MS-ESS2-4
The standard
Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to build and explain a model of the water cycle that shows movement through the atmosphere, land, ocean, ice, groundwater, and living things. They should connect each movement to either sunlight, gravity, or both, and show when water changes state, such as evaporation, condensation, freezing, and melting.
Mastery looks like a clear model with labeled pathways, energy sources, and state changes, plus an explanation of why water moves that way. Students often get stuck treating the cycle as one simple circle, forgetting groundwater, runoff, transpiration, and storage in ice or oceans.
Ways to teach it
- Set up a mini water cycle in a sealed plastic bag with colored water, tape it to a sunny window, and track changes daily.
- Ask students to write how one water droplet could travel from the ocean to a glacier to a river using sun and gravity.
- Use an exit ticket where students label three arrows in a water cycle model with the force or energy causing movement.
- Connect to local weather by tracing how rain from a recent storm may have moved through soil, drains, streams, and the atmosphere.
Plan a lesson for MS-ESS2-4
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Related standards
- HS-ESS2-4
Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth systems result in changes in climate.
- MS-LS2-3
Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
- MS-ESS2-1
Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
- HS-ESS2-6
Develop a quantitative model to describe the cycling of carbon among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.