From discussing our models, most students agreed that water gets underground because it soaks into the ground. We figured out that it would be important to look at the maps of places that we knew had groundwater first, and when looking specifically at Rockford, Galesburg, and Champaign, IL, we saw lots of different types of ground cover. It looked like these areas had different combinations of soil, and in our classroom we had access to sand, gravel, topsoil, and big rocks. The big rocks could represent the streets we saw in these places.
We discussed possible investigations we could do to see if water went down through these earth materials, and we determined it would be hard to see what happened if we didn't have access to under them. Hence, the idea of the clear cup + coffee filter secured with a rubber band was born!
Here are our investigations in action!
We discussed possible investigations we could do to see if water went down through these earth materials, and we determined it would be hard to see what happened if we didn't have access to under them. Hence, the idea of the clear cup + coffee filter secured with a rubber band was born!
Here are our investigations in action!
As the investigations were ongoing, students were recording their observations. Check our some students' work! There was definitely some BIG differences, and we'll be figuring out what our results tell us about how groundwater gets underground. We'll also be modeling what this means to support our thinking!