Service Learning in Natural Resources

It was the first day after break and I still hadn't received a copy of Project WET. Rather than cancel I decided that by getting Jake's activity manual around noon I would be able to prepare this simple 50 min WET activity without a problem. I was assigned "Molecules in Motion", which is a very basic activity that covers and demonstrates the action of water molecules through the three states (ice, water, vapor.) The only preparation necessary was to have knowledge of these states of water and to have a flashlight with a blue and red color filter (I made this with markers and saran wrap.)

I could tell right off that this was going to be a whole different monster than anything I had done so far with PLT. The class had 22 very active students . The teacher, Mr. Kitts, did very well to keep the group in order. Overall, they really weren't that bad, but it was a big jump from 5 subdued after-school 4-H children. I also felt like because this was in a classroom there was a lot more pressure to perform, especially in regards to covering SOL objectives.

In order to fill the time I started off with a bit of an interactive lesson on the properties of water. We talked about how water is made up of molecules of Hydrogen and Oxygen. They each took out a sheet of paper and drew a picture of what happens to an icecube on a windowsill. This went on to discuss the different states of water and how heat affects these states of water. We followed this discussion with an activity where the children all clumped together in the middle of the classroom. They were all molecules of ice and we shined a red filtered flashlight on them that symbolized heat. As they heated up they bumped together and ended up bouncing all over the room (the kids loved this, unfortunately my camera battery was dead.) This then moved on to us shining a blue filtered flashlight on them that symbolized cool air. They then slowed back down and clumped back together. They had acted out the three stages of water.

Following the exercise I had them all flip their sheet of paper over and illustrate the process of what happens to water molecules as they go from ice to water to vapor. I went around to each of the four table pods to have a student volunteer to share their drawing (they were rather reluctant to do this.) I also had students share examples of water changing shape. Jake finished off this discussion with an example of how if you put a snowball into a freezer it will diminish to a puddle because of how dry the freezer air is. We talked a little about what our future plans were (prompted by Mr. Kitts) and that was that. Total time was about 45 minutes.

I felt that for the amount of preparation I was able to do for this exercise it went very well. I look forward to going back into the classroom again. Fifth graders are surely a challenge, but it was a lot of fun to be in the classroom and to entertain a larger group.

Service Learning in Natural Resources

FOR 4974

Kipps Elementary School