Look for: Water cycling processes, such as evaporation…

1.A Look for students to use:

• Water cycling processes, such as evaporation and precipitation, in their initial causal accounts of floods and droughts. See if students are connecting temperature change to a change in these processes.
• Look at how students’ individual models accounted for these changes in temperature and water cycling processes compared to the model co-constructed by the class. This will give you insight as to where each individual student is in their initial understanding of the phenomenon and their modeling practice to explain it.
• Look at students’ causal accounts to see if they use single words, like evaporation, as a “sufficient” causal explanation, or if they elaborate on a mechanism for how temperature change could affect a water cycle process.
• 1.B Look for students to explain what is causing temperatures to rise using language or images that link the causes (e.g., greenhouse gases) to the effect (rising temperatures).

Ask students to leave their notebooks in the classroom for you to assess their work.

1.A If your students struggle with identifying important parts (components) and processes for the cycling of water, you may need to spend additional time reviewing those key processes before they develop their individual models. If students don’t explain how the change in temperature is causing the changes to the processes and components that the class identified, use prompts to solicit those connections (e.g., I see you are showing that evaporation is changing, can you add some words to explain how that is connected to the increased temperatures?).

1.B If students use language they have heard connected to increased temperatures (e.g., climate change, greenhouse effect, pollution, global warming) but don’t explain how this could cause increased temperatures, prompt them to use words or images to explain what the words they use mean to them, how those processes, such as climate change, work, and how they lead to increased temperatures.

Compare models and explanations in pairs. Display slide T. Explain that, as you were circulating the room, it seemed like we had ideas that were both similar and different across our models. Tell students that we should spend some time comparing our models and explanations to see what we can agree upon and where we aren’t as sure about what is occuring. To help students begin this process, share examples and non-examples of productive comparisons (e.g., a non-productive example would be focusing on the artistry of the drawing or diagram; a productive example would be noting how other students talked about why a change could lead to increased temperatures or floods and droughts).

Arrange students in partner pairs to share their models. Ask students to focus on identifying similarities and differences in what they think is happening to cause increased floods and droughts and increased temperatures.

As partner pairs note similarities between the diagrams, explain that students can make a small check mark on their diagram noting that it is similar to a diagram by their partner. If students have a different idea, or they are confused about part of the system, they can mark those parts of the model with a question mark.