Multiple Learning Sources - The Water Cycle

Today in class we added to our water cycle drawings once more and for homework, created a finalized model of The Water Cycle.  However, this was not simply a quick lesson in drawing the various components of the water cycle.  Over the past few classes, we've worked through a number of sources to acquire greater knowledge of the water cycle which attributed personally to my overall understanding of the water cycle.

We began dealing with the water cycle in our new unit: Earth and Space.  The introduction activity involved our science notebooks.  We thought about whether or not we would drink out of a filtered glass of water, essentially a solar sill that used evaporation to filter out the dirty elements of the water.  As we thought about our decision, we needed to use viable reasoning.  Personally, I knew I needed a good amount of work with the water cycle in order to have a more thorough understanding of the content.

 During the solar sill activity, we were asked to sketch our understanding of the water cycle.  I knew the basic components, and included evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.  However, I forgot to include major components such as the sun, snow, or other storage places on the earth that water travels to rather than always just the ocean.  With a partner, I added some of these additions to my cycle.  This was a nice way to remind myself what I needed to include and added another learning resource.

As a class, we watched a short "rap" video targeted for children about the water cycle.  The catchy tune and colorful drawings definitely helped spark some of my prior knowledge, and I was able to add bigger, scientific words to my water cycle such as "transpiration".  This was a different modality dealing with the same material and appealed to a different mode of language that gave me the opportunity to use background knowledge I did not even know I still held on to.

Finally, in class today we read a book about the water cycle following the life of a single raindrop.  As we read the trade book in my group, I added words that were not scientific but were instead, descriptive or helpful to aid in the understanding of my more scientific words.  Reading the book and looking at the diagrams within allowed for another learning source that helped provide me with confidence in terms of actually knowing the content of the water cycle.

As we were assigned homework today, we were told to design an entirely new model of the water cycle.  We could use personal drawings or computer images, which provided a great choice as a student.  Additionally, we were creating a final model.  As I mentioned in the modeling post previously, creating a final model truly allows the student to understand their own learning in a genuine metacognitive way.  I compared my new and final model to the first cycle and saw just how much I had learned and clarified in this short time.  I definitely attribute this great amount of learning to the use of multiple learning sources. I was able to conceptually bring together numerous information to create an in-depth, overall understanding of the water cycle.  Using different modalities and providing information through the various modes of language only adds to the learning sources in a positive way.  By interacting with the material and through the use of models, I was able to create an authentic learning process that I plan on using indefinitely with future students.