CIRG 644 – Julia Manns – Module 5
Assignment: Imagine you are a meteorologist tasked
with creating a journal entry explaining the water cycle that will be presented to a second grade
class. The journal entry must include all the steps of the water cycle, as well
as brief explanations/descriptions of each step. Remember: these students may
never have studied the water cycle before. The only information they have about
it is the information you present to them through your journal entry! Use the
checklist below to help you when writing your journal entry:
What’s your Role: ___________________
What’s your Audience: ___________________
What’s your Format: ___________________
What’s your Topic: ___________________
What’s your Strong verb: ___________________
(Note:
This activity would be designed for a 4th-5th grade
student)
SAMPLE
What’s your Role: Meteorologist
What’s your Audience: 2nd Grade Classroom
What’s your Format: Journal Entry
What’s your Topic: The Water Cycle
What’s your Strong verb: Explaining
(Note:
information for this Water Cycle journal entry was obtained from the following
website: http://www.kidzone.ws/water/
You can create more restrictions for how much students are able to cite from
websites and books when having them complete this sort of activity.)
June 27, 2015
My curiosity has finally
gotten the best of me! I simply must know how water turns to rain!! I’ve heard
other meteorologists talking about something called ‘The Water Cycle’. They say
it explains the entire process—what a nifty idea! I’ve been researching it for
a few days now and I think I finally understand how it all works! The first
step is Evaporation, which is when
the sun heats up water in rivers, lakes, or oceans and turns it into vapor, or
steam. You know that stuff that comes up from a pot of boiling water? That’s
the stuff! The water vapor, or steam, leaves the river, lake, or ocean and goes
into the air. Imagine that! Transpiration
helps out his buddy evaporation, causing plants to lose water out of their
leaves, giving his old buddy a hand in getting all of that water vapor back up
into the air!
*Shivers* It’s getting
colder in here! That must mean it’s time for our next step: Condensation.
Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds.
This process is called condensation! Imagine pouring a cold glass of water on a
hot day. Those tiny water spots that appear on the outside of the class
actually came from the air! Water vapor in the warm air turns back into liquid
when it touches the cold glass. Better have an umbrella handy for this next
step: Precipitation. This occurs
when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it anymore! The
clouds get very heavy, and the water falls back down to Earth in the form of
rain, hail, sleet, or even snow.
Our final step in the
Water Cycle is Collection. Now that
we have some precipitation going, where does all that rainwater go? It doesn’t
just disappear after falling, does it? Why no! Some of this rain falls into
oceans, lakes, and rivers—sound familiar? You’re correct—we are back at step
one, Evaporation, all over again! The cycle repeats itself over and over again—how
mind-blowing is that?! With all of this new information in my brain I think I
should go outside and try to observe the Water Cycle at work!!
