Implementation of “STEAM in the Water Cycle” (SOI-HR-473)
Introduction
As a primary school teacher in the Croatian education system, I teach pupils aged from six and a half to ten years in various subjects, including Croatian language, Mathematics, Art, Music and Physical Education. Through the subject called nature and society, I educate pupils about various societal and natural changes and phenomena.
Also, as a GLOBE teacher, each year I choose several topics about nature that my pupils and I additionally research and study, for example: air quality, climate, clouds, the system of planet Earth, the seasons, soil, and water. These chosen topics always include many indoor and outdoor activities. Other campaigns my pupils and I enjoy participating in are the European Phenology campaigns which follow the growth and development of leaves in Spring and the yellowing and falling leaves in autumn in our school garden.
Searching for Learning scenarios on the Europeana platform which corresponds to the age group of the pupils I teach, I realised that the content we process in Elementary GLOBE Water and Clouds overlaps with the content in the Learning scenario STEAM in the Water Cycle, so I decided to implement exactly this scenario in our extracurricular activity Little GLOBEs.
This school year (from September 2023 until June 2024) as a part of the extracurricular activity Little GLOBEs, one of the comprehensive topics was water, so the pupils learned about water circulation in nature, aggregate states of water, different types of clouds as well as their names, forms and the weather conditions they influence. We discussed water flows and stagnant waters, when and how they evaporate and of course we talked about the different possibilities of saving water.
Ten-second graders aged seven and eight years during the course of four lessons (4 x 90 min) deepened their knowledge of these contents through various activities of singing, dancing, performing experiments, making dioramas and observing clouds in nature. For this, they used GLOBE sources about water, books, presentations, various tasks and online games.
Stages of Implementation
- Presentation of the topic – rain and clouds
In the Learning scenario, the introductory activity was a presentation of the rain so I decided to play a music game with my pupils. However, before that, I showed them some pictures of rain on the Europeana platform and they were asked to guess what the rhythm game would be about.
The pupils were given simple musical instruments as they listened to the story about rain. When the rain was silent they would quietly use their instruments, but as the rain in the story increased its rhythm, they played instruments faster and louder.
Story:
It was a dark night. We heard only a clock beat on the old church tower. It started to rain quietly. And slowly the rain began to turn into a downpour. The rain started pouring heavier and harder. There was a real storm. Suddenly it started to thunder.
The thunder stopped, and the rain slowly began to subside. There were only a few drops of rain. It stopped raining and we heard again a clock beat on the old church tower.
After the rhythm game about rain, they learned a song about rain in the Croatian language named Što je to kiša? (What is rain?)
After that, in groups, the pupils discussed where rain comes from and they all agreed on the same answer: from the clouds, so because of that we learned about clouds using the poster and presentation named Cumulonimbus – the secret is in the Cloud. (https://www.canva.com/design/DAGCUE205ZM/vldIOOG6UhsMeuGdvlZdcg/edit?utm_content=DAGCUE205ZM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton)
The last activity of this lesson was poster making. The pupils created posters about different types of clouds and their names using the book named Oblačasta (Cloudy) by Zoran Vakula, a Croatian meteorologist. In this activity, they used a blue poster, shaving foam, cotton wool and felt-tip pens.
2. Learning about the water cycle
In this lesson we started with the poster of the water cycle (https://www.canva.com/design/DAFXVy0Xxpk/VKyNTus4XIbz4HneNSxbHA/edit?utm_content=DAFXVy0Xxpk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton) and the pupils learned new words and their meaning in the Croatian language:
- Evaporation: the sun heats up water on land, in oceans, seas and streams, and turns it into water vapour. The water vapour rises into the air.
- Condensation: water vapour in the air cools down and changes back into tiny drops of liquid water, forming clouds.
- Precipitation: the clouds get heavy and water falls back to the ground in the form of rain or snow.
- Water returns to the sea: rainwater runs over the land and collects in lakes or rivers, which take it back to the sea. The cycle starts all over again.
We discussed what is necessary for water to evaporate, and pupils remembered how clouds form in the sky (from the previous lesson).
The next activity was making a diorama about the water cycle. The pupils needed to show what they had learned. They used shoe boxes, collage paper, plasticine and felt-tip pens. This allowed them to be creative and not only use art skills but also apply their knowledge about the water cycle as well as the new terminology they had learned. At the end of this lesson, they presented their creations to each other.
3. Hands-on experiments:
At the beginning of this lesson, the pupils asked each other questions about clouds and the water cycle from the last two lessons. This gave them the opportunity to test their knowledge and explain the new words they had learned.
After that, we discussed the possibility of making a cloud and rain in a jar. The pupils didn’t believe it was possible and were very excited to proceed with these experiments.
The first experiment was the Rain cloud in a jar. I provided a jar with cool water, shaving foam and blue food colouring. I instructed the pupils to create a cloud on top of the water with shaving foam. Using a pipette, they squirted food colouring on top of the water.
The second experiment was making Cloud in a jar. I poured hot water into a jar and the pupils covered it with a plate. After 3 minutes they put some ice cubes on the plate and were asked to predict what should happen. The hot water inside the jar was evaporating into the air inside the jar as water vapour. When the pupils put the ice on top of the plate, it cooled down the water vapour. As a result, the water vapour turned into water droplets. The water was too heavy to float in the air and fell back to the bottom of the jar. This is how they created a water cycle in the jar.
We then talked about pouring water from one vessel to another without tilting the vessel. As the children often do this in real life, they concluded that it was impossible. However, after that, according to the instructions, they conducted an experiment. The pupils arranged 10 small cups in the shape of a heart. They poured water into every other cup and painted it with different food colours. The cups didn’t touch each other. They folded wipes over the edges of the cups and waited for the water to walk from one cup to another.
4. Learning the vocabulary related to capacity
We started this activity with a discussion: Can the glass be half full or half empty. The pupils gave me various answers and explanations.
Having learned the meaning of empty, full, half full, nearly empty and nearly full by watching a presentation (https://www.canva.com/design/DAGCaCKxtXk/sIfgRv8B7HkiLmvkQWKIIw/edit?utm_content=DAGCaCKxtXk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton), I allowed some thinking time, then elicited from the children the capacity word for each bottle. After the presentation, they played an online game on Wordwall (https://wordwall.net/resource/71653296) with different containers holding different amounts of water so they could practice new terms.
In our school garden, we have a GLOBE container to measure the amount of water (rain) in it. GLOBE students are already familiar with the procedure and they have a specially prepared sheet (https://www.canva.com/design/DAE3Z28YaRw/Qb5cMkSALwEHHv-0kFHiCA/edit?utm_content=DAE3Z28YaRw&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton) exactly for this purpose so in this part of the template we made changes.
Every day the pupils explored the GLOBE jar that is placed in a suitable place in the school garden. Each day at the same time, the pupils looked in the jar and if it was raining, they emptied it. Every week one pupil oversaw monitoring.
The last activity involved group work in which the pupils tried to explain how people can collect rainwater and conserve it for household use, thus reducing tap water consumption. They presented their findings to the rest of the pupils in our class.
Learning outcomes
By implementing this learning scenario, the pupils were able to connect their already acquired knowledge and abilities with new ones. During the various activities, I tried to connect these teaching contents in a cross-curriculum approach combining music, art, mathematics, science and Croatian language outcomes.
During these lessons and through the implementation of this scenario, the pupils:
- developed rhythmic abilities and collaboration in a group
- spotted and named different clouds
- expanding the vocabulary by learning new words
- described the water cycle
- developed creativity by making a water cycle diorama
- experimented with water
- made conclusions based on observations
- developed social and communication skills
- developed digital skills using digital tools
- developed critical thinking
- systematically monitored daily weather conditions
Outcomes for the educator
Initially, I must admit that as someone who works with younger pupils, I was sceptical about the materials available on Europeana. However, after utilizing the platform for some time, I’ve come to realize that it serves as an excellent support system for my work. My constant quest for diverse and fresh content for my pupils, showcasing materials from around the globe, helps me convey the message that children are intelligent and interconnected, often in ways they might not realize, with peers of their age worldwide. As a primary school teacher, I thrive on discovering diverse learning scenarios and integrating them with my own ideas, customizing them according to the age group I am currently teaching. Continuous professional development is crucial to me, and Europeana proves to be the perfect platform for discovering exceptional teaching materials applicable across all subjects. Another significant aspect is that I can seamlessly integrate these materials into various activities I conduct with my pupils.
Link to the learning scenario implemented: STEAM in the Water Cycle (LS-MT-235) – Teaching With Europeana (eun.org)
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CC0 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Finnish National Gallery.