Join Chesapeake Bay Foundation educators Maya, Rick, and Norah as they lead you on a journey through the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Investigate how we are all part of a watershed as you twist and turn from the Appalachian Mountains, through the rivers and streams of Piedmont, all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay. Along your journey, you’ll meet the unique critters that call the watershed home. You’ll also explore what you can do in your own neighborhood to protect the environment and become a Backyard Bay Saver! 

These are simple ways to demonstrate water chemistry concepts such as adhesion, cohesion, and polarity to students in a hands on way using easy to find and inexpensive lab materials. The lesson was originally designed to align with a biology course to teach the impact of water on life, but it could also be modified to fit a chemistry or physical science curriculum.

This resource is the test I use at the end of the 10th grade Biology unit on molecules of life. The main topics are macromolecules, pH, and water. It consists of 40 multiple choice questions, mainly knowlege/vocabulary based.

Video description:  In this close-up video, Jacob Torres, Technical and Horticultural Scientist at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, shares how space biology brings together his love of engineering and growing plants. For his work, he builds technology that supports growing crops in ways that have never been done before.  Video length:  2:35.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos are professionally developed to capture a glimpse of NASA SME's personal interests and career journeys. Each can be used to spark student interest and broaden their ideas of the STEM workforce. Additional videos in this series can be found by searching GoOpenVA using "NASA eClips Ask SME".

Video Description:  No matter where plants grow, they have the same basic needs: water, nutrients, light, temperature, and atmosphere. No matter where humans may live, they need plants. Dr. Gioia Massa explains how NASA grows plants on the International Space Station in preparation for growing plants beyond Earth and, someday, on the Moon and Mars. Jacob Torres describes the hardware needed to provide open and closed systems for plant growth in space. This video shows how NASA scientists and engineers work together to learn more about ways plants live, grow, and adapt to live in varying environments.  Video Length:  5:44.NASA eClips Our World videos (grades 3-5) help students understand the differences between science (the natural world) and engineering (the designed world).  These video segments supplement elementary learning objectives not only in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but also in reading, writing, visual and performing arts.

NASA eClips Real World:  Food Security -- Monitoring Crops from SpaceVideo Description:  Discover how NASA's Earth-observing satellites gather data to monitor food growth. Dr. Inbal Becker-Reshef describes how mathematics is used to interpret satellite data and describe vegetation and crop yield. Dr. Hannah Kerner shares how algorithms and models use NASA data to describe and predict food supply and food shortages. This work through NASA Harvest provides tools for farmers and governments to describe and predict food security worldwide. Video Length:  5:25.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Students will perform a universal solvent lab to observe how water behaves when mixed with various substances.

This ThingLink provides links to several OERs curated from various repositories (oercommons.org, sharemylesson.com, curriki.org, app.partcipate.com) that all deal with teaching the states of matter to upper elementary students.  There is a full lesson plan from Ohio State University that deals with the water cycle, and specifically, with storage of fresh water in glaciers and snow.  There is a lot of information regarding student misconceptions and how to teach the content, as well as literacy resources and student engagement activities.  There is also a link to a full unit plan of labs and investigations, including PowerPoints and lab sheets for students.  Linked on this ThingLink, you'll also find an introduction video from PBS and a song about matter on YouTube.  Please feel free to add resources to remix!!

This should be used as a teacher demonstration to give students a visual representation of the amount of water available on earth and where it is located.