5 - ESS2.C - The Roles of Water in Earth's Surface Processes - FINAL - (WND 1/13/14)

DCI: ESS2.C The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes – Nearly all of Earth’s available water is in the ocean. Most fresh water is in glaciers or underground; only a tiny fraction is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere.

 PE: 5-ESS2-2 Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

 [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, and polar ice caps, and does not include the atmosphere.]

The ideas we see in this standard are: 

- nearly all of the Earth's available water is in the ocean. 

- most fresh water is in glaciers or under ground. 

- a tiny fraction of water is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere. 

We can't really have kids graph on a multiple choice test - but, we can provide graphs and maybe have them fill in missing information.  We can also ask generalized questions about the distribution of salt water versus fresh water, above ground, underground , etc. 

Possible Question Starters:

"Which of the following percentages is the best estimate for the amount of Earth's water that is stored in the oceans?"

correct answer - 96%

incorrect answers, other percentages

"Of the freshwater on Earth's surface, most of it is found in -"

correct answer - glaciers

incorrect answer - lakes