Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
Earth is called the blue planet, and from space it looks mostly like water. So why do some towns run short of water every summer? Why do people in some countries walk hours to fetch it? A visitor from another planet asks, "If you have so much water, what is the problem?" Your team's job: find out where all of Earth's water really is, show it on a grid of 100 squares, and explain the problem to the visitor.
Teams of three, with rotating jobs: Reader (reads the data card aloud), Shader (shades the grid while the others check), Checker (makes sure the squares add up to 100).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
9 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Data cards
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- Grid A: all of Earth's water
- Grid B: just the fresh water
- Bar graph: that last square (Data card C)
- Reply to the visitor
- Data cards
- 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
- Represents the data
- Describes the amounts
- Explains why it matters
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “Where is all of Earth's water?” take?
45–60 min. Group size: teams of 3, then the whole class.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes. Print the data cards (one set per team, cut apart) and the student sheet (one per student). Clear a space at the front of the room for the human model. Coloured pencils help but plain pencil shading works.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): 5-ESS2-2. It also matches 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”, “Grid A: all of Earth's water”, “Grid B: just the fresh water”, “Bar graph: that last square (Data card C)”, “Reply to the visitor”, “Data cards”, “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.