Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking

connection)
Teacher:
Content & Title:
Grade Level:
Ms. Tara Mori
Water systems in 4th
Phx Science
Standards:
PO 1. Identify the sources of water within an environment (e.g.,
ground water, surface water, atmospheric water, glaciers).
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
Students will locate two different places we get our drinking water in
phx Arizona
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
(formative) Where do you think our water comes from?
(summative) Turn and talk
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from
simple to more complex):

Explore maps looking for water

Consider which water sources bring water to your school
Discuss/write/draw about their findings
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what
students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)

Students will look at maps with a partner and think about where our water
comes from. This is important for students to know so they are aware of
where we get out water from.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this
lesson)
Students will need know basic map skills.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)
Students might be confused about how natural system connects to human system.

Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)

PO 4. Locate information (e.g., book, article, website) related to an
investigation.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your
lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of
thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included
meaningfully in the lesson plan.)
The over all meaning of this lesson is to encourage students to conserve water for our
future. My lesson plan connects to futures thinking, the defintion of futures thinking is
thinking about how the past and the present influnce the future. If these water canals were
never made then we would have a hard time getting our water here in the desert. Water
canals play a huge roll on how we get our water. This affects our future by, this is our main
source of water.

Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be adressed.)

No safety rules need to be addressed.

Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)

1. (to explore) Where does drinking water come from in phx?
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
River A large natural stream of water

Materials: (list item and possible

quantity)

Computer
flowing in a channel to the sea, a lake
Map
or another such stream.
Print out
Lakes A large body of water
Website
surronded by land.
Paper
Canals an artifical waterway
Pencil
Crayons
contrused to convey water for
Markers
irrgation.
Colored pencils
Reservior- A natural or artifical lake
used as a sorce of water supply.
Dam a barrier contrcued to hold back
water and raise its level.
Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students
will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
Where does our drinking water come from?
Turn and talk
Walk over to drinking foutain
Draw on white board
Have you ever thought about how we get our
water at school?

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

I will use pictures and simplified terms to help the lower level students.
Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials
to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in
Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger students,
but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of the lesson.
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)
Students Will: (list all steps)
Where does our drinking water come from in
phoenix?
give step by step instructions on what
students are supposed to.

Use google earth

Maps
To find all the different places that our
water comes from

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Show maps and small group
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects
student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students
articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson sub-objectives
by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Have students share out what they
take turns sharing explaining why
have discovered on where we get our
say what they think
water from?
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
Simply vocabulary for students learning english or lower fluency level.
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and
clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of
this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order thinking in this
stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If? question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
What if the pollution gets into the canal?
Write a couple of sentences on
what they think would happen if
pollution/ garbage ended up in the
water canals.

Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes

Students and illstrate and explain verabally to the class.
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson
objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big
concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Have students tell two places where
Tell two places that our drinking
our drinking water comes from, using water comes from and why
the. method
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
Show your pictures to the class. Have you been there? Zoom into google earth/maps

**Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance
the learning outcomes. In each section where prompted, list the best
practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.