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Grade 2. In 10 lessons, students develop an understanding about the patterns of land and water on Earth and how humans use those patterns and relationships to map land and water on Earth. Module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Grade 2. Module Highlights: In 10 lessons, students develop an understanding about the patterns of land and water on Earth and how humans use those patterns and relationships to map land and water on Earth. Students begin the module by making observations about the kinds of land and water they can see in a picture of a park, then using those observations to figure out what other kinds of land or water might be in the park but not in the pictures. They follow up their observations by making a raised relief map of what they think someone would see in the park. Students then explore a sub-phenomenon and use their observations of the properties of solid and liquid water and the patterns of where snow and ice can be found on Earth to explain why the tops of some of the mountains in the images of the park are white. In the end-of-module science challenge, students use what they have learned about maps and the kinds of land and water on Earth to convert their relief maps into two-dimensional maps.

This module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Student Readers Available HERE

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• 2-ESS2-2: Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
• 2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
• 2-PS1-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.

• Maps show where things are located. One can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

• Water is found in the ocean, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Water exists as solid ice and in liquid form.

• Different kinds of matter exist and many of them can be either solid or liquid, depending on temperature. Matter can be described and classified by its observable properties.

Science and Engineering Practices
Focal:

• Developing and using models
• Analyzing and interpreting data

• Patterns

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Lesson Summaries
Lesson 1: What Is a Map?
Students observe and describe patterns in the kinds of land and water on Earth, which they use to identify what they see in the pictures of Ada's park and to make predictions about what might be in other parts of the park. Students develop raised relief maps of the section of Ada's park they most think she should visit.
Students share their experiences being in new places and develop questions about Ada's park. They compare different formats of maps to identify common properties.
Lesson 2: Kinds of Land
Students use patterns they find in the shapes and kinds of land on Earth to create categories they can use to identify and label the kinds of land they see in Ada's pictures.
Lesson 3: Ice Investigation
Students figure out that water can exist in both solid and liquid states. They use observable properties of solid water to figure out that snow and ice exist year-round on Earth in areas with cold temperatures, including at the poles and at high elevations.
Students explore the properties of solid and liquid water to provide evidence for their idea that the white stuff on top of the mountains is snow.
Lesson 4: Ice Hunt
Students apply what they learned about the properties of solid water to their observations of satellite images of Earth to describe patterns of where ice and snow exist on Earth year-round.
Lesson 5: Kinds of Water
Students use patterns they find in the shapes and kinds of water to create categories they can use to identify and label the kinds of land they see in Ada's pictures.
Lesson 6: What a Relief!
Students pick the area of Ada's park they think she should visit and create a raised relief map of the kinds of land and water they see there.
Lesson 7: What Are the Patterns of Land and Water on Earth?
Students read a text about patterns of relationships between kinds of land and water on Earth. They use this information to predict what could be in the parts of Ada's park she cannot see and incorporate these predictions into their maps.
Lesson 8: Legend-Ary Maps
Students read a text about how maps communicate information through legends and patterns of symbols. Students apply what they learned to create a legend for their maps.
Science Challenge
Lesson 9: A Map for Ada, Part 1
Students use what they have learned to convert their relief maps into two-dimensional maps that use patterns of symbols and a legend to represent the land and water in Ada's park.
Students convert their models into paper maps by creating patterns of symbols and a legend to represent the kinds of land and water.
Lesson 10: A Map for Ada, Part 2
Students peer check each other's maps to make sure they are easy for Ada to read and understand.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.