Comparing and contrasting surface water systems and their relative size falls in line with Michigan state

geosciences education standards and fits nicely into the national standards. This paper presents how to integrate geo-hydrology in science teaching at the high school level. It will break down the different areas and point out examples of where each body of water is located using Google Earth. We will also be looking at where all this water is located and the distribution percentage of water for each body on Earth. This activity also takes into account misconceptions that students have in the classroom and addresses them using open ended guiding questions for the purposes of gauging student prior knowledge in combination with newly discovered concepts. With snap shots from Google Earth and different tools used in their programs, students will discover and record important attributes, gain spatial recognition, practice mapping skills, and apply the use of proportions. The ideas and formatting has been adapted from a Using Google Earth to Study the Basic Characteristics of Volcanoes lesson by Stephen Mattox. National Science Education Standards met by this lesson include: - Select science content and adapt and design curricula to meet the interests, knowledge, understanding abilities, and experiences of students. Select teaching and assessment strategies that support the development of student understanding and nurture a community of science learners. Challenge students to accept and share responsibility for their own learning. Guide students in self-assessment.

We will be using Google Earth to find different places around the world including areas of braided and meandering rivers, glaciers, oceans, estuaries, and wetlands. These will be shown by GPS coordinates given to the students. The students will have a couple of examples but then will have to use their knowledge that they have been given to find the given water source on their own in another place. Each of these

places will have cumulatively derived questions requiring reflection on past lessons. The activity will also challenge them to formulate hypotheses about formation and apply their skills by searching for places that would meet the requirements specific to each body of water. The lesson is broken up into four parts. The order each segment is essential to the learning process as we will be developing knowledge from the specific, concrete, examples (viewed through this virtual field trip) to more generalized, global topics. Part 1 and 2 require students to visit and observer then use their observations to interpret and analyze each body of water. Through these investigations, students will be applying their knowledge to formulate hypotheses, answer questions, and inquire more deeply. Part 3 and 4 require students to start looking at bodies of water on the continental to global level. NATURE OF SCIENCE The teacher While teaching about bodies of water, will play a vital this lesson integrates many of the key role in the standards of the Nature of Science. learning Through specific questioning and a process by unique approach, this lesson primarily showing vital allows students to see that details of the Science is a highly creative program, endeavor There are historical, cultural, guiding and social influences on students to science. correct Science and technology impact answers, and each other, but they are not bringing it all the same. together for the students. McComas, William F. This is a unique lesson because of its ability to expose a spatial aspect to the content instead of the text book style of representing features with a single example and only one viewable vantage point. Combined with hands-on field work, Google Earth field work can assist in developing core field methods. In particular, this lesson stresses learning the difference between an observation and an inference. This lesson will also have students making measurements and

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

formulating hypotheses based on observations both key in effective field work. Science is not locked in a classroomstudents of science need to be submersed in the content. Other aspects that are key to this investigation include: Integration of technology through familiarization and understanding of the powerful tools of Google Earth Creating a foundation of knowledge for the various bodies of water. Connecting the hydrosphere to the other systems. Understanding the social implications of bodies of water. Getting Started with Google Earth: Google Earth is a very powerful tool that is available to us as free software. You are able to down load this at http://www.google.com/earth/index.html. This is a program that is getting higher resolution and better every day and is very helpful in giving students a good look around the world at the touch of their fingers. There are tutorials that are available for further knowledge on the download site for Google Earth as well. In order to have all the students be on the same page with latitude and longitude as well as measuring tools you should go into the tools section of Google Earth and select decimal degrees as well as meter, kilometers as the elevation. In the tools the resolution will turn out much better if you have a higher terrain quality (3), medium overall map size, and infinite zoom relation. As the layers go on the left hand side there are many helpful layers that you are able to add onto the map. In the case of this lesson the only layer that is needed is the pictures layer; however the places and borders and labels layers can help sometimes. The other functions that are needed for this lesson are the fly to, ruler, path, and the switching between the Earth, Moon, and Mars functions. The fly to function is where you will input all the places that you are going to or latitude and longitude. This will bring you everywhere you need to go. The ruler tool is used to measure given areas anywhere that you want to go and can be switched between many different values. The path function is a very helpful tool that has some very fun additives. It

works very similar to the ruler tool but when you save the path you can right click on the path and select show elevation profile this will give you a detailed map of the area along the path. The switching between the Earth, Moon and Mars function will allow you to travel to different parts of the solar system and be used later in the lesson. I would suggest playing around with these functions a little before class begins to be comfortable with using them. FIGURE 1

Background Information for Teachers: The lesson here would ideally be used after a field observations trip and used to solidify the ideas that students have gained from the field. They would use this to gain a global view of geo-hydrology. This could also be slightly adapted to start out a lesson on geohydrology. This lesson will introduce to students different bodies of water and where they are located world round. This will be done by using Google Earth. In figure 2, you will see a list of either bodies of water or a latitude and longitude. These will be typed into the Fly to bar of Google Earth and will bring students to a specific location. All of these areas are formed from water and water processes making them ever changing and using the historical imaging tool you are able to see some slight changes in river and glacial systems over the years. The students will be using figure 2 to read the

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

latitude and longitude or the body of water given to get to the area of interest of these 17 places around the world. Once a student gets to a certain location they can use the thumbtack to save their location in the column on the left, this will provide an ease of access in case they have to reference the location again. For this exercise the students will fill in the table on figure 2 and take notes similar to field notes about the location. This process should take students about a 40-50 minute class period. They will then have guided questions about the different locations and another guided activity with maps to finish out the day or during the second class period. The idea of taking good field notes should be emphasized during this exercise. Adapted from Using Google Earth to Study the Basic Characteristics of Volcanoes by Stacia Schipper and Stephen Mattox. FIGURE 2

The following pages feature the lesson plan.

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

Where is the worlds water?

Exploring and understanding hydrologic bodies using Google Earth

http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/0/565/BlueMarble.jpg

If you look at the earth you will see that there is much more water than land. To be honest there is only about 25% of the Earth that is covered with land; the other 75% is taken up by water. This is a unique substance to Earth and it makes Earth special from other planets. This exercise will have you look at Earth and its bodies of water and understand where all this water is around the world. You can even see firsthand the difference between Earth and other planets.

Part1: Lets Travel and Observe.

Take out your observation reference sheet and your observation chart. Your mission is to complete this worksheet with effective observations of each body of water. Where there is a blank spot in the Body of Water column, fill in the type of water the Latitude/Longitude coordinates take you to. If you are unsure, make your observations first. If the Latitude/Longitude column is blank, this is your chance to explore. Find an example of the body of water listed.

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

Part 2: Lets use your observations to analyze and make interpretations!

Make sure to tie in your observations in your answers and specify which example you are referencing.

Oceans: Oceans hold much of the worlds water and are very abundant. Name
the major oceans and rank them in terms of size.

Glaciers: Glaciers move at slow rates and cause mass amounts of erosion.
The Great Lakes are a product of glacial activity. After exploring some glaciers answer the following questions: What evidence of erosion do you see? Is there land beneath the ice? Do rivers or glaciers seem to make a bigger difference on shaping the land around them? (Support with evidence)

Lakes and reservoirs:

What is the difference between a lake and a reservoir? Michigan is surrounded with a mass amount of fresh water. What process transported the water here?

What type of water is found in lakes? (salt, fresh, mixture?) Make sure to have measurements of each lake. (Volume=Length x Width x Depth) What did you observe to be different about location #7 compared to the other lakes? What do you infer happened here? How are these three lakes similar? How are they different?

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

Streams/Rivers:
Where is this stream in #9 located? What is significant about the way that this stream has formed? Where did this water come from? What is the difference between #10 and the last stream? Where has this water come from?

There are the large curves in this river, name them if you can--why do you think they formed?

Compare the braided stream (#9) with a meandering stream (#10). Which type do you suppose is younger? What evidence helps support your opinion?

What is the name of location #11? Zoom out so you can see the entire river. What evidence can you find that might explain which direction the river flows (North or South)?

Lots of people reside in areas close to rivers and streams, what is the value in having a river near a civilization?

Wetlands: Describe what makes these areas unique.

Be sure to have looked at the photographs taken in this area.

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

A wetland has to meet three criteria to be considered a wetland. (1) Soils (2) Groundwater hydrology-this does not mean it is always covered it water, it just needs to be saturated for a specific amount of time. (3) Presence of vegetation that can survive in these conditions. If you had any, highlight any observations you had pertaining to these guidelines.

Estuaries:
An estuary is a unique body of water. Are there other bodies of water located nearby? If so, what are they? What do these two have in common? Ask one question about estuaries regarding at least one of the other spheres.

Floods are caused when the water level rises. They can occur from an
irregular input of water over a certain amount of time. Floods can cause harm to the surrounding areas. Name three or more processes you can think of that could create floods.

Imagine some ways to keep flood damage to a minimum or keep them from occurring?

Mars/Moon: On the GoogleEarth toolbar, locate the button that looks like an
orange planet, here you are able to go to Mars. Spend some time looking and playing around on Mars. Do you see any water or evidence for past water on the Mars? Now go to the moon and do the same thing. Is there water or evidence of water there? What makes Mars and the moon so much different than the Earth?

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

What are some potential problems with inhabiting the moon and Mars?

Formulate some questions you have about the Moon and Mars based on the assignment you just conducted.

Part 3: Put it all together

Attached to your packet you will have a continent map. By using Google Earth to find your continent, color in the different types of bodies of water using the following colors: Oceans (blue) Glaciers (yellow) Lakes (green) Streams (orange) Wetlands (purple) Estuaries (red) Flooded areas (black)

REMEMBER! Not every continent will have every body of water. Why not?

Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

Part 4: Global Distribution of Earths water

Now that we know WHERE water is located, lets think about how these bodies are spread out. As an expert on bodies of water, make an educated guess at the percentage of earths water each body contains. After everyone has made their hypotheses, your teacher will show you how each of them compare.

Percentage of Earth's water Body of water Oceans Glaciers Rivers Lakes Atmosphere Wetlands ( Your Estimates) (Actual Results)

What were you close on? What surprised you the most about the actual results?

There is a little bit of water left over in your teachers beaker of total water. Where else could water be located?

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Enhancing Geo-hydrology Education Through an Exploration in Google Earth

Synthesizing Student Observations: After the students have had a chance to finish up their observations on the 18 different locations around the world they should have a couple minutes to discuss as a group about their findings. This would include interesting places that they have found or areas that are hard to find around the world. From here I would ask students to present some of the more interesting places around the world that they were able to find on their own as part of the inquiry based learning. After this is done I would be wise to transition into the third part of the exercise and this will demonstrate a true understanding of the lesson in using a blank map to color in the different parts of geo-hydrology. This area in the lesson will also have guided questions to allow further investigation to solidify their understanding of the different areas of the spheres. Sources:
McComas, William F. 2004. Keys to Teaching the Nature of Science. The Science Teacher, November 2004. 24-27 Schipper, Stacia., Mattox, Stephen. 2010. Using Google Earth to Study the Basic Characteristics of Volcanoes. Science Scope, Vol. 34 Issue 03, 28-37.

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