Desired Results

Where is the evidence? Throughout my teaching experience this is a question I have asked of my students countless times.
The goal of my ImagineIt project is to transform my students' approach to science so that they ask the question, "Where is the
evidence?" It is my hope that through this project my students will better be able to identify key features of evidence and will
become adept at knowing when and how to use evidence to support their claims, explanations, and arguments.
I want my students to live their lives as scientists and It is my hope that they will begin to habitually ask, Where is the
evidence? in their daily lives to support their science learning within and beyond the classroom. In an effort to reach this goal,
students will begin their quest for evidence as they build their understandings of water transformations through the geosphere,
hydrosphere, and atmosphere.

The Big Idea And Why It Is Key To The Discipline

Science is the way in which we make sense of the world around us. In order for our students to to do this, they need tools to
unearth the scientific truths that help explain phenomena. My students LOVE to debate, engage in arguments, and to be
right. The big idea here is to encourage students to begin to ask, Where is the evidence? and to channel that enthusiasm
so that they demand more of the information they consume and make public within and beyond the science classroom.
An exploration of water transformations through the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere serves as a perfect platform for
students to engage with essential science concepts that are meaningful, intriguing, and complex. Gardner and Mansilla
describe an essential knowledge base as one that, embodies concepts and relations central to the discipline and applicable
in multiple contexts. It also equips students with a conceptual blueprint for approaching comparable novel situations. As
students participate in the learning experiences throughout this unit they will begin to demand more from the evidence they
collect and the ideas they make public as they deepen their understanding about the roles and behaviors of water at both the
visible and particle levels.

Goals
Students will collect and evaluate evidence and make their thinking public by constructing models, making claims, and
constructing explanations about the visible and particle level water transformations that occur within the geosphere,
atmosphere, and hydrospheres.