Teacher/Grade/Room: Ms.

Topic: Evaporation
Lesson # 1 in a series of 1 lessons
Howard/5/25
Brief Lesson Description/Connection to Other Disciplines: Students practice use of independent,
dependent, and controlled variables in a series of condensation experiments with multiple trials. Students will
analyze patterns and relationships and interpret data (math). They will use evidence to support their analysis
and reasoning (ELA).
Rationale: This lesson is done as an inquiry so that students can determine the roles of a variety of variables
and their influence on evaporation rate.
Learning Objective: Students identify the independent and dependent variable in their experiment. Students
make conclusions about the cause/source of condensation.
Differentiation Strategies:
ELLs: Instructions will be provided in written and verbal form with visual supports. Key vocabulary will be
reviewed and recorded in science notebooks for review.
Visually Impaired: All instructions will be provided in Braille. The students aide and group members will assist
with setting up materials. Struggling Students: Instructions will be provided in written and verbal form with visual
supports. Students will be put in groups with students who can provide peer support.
GATE/Fast Finishers: Students who finish quickly will support peers throughout this experiment.
Narrative / Background Information
Prior Student Knowledge: Students have already completed an inquiry on the effect of location on
evaporation rate and made inferences as to the influence of temperature and surface area. They may have seen
condensation on their water bottles in class.
Science & Engineering
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
Crosscutting Concepts:
Practices:
PS2.B: Types of Interactions
Cause and Effect
Planning and Carrying Out

Measurements of a variety
Cause and Effect
Investigations
of properties can be used to
Cause and effect
Planning and carrying out
identify materials.
relationships are routinely
investigations to answer questions
(Boundary: At this grade
identified, tested, and used
or test solutions to problems in 35
level, mass and weight are
to explain change. (5-PS1builds on K2 experiences and
not distinguished, and no
4)
progresses to include investigations
attempt is made to define

Standard units are used to

that control variables and provide
the unseen particles or
measure and describe
evidence to support explanations or
explain the atomic-scale
physical quantities such as
design solutions.
mechanism of evaporation
weight, time, temperature,

Conduct an investigation
and condensation.) (5-PS1and volume. (5-PS1-2),(5collaboratively to produce
3)
PS1-3)
data to serve as the basis
for evidence, using fair
tests in which variables are
controlled and the number
of trials considered. (5-PS14)

Make observations and

measurements to produce
data to serve as the basis
for evidence for an
explanation of a
phenomenon. (5-PS1-3)
Possible Preconceptions/Misconceptions: Students may think that air is turning into a liquid. They also may
think that the water on the outside of the container in the first demonstration came from inside it, not outside.
LESSON PLAN 5-E Model
ENGAGE (15 minutes): Opening Activity Access Prior Learning / Stimulate Interest / Generate
Questions:

Prior to this lesson, we completed inquiries on the effect of location on evaporation rate, and made
inferences about the influence of temperature and surface area.

Tell students: today we will start another investigation related to water but not evaporation. We will
start with a demonstration

Getters will get two plastic cups. I will fill one with blue (ice water) and one with green (room
temperature water) and ask them to observe the cups.

Ask students after a few minutes: What do you see?

o How did the water get onto the outside of the cup?
o Where did the water come from?
o Did water form on the outside of both cups? Why?

Ask the students: is there anything else we could do to get more information about the water on the
outside of the cup?
o You can use water, cups, paper towels. (Wipe the surface dry and see if the water returns).
o Ask students to compare the color of the water on the inside and outside of the cup.

Introduce condensation: The droplets of liquid water on the outside of the cup came from the water
vapor in the air. What you are observing is condensation. Sometimes, when water vapor touches a
cooler surface, it changes from water vapor gas to liquid water.

Remind them: when water evaporates, it changes from liquid water into invisible water vapor when the
temperature is cool enough.

Ask students: what are some examples that you have seen of condensation? What was the source of
warm water vapor? What made it cool enough to condense?

Inquiry question (after showing students the available materials): How can we use these materials to
investigate condensation?
EXPLORE (10 minutes each day): Lesson Description Probing or Clarifying Questions:

Students will set up their condensation chamber. They will put 50 mL of water (measured with the
syringe) in the dome lid and put a plastic cup on top to make a condensation chamber. We will put them
on a tray in a sunny place and observe what happens after a day. They will put a sticky note underneath
with their group number on it.

***Break for 1 day: move to Elaboration***

Reconvene: Students will retrieve their condensation chambers (if I make them in advance, a pair of
students will go get them from outside).

Ask: what do you see? What made the water vapor condense on the inside of the cup? [Water inside the
closed system evaporated and recondensed when it touched the cool side of the cup.]

Have students measure the amount of water in the chamber to show them that the water did not
evaporate and no water entered the system.
EXPLAIN (20 minutes): Concepts Explained and Vocabulary Defined:

Reading: 189-193, and answer questions. on Day 2

Vocabulary:

Condensation

Freezing point

Frost
ELABORATE (30 minutes total): Applications and Extensions:

Ask students: what might happen if we created a colder surface for water vapor to condense on? After
getting ideas, describe how to make a cold mixture of ice and water:
o Fill your plastic cup half full with crushed ice
o Use the 100-mL beaker to measure 50 mL of rock salt
o Pour the salt over the ice
o Use a stirring stick to mix the salt and ice

Students should observe the outside of the cup carefully: soon there should be condensation. They can
blow their breath gently on the cup to increase the moisture content of the air in the immediate
environment of the cup.

After 10 minutes, the condensation should be freezing. Students can scrape the frost off with the craft
stick to confirm that the water is solid.

Ask students: Why is the condesnation on the cup freezing?

State: The ice-and-salt mixture seems to be very cold. Id like you to measure and record the
temperature in your cup. One person from each group can get the tool we need to measure the
temperature.

Discuss the frost: Why did frost appear on the cups?

State: Water changes from liquid to solid ice at 0 degrees Celsius. We call solid water ice,s now, sleet,
and frost. The forst on your cup is the result of water vapor that condensed on the cold surface of the

cup and then froze because the surface is below the freezing point of water.
EVALUATE (15 minutes):
Formative Monitoring (Questioning / Discussion): Student understanding of each type of variable,
condensation, and temperature will be evaluated through discussion in this investigation. I will circulate
throughout student discussion periods so that I can hear what students who may not participate in discussions
are contributing in their groups.
Summative Assessment (Quiz / Project / Report) (15 minutes): Students will complete a copy of Response
Sheet Condensation and have their I-check on Thursday.
Elaborate Further / Reflect: Enrichment (15 minutes):

How can we apply this experiment to our lives?

Students will read the review for Water Vapor on page 194.
Required Materials
For each group:
Science books

Graduated Cylinder

Dome Lid

Sticky Note

100 mL Beaker

50 mL Syringe

Liter Container

Thermometer

Plastic Cups, 250 mL

Craft Stick

For each student:

Condensation Observation Chart

I-Check 3

For Class:
Pitchers

Food Coloring Set

Rock Salt
Ice