Earth Science · Earth's Water
Where Is Earth's Water?
Use a rounded 100-part model and scaled graphs to describe how Earth's water and freshwater are distributed among major reservoirs.
Teacher workspace
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51 min~9 min prep6 materialsNGSS verified · 5-ESS2-2
Lesson Plan
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Lesson overview
What students will learn
- Use a rounded 100-part model to describe the large difference between saltwater and freshwater in Earth's total water.
- Represent and interpret a simplified freshwater-reservoir dataset with a consistent graph scale.
Key science ideas
- A useful rounded model shows about 97 of every 100 parts of Earth's water as saltwater and about 3 parts as freshwater.
- Freshwater is stored in several reservoirs rather than one place.
- A simplified freshwater-only model can show a large share in ice and glaciers, a large share underground, and a much smaller share in surface/other freshwater.
Lesson at a glance
- Grade 5
- 51 min
- ~9 min prep
- 5-ESS2-2
- 6 materials
What’s included
- Lesson Plan
- Investigation
- Teacher Slides
- Printable Worksheet
- Teacher Answer Key
- Interactive Activity
- Vocabulary