Why does a puddle shrink

What if you were born into a world that only blinks into existence once a year, and lasts for mere weeks or months before disappearing again? How would you live your life? We can find the answer in East Africa, where a fish lives out its entire lives in rapidly shrinking pools of water.

During the rainy season, water fills small depressions in the savannah, creating temporary ponds. Its eggs, encased in mud and lying dormant within the soil, finally hatch. Right from the start, the baby fish are on borrowed time. They have a couple of months before their puddle dries out. The turquoise killifish has adapted to this precarious existence by evolving the shortest lifespan of any back-boned animal. In the wild, they live for a few months and they fare little better in captivity.

Back in , Italian scientists Stefano Valdesalici and Alessandro Cellerino showed that groups of captive killifish start dying after just six weeks. On average, they survive for nine weeks, and none of them make it past eleven. For comparison, other related killifish live for around a year, as do tiny mammals like shrews. By days 11 to 13, the males are already wearing their bold red adult colours. By days 17 to 19, the females are sexually mature and start to release eggs, which the males lace with sperm.

Again, these are record-breaking figures for vertebrates. Female laboratory mice take at least 23 days to become sexually mature, as do the tiny wild infantfishes. The killifishes beat that by almost a week. At first, the females lay a few dozen eggs a day, but they start producing hundreds once they stop growing and start channelling all their energy into reproduction. Boys and girls this is day three on our science journey The Water Cycle To begin we are going to review our vocabulary words.

We also are going to review what we learned about in lesson two of this science unit plan where the water is found on the Earth. They will then turn to their shoulder partner and recite the vocabulary word meanings and what we found out yesterday about where the water is found on the Earth.

Guiding questions would be Where is most of the water found on the Earth? How much water is found in the oceans, glaciers, and freshwaters? What did the penny activity teach you? What did the two liter bottle water demonstration teach you? I will give the students three minutes for discussion of these questions.

The students will turn to page three in their science booklet and complete with their partner the activity. I will give the students five minutes to complete the activity. We will then sing our water song.

The big idea of todays lesson will be introduced. Students look at the vocabulary word Evaporation. We have learned from our vocabulary words that evaporation means the change of substance from the liquid to gas. Also known as Vapor another vocabulary word meaning liquid in air in the form of a gas. Success Criteria Guided questioning of the vocabulary words. Productive discussion of review of yesterdays instructional topics.

Successful completion of the activity page in their science folder. Assessment Strategy Listening for correct answers. Listening for productive discussion of review of yesterdays instruction topics. Boy 10 will be sitting in the desks that are closest to the smart board. I will pair Boy 3 and Boy 5 and Boy 2 and Boy 6. Focus Lesson I do it The following information will be presented in a power point presentation.

The sun provides the energy needed solar energy to change liquid water to water vapor. Winds carry the water around the Earth. When moist air rises and cools, the water vapor condenses from a vapor to very small liquid water droplets forming clouds. Success Criteria Students when questioned can answer correctly about evaporation cycle.

Girl 4 will share how the sun effects the evaporation cycle. Girl 9 will share how the where most of the evaporation occurs, and what kind of water does the most evaporation occur from? Girl 8 will share about how moist air rises and cools which in turn forms clouds. Each student will place equal amounts of water on the paper towel and the back of their hand.

We will discuss the results and the role that heat plays in the evaporation process. Guided questions could include:. How does heat energy play a role in evaporation? Does the back of your hand contain more heat than the paper towel? Which water evaporated quicker the water on the back of your hand or the water on the paper towel?

SIOP 8, 9,16, Formative Assessment: Learning Goal Students will be able to see how heat energy affects evaporation. Success Criteria Students will successfully understand that the water on the back of their hand will evaporate more rapidly than the water on the paper towel because the heat of their body.

Assessment Strategy I will observe the students successfully administering the evaporation experiment and through class discussion Understand that heat plays a role in evaporation. I will pair Boy 2 and Boy 5 and Boy 2 and Boy 6 together. The students will be divided into groups of 3 to perform the science experiment SIOP 16,4, 6 Formative Assessment: Learning Goal Students will be able to perform their science experiment that will require data keeping.

This experiment will be done over night and the conclusive data will be gathered tomorrow. Success Criteria Students will be able to perform their science experiment successfully that will require data keeping. Assessment Strategy I will walk from group to group assessing if their group is performing their experiment correctly. Each group will have three members. I will pair will Boy 2 and Boy 5 and Boy 2 and Boy 6 together. Inquiry in Action.

Lesson Overview for Teachers View the video below to see what you and your students will do in this lesson. Objective Students will be able to explain that puddles dry up because tiny particles of water water molecules break away from the puddle and go into the air. Key Concepts When a puddle dries up, tiny particles of water break away from the liquid in the puddle and go into the air. The tiny water particles are called water molecules.

Water on the ground goes into the air, becomes part of a cloud, and comes back down to Earth as rain. The activities in this lesson focus on what makes a puddle dry up after it rains. Students make the connection and see the pattern of the warming effect of the sun causing puddles to dry up faster.

Summary Students watch a video of a puddle drying up and have a class discussion about where they think the water goes when it seems to disappear. Students see an animation of water evaporating from a puddle and forming water droplets in a cloud. Students then compare a water drop evaporating from the palm of their hand to one evaporating from the surface of a desk or table. Evaluation There is no formal student activity sheet or assessment for this lesson. Safety No special safety precautions are necessary.

Materials Small clear plastic cup with 1 teaspoon of water Dropper. Engage 1. Show a video of a puddle drying up and discuss with students their ideas about where they think the water goes. Ask students: Have you ever noticed how puddles eventually dry up after it rains? Explain that the water goes up into the air and gets mixed into the rest of the air. If the puddle is on dirt or grass, some of the water goes into the ground but some also goes into the air.

Show illustrations and lead a discussion about where students have seen water dry up. Ask students: When our furry friend gets out of the pool, what different things are wet?

The ground, his fur, the towel, and his bathing suit are wet. Do you think they get dry? If so, how?