Work Sample & Commentary: Drop of Water
The task
Students who had been studying weather were asked to write a story about a drop of water that goes through the water cycle.

Circumstances of performance
These samples of student work were produced under the following conditions:
alone in a group
in class as homework
with teacher feedback with peer feedback
timed opportunity for revision

These work samples illustrate standard-setting performances for the following parts of the standards:
a Physical Sciences Concepts: Properties of objects and materials.
a Earth and Space Sciences Concepts: Properties of Earth materials.
b Earth and Space Sciences Concepts: Objects in the sky.
a Scientific Connections and Applications: Big ideas and unifying concepts.



What the work shows
 b Earth and Space Sciences Concepts: The student produces evidence that demonstrates understanding of objects in the sky, such as…the importance of the Sun to provide the light and heat necessary for survival.
The stories begin with the important role of the Sun in the water cycle.

a Physical Sciences Concepts: The student produces evidence that demonstrates understanding of properties of objects and materials, such as…different states of materials.
Conceptual understanding of different states of matter is demonstrated in the consistent and accurate relationships among phase, temperature and volume, particularly the recognition that gases rise, and in the descriptions of how it “feels” to be a gas (“getting bigger”), to be a solid (“smaller”), and to condense from gas to liquid (“getting really crowded”). The student is correct that the drop of water is smaller as a solid than it is as a gas; it should be noted, however, that solid water (ice) takes up more space than liquid water.
Conceptual understanding of different states of matter is demonstrated by the relationship between temperature and form.
Strictly speaking, a single drop of water is not “converted into a white beautiful cloud,” but one may grant the author poetic license.

Sample 1

a Earth and Space Sciences Concepts: The student produces evidence that demonstrates understanding of properties of Earth materials, such as water and gases….
Noting that water can condense dust particles is evidence of understanding the water cycle.
An understanding of the role of gravity in precipitation is implicit in the statement that “someone is pulling me.”
The arrival in the Mississippi River, not in the original lake in Nebraska, shows further understanding of the water cycle in that water precipitates elsewhere from its evaporative source.
The final sentence denotes the cyclical concept.

Sample 2
a Scientific Connections and Applications: The student produces evidence that demonstrates understanding of big ideas and unifying concepts, such as…change and constancy….
The final sentences, especially the conclusion, “The End…not really,” go beyond an understanding of the water cycle to suggest understanding of a unifying concept, change and constancy.

Sample 2 Translation