Earth's Freshwater

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

5

Overview

Most people have heard Earth referred to as "the water planet." With that name comes the rightful image of a world with plentiful water. In photographs taken from space, we can see that our planet has more water than land. However, of all the water on Earth, more than 99 percent of Earth's water is unusable by humans and many other living things - only about 0.3 percent of our freshwater is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers, and swamps. The teacher guide describes our current understanding of water cycling and freshwater issues that affect natural and human communities.

Science (2015) Grade(s): 5

SC15.5.15

Identify the distribution of freshwater and salt water on Earth (e.g., oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, polar ice caps) and construct a graphical representation depicting the amounts and percentages found in different reservoirs.

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Vocabulary

  • Fresh water
  • Salt water
  • Oceans
  • Lakes
  • Rivers
  • Glaciers
  • Ground water
  • Polar ice caps
  • Reservoir
  • Graph

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Nearly all of Earth's available water is in the ocean.
  • Most fresh water is in glaciers or underground; only a tiny fraction is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Graph the given data (using standard units) about the amount of salt water and the amount of fresh water in each of the following reservoirs, as well as in all the reservoirs combined, to address a scientific question:
    • Oceans.
    • Lakes.
    • Rivers.
    • Glaciers.
    • Ground water.
    • Polar ice caps.
  • Use the graphs of the relative amounts of total salt water and total fresh water in each of the reservoirs to describe that:
    • The majority of water on Earth is found in the oceans.
    • Most of the Earth's fresh water is stored in glaciers or underground.
    • A small fraction of fresh water is found in lakes, rivers, wetlands, and the atmosphere.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Standard units are used to measure and describe physical quantities such as the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

National Geographic

License Type

Custom
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