Science Unit # 5 Pacing Plan: WEATHER

Week 1
Day 1- All About Weather
1. Put up picture of sunset over the St. Louis Arc. Have students connect with the picture silently. Have
students share their thoughts with a partner. After one student has shared, have them switch roles and
have the second student talk about the picture making sure to not repeat anything the first person said.
2. Setup science notebooks: quarter 2, weather title page with illustrations, table of contents, and
glossary.
3. Write the word weather on the board. Have students write the same in their notebook on the page
titled All About Weather. Have the students brainstorm any words they can think of related to weather.
After they have had time to write in their own notebooks, share as a class. Dictated all of the words
stated on the board.
Day 2- Evaporation
1. Begin with a review of the three states of matter, ask students to identify them and write them on the
board.
2. Draw a picture of a puddle on the board. Tell the students it is a hot day and after a few hours, the
puddle disappears. Ask students what is happening. Write the word evaporation on the board.
3. Write the definition/formula of evaporation on the board. Liquid to a gas. Have students repeat
several times while pointing to the words.
4. Begin first experiment.
a. Put 400 ml of water in two different pans.
b. Place one pan on the middle table and the other on the counter with a fan pointing directly at
the pan.
c. Ask the students to predict what is going to happen.
d. Set a timer for 30 minutes.
5. Begin second experiment.
a. Fill two coffee mugs with the same amount of water.
b. Heat one of the cups of water and leave the other one at room temperature.
c. Take two clear plastic cups and place them over the coffee mugs.
d. Observe what happens.
e. Discuss that evaporation is taking place quicker in the hot mug than the cold cup.
f. Explain that the invisible gas is called water vapor.
6. After 30 minutes check the two pans. Discuss how the fan affected the rate of evaporation in the
same way the heat did.
7. Have students complete the evaporation experiment sheet and paste it in their notebooks.
Day 3: Condensation
1. Ask students: What did we talk about yesterday? What is evaporation? What factors did we discuss
that affect the rate of evaporation? What is water vapor?
2. Write the definition/ formula for evaporation on the board (liquid becoming a gas).
3. Ask the following question: What happens to the water vapor
after it rises into the air? Have student share responses. Hold up vocabulary card if students
answer, or to give students the answer. Put the card on the word wall: condensation
4. Inform students that they will now be discussion what happens after evaporation, condensation.
5. Ask students: Since we know evaporation turns liquid to a gas (point to the terms on the board), who
wants to guess what condensation is?
6. Write the definition/formula for condensation on the board (gas turning into a liquid).
7. Ask students to get out their water bottles and place them on their desks.
8. Have students observe all of the bottles at their tables to see if they can find an example of
condensation. Hold up good examples to share with the class.
8. Ask the class: Does anyone know of another example of condensation? Act out blowing your breath
onto a window and then writing on it to get the students thoughts flowing.
9. After sharing examples of condensation, explain that they will now complete an experiment as a class.
10. Hand out the condensation experiment page.
11. Call one student to read the first paragraph. Ask students: Who remembers what experiment we did
yesterday? Show the materials, and explain that they will be doing the same one, but looking for
something different.
12. Begin the experiment:
a. Show the students that there two mugs filled with hot water. Place the two plastic cups over
the top and observe what happens (review of yesterdays experiment).
b. Remind students that the water in the heat cup is evaporating and turning into water vapor
more quickly than in the other mug.
c. Ask students: What do you think is forming at the top of the cups?
d. Explain that condensation is occurring and have tables come up two at a time to observe the
water drops formed through condensation using the magnifying glass.
e. Next, ask the students: What do you think we can do to speed up condensation? Remind
them that heating water increased the rate of evaporation.
f. Show ice cubes if the answer is not said.
g. Have one volunteer come up to put the ice cubes on the top of one the cups. Ask students to
form a prediction: What do you think is going to happen? What will we see?
h. Wait two to three minutes while the students observe from their seats while filling out the
condensation page.
i. When time is up, have tables again come up to observe the cups using the magnifying glass.
Ask each group: What do you see? (Bigger water drops on the cup with the ice). How is this
different from the cup without ice?
j. When everyone has seen the cups, ask the class as a whole: What were the results of this
experiment? How were the two cups different? What can we conclude about how temperature
affects condensation?
13. Display the Science Fusion e-book on the Air play. Read the first paragraph of the section together as
a class. Have students hold up their fingers to count the steps in the process described.
14. Have students act out the process and the teacher does it. Explain that there is a puddle, then the
sun warms it up, and evaporation occurs. As the water vapor gets higher into the atmosphere they cool
and turn back to water.
14. Ask students: What do you think is formed out of all the water particles formed from condensation
(clouds).
15. Have students complete their condensation experiment page and glue it on the correct page in their
science notebooks.


EVAPORATION

What are the three states of matter?

_________________, _________________, and _________________

What is evaporation?




What did the fan represent? Did the fan affect how much water evaporated? Explain the
results:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________


Explain what is happening in the cup experiment. (Which one shows evaporation?
Why/how? What heats up water on Earths surface?)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________


What factors can affect the rate of evaporation?
______________________________________________________________________

When water evaporates, it forms an invisible gas called _________________________