Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking

connection)
Teacher: Sisely Hatch
Content & Title:
Grade Level: 3
Water Conservation

Standards:

PO 5. Describe how environmental factors (e.g., soil composition, range of temperature, quantity and quality of
light or water) in the ecosystem may affect a member organisms ability to grow, reproduce, and thrive.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
After reading the book Should I Save Water, completing a worksheet on How Much Water is Used,
and calculating their own Water Footprint Calculator, students will be able to I

Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):

Formative- Exit ticket with one or two sentences identifying what they learned
Summative- Presenting of poster boards
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from
simple to more complex):
Students will be able to
Students will be able to
Students will be able to
Students will be able to

identify five ways to conserve water

understand what water conservation is and why its important
draw one way to conserve water on a poster board
persuade others why conserving water is necessary
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what
students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)
In this lesson students will be exploring the world around them and get an understanding of how the
environment is affected by them. Students will need to understand how much water they have available
to them and if they dont use it wisely eventually we will run out. They will learn about what life would
be like without enough water on Earth and come up with ideas on how to better use these natural
resources. By the end of this lesson students will be inspired to take responsibility of water use and the
Earth we live on.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this
lesson)
Before this lesson students will need to know the water cycle, the different forms of water, and how
people get their water both in Phoenix and in the country.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)

The term conservation is misunderstood. People often think of conservation as just cutting back
on water use, when its also about the efficiency in doing what we want but with less water use.

Water savings are small when we conserve water.

Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)
I am introducing and reinforcing the skills of understanding of the natural enviornments resources and
how it plays a role into their everyday lives.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your
lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of
thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included
meaningfully in the lesson plan.)
In the worksheet How Much Water Does it Take it incorporates systems thinking by having students look
at a product life cycle of a pair of jeans. Students look at each step in the life of a pair of jeans: step 1 is
growing cotton, step 2 is making fabric out of the cotton, step 3 is cutting, sewing, and packaging, step
4 is transporting the jeans, and step 5 is washing and wearing the jeans. Students will look at how many
liters of water is used in each step of the cycle and begin to realize that the washing and wearing the
jeans uses the most amount of water.
Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?)
Saferty rules include how to use technology in the classroom, normal behavior rules to ensure safety,
and how to use materials when creating things (how to use scissors correctly).
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. (to explore) What would happen if the world ran out of water?
2. (to elaborate) What could we do to prevent running out of water? What are some ways to
conserve water and is this attainable?

Key vocabulary: (list and define)

1. Conservation: The preservation, protection, or

restoration of the natural environment
2. Perserving: Maintaining something in its
natural state
3. Natural resource: Materials or substances
such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile
land that occur in nature and can be used for
economic gain.
4. Life cycle: The cycle through which every
product goes through from introduction to
withdrawal or eventual demise.
5. Water footprint: The amount of fresh water
utilized in the production or supply of the
goods and services used by a particular
person or group.
6. Persuade: Cause (someone) to do something
through reasoning or argument.

Materials: (list item and possible

quantity)
1. Book
2. Water footprint worksheet
3. Product Life Cycle worksheet
4. Posters
5. Markers/Color pencils
6. Laptops/Tablets
(All worksheets attached to the bottom of
the lesson plan)

Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students
will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:

After completing the slide show I would then

move into the lesson with other meaningful
learning activities.
Teacher will play a slideshow once students
are at their tables. The slideshow will present
pictures of conserving water vs. wasting
water (brushing teeth with water off on one
slide and a slide with brushing teeth with
water on).
I would ask students if the picture shows
images of wasting water or conserving water.
I wouldnt tell them whether they were wrong
or right, since this is just an introduction.
(Their answers will give a clear idea of what
they know and dont understand).
After the slideshow is over I will have the
students guess as to what water conservation
is. Then I will explain water conservation is
about reducing our water waste.
I would then ask the students why they think
its important to conserve water and what
would happen if we used up all of the water in
our rivers and streams.
I will then ask students to go to the reading
area so we can read a book.
I will read the book Should I Save Water? By
Jen Green
I will read the book out to the students, while
asking comprehension questions such as,
what is one way that Kirsty said he could do
to conserve water? and why is it important
to conserve the water?
After the book has been read, one by one, I
will have students come up and write one
way to conserve water.

Walk into the class and sit in their seats

Particapte in the conversation
Go to the reading circle
Answer comprehension questions based
on the book by Jen Green
List ways to Conserve Water on the white
board

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

When I begin the lesson of study I will clarify the purpose and learning goals
Classroom discussion so students can learn from eachother

Allowing students to ask questions

Teacher reading the book aloud instead of students reading it individually, so students who
struggle with reading wont get overwhelmed by the opening of the lesson

Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials
to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in
Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger students,
but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)
Students Will: (list all steps)

After each student has participated in writing

on the white board I will ask them to go back
to their seats.
I will put the students in groups and hand out
an article titled How Much Water Does it Take.
After each group has read the article I will ask
them questions like, How much water does it
take to make a car? How about a glass of
orange juice?
Then we will look at the diagram at the
bottom of the worksheet that shows a
products life cycle (strategic thinking).
As a class we will look at each step of making
a pair of jeans and the steps that are
involved.
We will then add up the amount of water used
in liters.
I will ask students to share with a partner
what step in the cycle uses the most water
and why that could be?

Students will get into groups and read How Much Water
Does it Take
Participate in the conversation
After looking at a jeans product life cycle students will add
up the amount of liters used
Students will participate in the question of which step in the
cycle used the most amount of water?

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Class discussion so students can learn from eachother

Working in groups so struggling students can help from peers
Teacher giving whole-group feedback as they are working on projects

Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects
student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students
articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson sub-objectives
by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:

Students will be asked to get out their Water

Footprint Calculator that had been completed
as homework the previous week.
I will pick a few students to share with the
class how much water they used the previous
week.
As a class I would ask the following questions:
Did you use more or less water than you
expected? Did you use water unnecessarily?
If you knew you would not have the amount
of water you used, which activities would you
eliminate and why?
I would then ask the students to think silently
about some ways they could limit the amount
of water they used.
Then they will share with a partner some of
their ideas.

Get out their Water Footprint Calulator

Share their worksheet with the class
Participate in class discussion
Think silently about how they could limit
the amount of water they used
Share their ideas with a partner

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Sharing with partners so they can learn from pers

Class discussion to help those who are struggling
Think-pair-shares

Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and
clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of
this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order thinking in this
stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If? question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:

I will tell the students they had so many good

ideas about conserving water, that it would
be helpful to share their information with
others to convince them to save water as
well.
I will tell students that it is called persuasion
when you want to convince other people to
do something. I will also explain that they will
be creating a poster to persuade people to
conserve water.
On the board I will project an image of
different ways to conserve water so they
students can reference back for more ideas.
Student will chose one topic to write about. I
will tell students that there posters must
show and tell the reader how they can
conserve water. I will ask a few students to
share ideas they have.
I will provide students with poster paper and
writing instruments. I will also hand out
laptops/tablets to students so that they can
look up different ideas.
Students will begin to construct their
persuasive posters.

Students will think of what they want to

persuade other to do.
Some of the students will share their
ideas. For example, I will write turn off
the water while brushing your teeth.
Then I will draw a picture of someone
brushing their teeth with the water off.
Students will create their posters.

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Promoting student engagement through technology

Project based learning
Metacognitive strategies

Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson

objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big
concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:

Instruct the students to present their

Present their posters to the class

posters to the class
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
I will evaluate based on the following criteria: Could the students identify at least 5 ways in which water
is used? Did they complete the data water collection? Did the students identify and illustrate one way of
conserving water?
After they present their posters I will have students go out into the hall and hang their posters for other
students to see.
Before they leave class I will ask them to complete an exit ticket where they will write one to two
sentences summarizing what they learned in class.

**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance
the learning outcomes. In each section where prompted, list the best
practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.