Week 12: Water

Week 12: Water
Weeks 10, 11, and 12 make up a three-week cycle about water. Currently, you are in Week C: Teacher As Designer.

This week you should refer to the resources listed under Readings & References, and you need to complete the assignments listed under Assignments & Rubrics. This week’s assignments focus on…

Individual:

Designing or finding a sphere lesson for your students, posting it in Teacher As Designer space for feedback from your teammates, then revising it and posting it again in Teacher As Designer space.

Team:

Offering feedback to your teammates about their sphere lessons.

Readings & References
Review: GEMS Liquid Explorations and GEMS Involving Dissolving

Read: "Learning science is something that students do, not something that is done to them. "They should become familiar with the freezing of water and melting of ice (with no change in weight), the disappearance of wetness into the air, and the appearance of water on cold surfaces. Evaporation and condensation will mean nothing different from disappearance and appearance, perhaps for several years, until students begin to understand that the evaporated water is still present in the form of invisibly small molecules."

"Water offers another important set of experiences for students at later grades. "Students can conduct investigations that go beyond the observations made in the earlier grades to learn the connection between liquid and solid forms, but recognizing that water can also be a gas, while much more difficult, is still probably accessible. Perhaps the main thrust there is to try to figure out where water in an open container goes. This is neither self-evident nor easy to detect. But the water cycle is of such profound importance to life on earth that students should certainly have experiences that will in time contribute to their understanding of evaporation, condensation, and the conservation of matter." (Source--National Science Education Standards)

Recommended Web Sites:

Assignments & Rubrics
You will work individually and in teams to address water during this three-week cycle. Use the links below to access the assignments and rubrics.

Week C: Teacher As Designer - Individual
Lesson Design Assignment & Rubric
You will individually design or find a sphere lesson for your students, post it in the Teacher As Designer space for feedback from your teammates, use their feedback to revise your sphere lesson, then post it again.

Week C: Teacher As Designer - Team
Feedback Assignment & Rubric
You and your teammates will serve as a "critical friend" to one another. When acting as a critical friend, use the Feedback Rubric and the criteria for effective concept-building activities you and your teammates developed in Week A: Teacher As Researcher to give an objective analysis of your teammates' sphere lessons.

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