The Mystery

of the

Disappearing Puddle

A Web Quest for Grades 2-3 By Donna Wine drpwine@yahoo.com

Introduction/Task/Process/Evaluation/Conclusion/Teacher Resources

Introduction

You are a detective hired by your school principal.  She wants you to help her find out what happened to the puddle she saw after a morning rain shower yesterday. By afternoon, it had disappeared! Where did it go? Can you solve the mystery of the disappearing puddle?

Task

You will work with a partner to explain the mystery. Click on the magnifying glass to search for clues about the disappearing puddle. After doing your investigations, you will work together to write a story, draw a poster, or make a book to show your answer to the mystery.

Process

1. You will work with a partner to find out why water on the earth seems to disappear. Find clues as you look in on a day in the life of a raindrop. Read the story "Drippy the Raindrop: To the Mountains and Back."

2. Scientists have a special name for the story of a raindrop's life. It is the Water Cycle. Look for clues in a movie about the Water Cycle.

3. Can you remember the different parts of the Water Cycle? What did you learn about evaporation? condensation? precipitation? With your partner take turns answering the questions on a quiz about the Water Cycle. Are you getting closer to solving the mystery?

4. There are more clues to be found. Let's explore evaporation and condensation by doing an experiment.

5. Print out a worksheet and complete it to show what happened in your experiment.

6. Now you'll really need to use those problem-soving skills. Think about precipitation. With your partner use the classroom map to choose three cities in the United States, one located on the west coast, one located in the central U.S., and one on the east coast. Print out a chart for recording the daily temperature and precipitation in these cities for four days.

7. Click to find the weather information you will need for your chart.

8. You have discovered that a temperature of 32 degrees F or below will affect the kind of precipitation that is present. Water can return to the earth as snow. Take turns making virtual snowflakes!

9. Use what you've learned to work together to write a story, draw a poster, or make a book that will show your principal what happened to the water in the puddle outside your school.

Evaluation

A score of 1-4= S-; A score of 5-7=S; A score of 8-9=S+

Conclusion

Congratulations on solving The Mystery of the Disappearing Puddle! As a super sleuth, you have been able to learn about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. You have been able to demonstrate and explain the Water Cycle.

Now that you know about the Water Cycle, you might want to explore some other weather related activities like these:

Make a thunderstorm, lightning, or tornado at http://www.ucar.edu/40th/webweather

Catch a rainbow at http://www.kidzone.ws/science/rainbow.htm

Use evaporation to make a painting at http://www.track0.com/canteach/elementary/physical2.html

Perform a reader's theater with some friends called "Around the Water Cycle" at http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/400.html

Build a rain gauge at http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/reporters/lab/raingauge/what.htm

Teacher Resources

Cloud guide from Utah Education Network. Beautiful images of all types of clouds.

www.uen.org/utahlink/weather/clouds/cloud_id.html

Dan's Wild Wild Weather Page. Comprehensive collection of weather related topics for kids with tons of useful links.

http://www.wildwildweather.com

Scholastic Books. Select "Weather Watch" under the "Online Activities" tab to get help on building forecasting tools, feedback from meteorologists and opportunities to share weather data with classrooms worldwide.

http://teacher.scholastic.com