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Earth's Water at the Desert Trackway Tent

Investigate Earth-water models at a desert field tent, graph salt and fresh water, and evaluate claims using numerical evidence.

Grade 5ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to5-ESS2-2

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
14 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer, Drawing

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students graph rounded amounts of Earth's salt water and fresh water using a shared scale.
Students compare class estimates with reference data about Earth's water distribution.
Students use numerical evidence to explain Earth's water distribution and identify freshwater storage places.

How to use

Read the investigation together and distinguish the teams' first estimates from the reference data. Provide graph paper for the Earth-water graph, then have students evaluate the models independently.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

5-ESS2-2

Graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water on Earth to show how water is distributed.

Preview

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Earth's Water at the Desert Trackway Tent

Test water models and graph Earth's salt water and fresh water.

Investigate the First Estimates

Read the investigation. The graph shows the teams' first estimates, not measured amounts of Earth's water.

A Model Investigation at the Field Tent

A fifth-grade class visits a desert trackway field tent, where researchers study animal footprints. The nearby streambed is dry. Before exploring the tracks, the class investigates a question: How should a model divide Earth's water between salt water and fresh water? Their model represents water across the planet, not just water near the tent.

Step 1: Each team receives 200 equal paper squares and two labeled mats: Salt water and Fresh water. Each square represents 10 water units, so each team's complete model represents 2,000 units. The squares stand for amounts of water, not equal-sized areas on a map. Teams keep the number of squares and the value of each square the same.

Step 2: Teams place their squares on the mats to show their first estimates. They change how many squares are assigned to each water type. They count the squares on each mat and multiply by 10 to record water units. Gecko estimates 250 fresh water units; Scorpion estimates 600; Fennec estimates 50; and Jerboa estimates 900. Each team's remaining squares represent salt water.

Step 3: The class checks a reference card based on rounded scientific estimates. For a complete model of 2,000 equal water units, the card gives 1,950 salt water units and 50 fresh water units. These are rounded model amounts, not measurements made at the desert tent. Ocean water belongs in the salt water group. Fresh water includes water frozen in glaciers and ice sheets, fresh water underground, and water in rivers, lakes, and other places.

Step 4: Teams compare their first estimates with the reference card. They move squares between the mats without adding or removing squares. They count again and record their revised results. Each team ends with 195 squares on the Salt water mat and 5 on the Fresh water mat. They check that the two counts still total 200.

Step 5: Students prepare graphs of the reference amounts. Their graphs will show amounts of water using matching units and one shared scale. They will also explain what the paper squares represent. A square assigned to fresh water does not necessarily represent water flowing in a stream; it can represent fresh water stored in another place.