So after our shared "dish-washing experience" yesterday, we agreed that we should probably try to think about what all of related phenomena share in common. There's some sort of clean water and dirty water in each situation, so we developed our initial models around this idea. Check out some of the 5th graders' ideas:
After individual students shared out, we discussed what our models shared in common and how they differed.
We agreed that there was some sort of thing that the clean water came out of (and that the water came from pipes), it got dirty somehow, and went down a drain into some pipes.
We agreed that there was some sort of thing that the clean water came out of (and that the water came from pipes), it got dirty somehow, and went down a drain into some pipes.
This set the stage to come to consensus on what we all knew so far, and we drew this model together to establish our Driving Question for the Unit: Where does my clean water come from and where does it go once we make it dirty?