Water wonders - Summative assessment

Transdisciplinary Theme: How we Share the Planet

Title: Water wonders

Central Idea:

The decisions people make about water affects everybody.

Summative Assessment Task:

For the Water Unit Summative, the children gathered all their knowledge on Water and presented it through a 3D Mural. The children created a landscape around a river waterway that has been created for them by the teacher as a starting point. The four groups (Water, Wind, Fire and Earth) worked together to plan and then build a community around that waterway. They each shared their contribution to fishing, housing, drinkable water, ponds, animal life, plants, transportation, ways to cross the water.

Criteria to include in the mural was:

* Water cycle

* Conservation of water

* Discussion about impact of humans on the river

* Show how Aboriginal Peoples are connected to the water.

The Water Cycle

"Where does water go?" Simon asked. "Up in the sky" said Trystan. "But how?" Sarah inquired.

 From the children's knowledge and guesses, we started exploring different ideas that would help answer all the questions. 

We used water to paint outside on the asphalt. The children noticed how on the sunny side, the water disappeared quickly compared to the shady side. From that experiment, the children noticed that the sun heats up the water and the water "goes up in the sky", as Trystan said. I told the children that the process is called - EVAPORATION- 

A quiet thinker, after a few seconds, Simon said, "So, the sun heats up the water and it evaporates" - "RIGHT" added the other children. 

From this discovery, the children wanted to learn more about the process. To help gain more knowledge, we watched the movie "All Wet" by The Magic School Bus. 

After the movie, the children showed a greater understanding of the water cycle and the importance of keeping the water clean. Trystan said, "So water evaporates and travels all over the place". Simon added that, "The fish might get the water that evaporated from a puddle here at school". 

At the end, to show our knowledge, we gathered all the necessary materials and we dramatized the water cycle. This was a way of assessing our knowledge and getting a better understanding.  

* Trystan was the ocean.

* Sofia the mountain with snow.

* Emilie the waterfall.

* Simon the clouds.

* Sarah the sun. 

When Sarah came out from between the clouds, Trystan felt the warmth and started evaporating. The water turned into water vapours and went up to the sky. As you get higher, it becomes colder, so the water vapour starts condensing. All the water droplets gather together to form clouds. And so the process begins again -> Water Cycle.