Overview

The topic of this course is to understand the water cycle in the earth system. Water cycle is the most basic process to maintain the development of life in the earth system. From the weather change to the development of the ecosystem, it is closely related to people’s life. This course will explore the basic process of water cycle, the role of water cycle on the ecosystem, and the principle of water cycle, and how people can protect the natural environment. To improve course engagement, the course will include a presentation video, and a quiz.

Lesson Objectives

After the course, students will learn that:

The basic process of the water cycle includes which processes, which stages, and what physical change processes these stages contain.

The important role of water cycle in maintaining environmental balance.

In what way, the waters around us can build relationships with other waters in the Earth’s system.

Read/Watch

1.How does rain form? What is the water cycle?

This animated video explains how rain forms and explains how rainfall,  evaporation and condensation all form part of the water cycle.

Find out more about rain and clouds at http://bit.ly/1gGcoyp

  • Oki, T., Entekhabi, D., & Harrold, T. I. (1999). The global water cycle. Global energy and water cycles, 10, 27.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/T-Harrold/publication/260072736_The_global_water_cycle/links/5f1798f4299bf1720d58d0eb/The-global-water-cycle.pdf

Content

To enable students to prepare for the course, other content need to be prepared, including:

Water cycle simulation device based on alcohol lamp heating

Enrichmap and information plots illustrating the entire process and phase of the water cycle

News reports related to the water cycle (acid rain, drought, rainstorm, extreme weather, etc.)

Discussion topic about the water cycle process around you

Application

By learning this course, students are able to identify the processes and stages related to the water cycle in their life, and to provide examples and sustainable solutions to the water cycle disruption.

Being able to simulate those conditions in a virtual lab can affect the water cycle.

Be able to fully describe the process of the water cycle, and also give some examples of the effects of the water cycle in life.

Be able to clearly describe the physical changes at each stage of the water cycle, and what form the water changes from to what form at this stage.

Reflection

In order to promote the learning process and improve their participation in the learning process, students need to participate in reflective activities after the course, such as publishing their own learning reflection in the course in an online student forum and participating in the discussion.

Complete about 400 words of written reflection content, explaining own understanding of the water cycle process and the impact of the water cycle on the daily environment.

To Do This Week

1. Read the designated references.

2. Watch the designated popular science video and complete the 200-word feedback.

3. Participate in the experiment of simulating water cycle in virtual laboratory based on alcohol lamp and write the experimental report.

4. Participate in the course reflection activities and student forum activities.

References

1.Oki, T., Entekhabi, D., & Harrold, T. I. (1999). The global water cycle. Global energy and water cycles, 10, 27.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/T-Harrold/publication/260072736_The_global_water_cycle/links/5f1798f4299bf1720d58d0eb/The-global-water-cycle.pdf

2.Mitchell, V. G., Mein, R. G., & McMahon, T. A. (2001). Modelling the urban water cycle. Environmental modelling & software, 16(7), 615-629.

3.https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/freshwater/water-cycle

4.https://www.britannica.com/science/water-cycle

5.http://bit.ly/1gGcoyp

Class Quiz

Reflection:

What was your experience of trying out H5P? Which of the activities do you think you would make most use of in your teaching context and what would you use them to do? Which ones do you think require the most resources to create?

I tried to use HP5 and found that there are many interactive learning objects in this plug-in, including Drag the Words, Flashcards, essays, and so on. These interactive learning objects can be used to establish self-tests and evaluations for students in teaching and help students consolidate their knowledge. For example, in my Blog, I set up a course with the theme of the water cycle, so I can use HP5 to build interactive learning objects including multiple-choice questions, games, and simulations, so as to help them better participate in the learning process. I will also use HP5 to build an interactive video and insert questions into the key content of the video, so as to ensure that students can watch the video carefully, extract key knowledge points from the video, and understand key concepts. Generally speaking, the experience of building interactive learning objects is very successful. After building interactive learning objects with selected topics and quizzes as the main topics, I tried these multiple-choice questions myself. After answering the questions, I can check whether I will answer the wrong questions or not, and I can check my scores after all the questions are completed. I think this model can greatly improve students’ learning efficiency. I think interactive video and game-based learning need more resources and experience to create, but the report is also relatively high