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Science Launch G5 / Week 10 / Launch Lab
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Week 10 · Water on Earth

Launch Lab

Launch Lab: Water bar graph
// Salty, fresh and frozen
⏱ about 15 min

Launch Lab: Water bar graph

Raven tapes a long sheet of paper to the kitchen wall. "Today we graph Earth's water as a family," she says.

Rocket holds up the 40 beans from Wednesday. "I will be the bean keeper," he says.

Grandma picks a white crayon for the ice. Raven's little brother picks blue for the oceans.

Nova hovers near the ceiling. "A graph lets everyone see the pattern at once," she says. "Make the bars tall and clear."

  1. About 71 percent of Earth's surface is covered with water.
  2. The oceans hold about 96.5 percent of Earth's water. Only about 2.5 percent is fresh.
  3. Over 68 percent of fresh water is in ice and glaciers. About 30 percent is groundwater.
  4. Only a little more than 1 percent of fresh water is in lakes, rivers and swamps.
◇ FAMILY WATER GRAPH
Draw two bars side by side: one for salty water and one for fresh water.
Use the bean model: 39 beans tall for salty and 1 bean tall for fresh.
Next to the fresh bar, draw a second graph with three bars: ice, groundwater and surface water.
Make the ice bar about 7 squares tall, groundwater about 3 and surface water just a sliver.
Give your graphs titles and labels.
For a grown-up
Ask: what did you notice? What would you change?
Ask what one water-saving habit your family could try this week.
WEEK CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Which bar is tallest on the fresh water graph?
Out of 40 beans, how many stand for fresh water?
The oceans hold about ____ percent of Earth's water.
Fresh water stored in soil and rock is ____.
Where is most of Earth's fresh water stored? Type ice or rivers.
WHY THIS EXERCISEMost fresh water is frozen in ice and glaciers.

Next week we learn how communities use science to protect water, land and air.

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