P.S. 211 Winter 2023 STEM Newsletter (5th Grade)
The Earth System
Fifth grade Engineers have been exploring their second science unit by gathering evidence from texts, investigating and collecting data using digital simulations, developing models and discussing their ideas with classmates.
In this unit, students investigate what makes East Ferris, a city on one side of the fictional Ferris Island, prone to water shortages while a city on the other side is not by studying the following big ideas:
- Almost all of Earth’s water is salt water in the ocean. The limited amount of freshwater is mostly in glaciers and groundwater.
- The amount of available freshwater decreases when people use more than the amount that flows into their area.
- Drops of water can form when enough water vapor gets cold and condenses into liquid water.
- When the wind blows toward a mountain, the mountain can direct the wind upward, moving water vapor higher in the atmosphere.
We encourage you to ask your 5th Grade Engineer about what they are learning in class!
- How can people affect how much freshwater is available?
- How do raindrops form?
- Where in the atmosphere does water vapor condense?
- How does water vapor move to different areas in the atmosphere?
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Important Vocabulary Within This Newsletter:
- Engineer
- Groundwater
- Source
- Drought
- Shortage
- Biosphere
- Hydrosphere
- Reservoir
- Condensation
- Water vapor
- Atmosphere
- Molecule
- Evaporation
- Melt
- Precipitation
- System
- Constraints
- Resource
- Collaboration
- Design
- Criteria
- Iterate
