th and 8th

grade.