Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
Mila filled a glass at the tap. "Grandpa, is this new water?" Her grandpa laughed. "There is no new water. That water is older than the dinosaurs. It might have been in the sea, in a glacier, inside a tree or inside a camel." Mila looked at the glass. "So where has it been?" Your job: become a water drop, travel the world, and keep a log of every place you go.
Everyone travels alone. In the Reveal, teams of three take rotating jobs: Reader (reads the logs aloud), Counter (tallies the stations) and Recorder (writes the team's answers).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
13 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Station cards (1 of 4)
- Worksheet: Station cards (2 of 4)
- Worksheet: Station cards (3 of 4)
- Worksheet: Station cards (4 of 4)
- Worksheet: Spinner
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- My travel log
- Class totals after turn 10
- Draw my journey
- Postcard from my drop
- Station cards (1 of 4)
- Station cards (2 of 4)
- Station cards (3 of 4)
- Station cards (4 of 4)
- Spinner
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 3 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Names the processes
- Understands clouds
- Sees many paths
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “Where has the water in your glass been?” take?
45–60 min. Group size: whole class, moving alone between 8 stations.
How much prep does it need?
15 minutes. Print the eight station cards (one set per class) and tape each to a desk or wall, spread around the room. Print one spinner per station (two for the Ocean and Cloud, which get crowded). Students spin their own pencil on it. Copy the student sheet, one per student.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): 5-ESS2-1 (partly) and MS-ESS2-4 (partly). It also matches England National Curriculum, Year 4 and Cambridge Primary Science (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “My travel log”, “Class totals after turn 10”, “Draw my journey”, “Postcard from my drop”, “Station cards (1 of 4)”, “Station cards (2 of 4)”, “Station cards (3 of 4)”, “Station cards (4 of 4)”, “Spinner”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 3 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.