STEM Stories Lesson 3: All the Water in the …

STEM Stories: All the Water in the World

Lesson Plan

STEM Career Connections: Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Scientist

STEM Disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics

Non-STEM Disciplines: English Language Arts

Design Challenge Problem/Scenario:

In Africa, two out of five people do not have clean water. Because so much of Africa¡¯s

water is contaminated, many people struggle to stay healthy, go to school/work, grow

food, and build houses. The villagers do not have a lot of money or materials available to

them, so it is a challenge for them to find a low-cost, simple way to clean their water. Your

team knows that a source for clean water would help solve these problems and improve

the lives of thousands of people. So you decide to plan a trip to an African village and

help.

Engineering Design Challenge:

Before leaving for Africa, your team¡¯s challenge is to design, build, and test a filtration

system that could be used to remove harmful pollutants/contaminants from water. It is

important to conserve clean water. While testing your design, beads will symbolize water

and marbles will symbolize contaminated water.

Essential Question Students Investigate:

How can my team design a water filtration system that can provide clean water to a village

in Africa?

Enduring Understandings:

¡ñ The use of collaboration and the engineering design process are both important

when designing a product that can improve the quality of human lives.

¡ñ Throughout the hydrologic (water) cycle, contaminated water can move into an

environment¡¯s water source, and harm organisms that live in that ecosystem.

English Language Arts Standards:

¡ñ RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring

explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

¡ñ RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and

explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

¡ñ RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and

phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.

¡ñ W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons

This material is based upon work supported by the Engineering Science Foundation of Dayton under

Grant No. AD2018-0001 and through a 2017-18 grant from the Marianist Foundation.

¡ñ SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate

facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

¡ñ SL.3.6 Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to

provide requested detail or clarification.

Science Standards:

Science Inquiry and Applications, Technological and Engineering Design

During the years of PreK to grade 4, all students must develop the ability to:

¡ñ Plan and conduct simple investigations

¡ñ Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses

¡ñ Communicate about observations, investigations and explanations

¡ñ Review and ask questions about the observations and explanations of others

¡ñ Identify problems and potential technological/engineering solutions

¡ñ Understand the design process, role of troubleshooting

Grade 1: EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE: Sun, Energy and Weather

¡ñ The physical properties of water change.

Grade 1: LIFE SCIENCE: Basic Needs of Living Things

¡ñ Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the

physical environment.

¡ñ Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.

Grade 2: EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE: The Atmosphere

¡ñ The atmosphere is made up of air.

¡ñ Water is present in the air.

Grade 3: EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE: Earth¡¯s Resources

¡ñ Earth¡¯s resources are limited.

Grade 4: LIFE SCIENCE: Earth¡¯s Living History

¡ñ Changes in an organism¡¯s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival

and sometimes harmful.

Mathematics Standards:

¡ñ Represent and interpret data. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.B.4 Generate

measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths

of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked

off in appropriate units--whole numbers, halves, or quarters.

¡ñ Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit

arithmetic. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NBT.A.2 Fluently add and subtract within 1000

using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or

the relationship between addition and subtraction.

¡ñ Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit

arithmetic. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NBT.A.2 Multiply one-digit whole numbers by

multiplies of 10 in the range 10-90 (e.g., 9 x 80, 5 x 60) using strategies based on place

value and properties of operations.

¡ñ Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.1 Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret

5 x 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each.

This material is based upon work supported by the Engineering Science Foundation of Dayton under

Grant No. AD2018-0001 and through a 2017-18 grant from the Marianist Foundation.

¡ñ Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.1 Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve

word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement

quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown

number to represent the problem.

¡ñ Multiply and divide within 100. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.C.7 Fluently

multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between

multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 x 5 = 40, one knows 40 ¡Â 5 = 8)

or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all

products of two one-digit numbers.

¡ñ 3.NF.1 Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole

is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed

by a parts of size 1/b

This material is based upon work supported by the Engineering Science Foundation of Dayton under

Grant No. AD2018-0001 and through a 2017-18 grant from the Marianist Foundation.

Materials List:

Material

Quantity per Team

?

Quantity per Kit

Marbles

10

2 packs

Beads

1

2 packs

Toothpicks

10

2 packs

Rubber bands

7

1 pack

Plastic Cups

1

10

String

1 yard

1 ball

PowerPoint

~

1

Pre-Activity Survey

~

25 copies

Post-Activity Survey

~

25 copies

Cardstock

1 sheet

1 pack

Handouts

~

25 copies

1 sheet

15 sheets

Paper

(For team design sketch)

This material is based upon work supported by the Engineering Science Foundation of Dayton under

Grant No. AD2018-0001 and through a 2017-18 grant from the Marianist Foundation.

?

Activity 1

Prior Set-up:

Put the following words on the board or on chart paper before the lesson begins:

Flows, Wobbles, Cascaded, Meandered, Wavered, Guzzles, Avalanche, Stampede,

Wealth, Rustle, and Precious. Find these words in the book, All the Water in the World. You

might want to mark them with post-it notes for later.

Introduction: 5 minutes

Review the Engineering Design Challenge from the last module and ask students about

their favorite parts. Explain that today we are beginning a new challenge and it has to do

with water. On the board, write the word ¡°water¡± in big letters, and invite the students to

brainstorm what they know about water. Create a web from the word ¡°water¡± with the

students¡¯ contributions.

Pre-Reading: 10 minutes

Ask students to close their eyes, and imagine their favorite activity with water. When you

ask them to open their eyes, invite them to share what they imagined. Share some pictures

of water activities (pictures are at the end of the PowerPoint presentation), and ask the

students to share connections to them. Talk with the class about the important role water

plays in our lives, from playing and having fun to cleaning, eating and drinking. All living

things rely on water, and humans rely on clean, safe water to stay healthy.

Read Aloud: 15 minutes

Introduce the book, All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon by showing the students

the cover. Tell the students the book is written like a poem, and ask them to share what

they know about poetry. Share that a poem is writing that plays with words. Read the book

aloud, for enjoyment of the poetry and figurative language. Try to read the book with few

stops for discussion or comments.

Post Reading: 20 minutes

Have the students look at the following list of words that were written on the board or on a

large piece of chart paper before the lesson begins.

1. Flows

2. Wobbles

3. Cascaded

4. Meandered

5. Wavered

6. Guzzles

7. Avalanche

8. Stampede

9. Wealth

10. Rustle

11. Precious

Pass out the Vocabulary Knowledge chart handouts. Read each word, and ask the students

to give a thumbs up if they think they know what the word means, and a thumbs down if

This material is based upon work supported by the Engineering Science Foundation of Dayton under

Grant No. AD2018-0001 and through a 2017-18 grant from the Marianist Foundation.

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