Grade 6 · Science · 35 minutes
Unit 2 · Matter and Earth’s Water · Lesson 2 of 2
Follow Water Along More Than One Path
Model a branching water cycle and identify the drivers of movement.
Mr. S Teaches · Original starter mini-lesson · MS6-SCI-04Learning objective
Draw a water-cycle model with five labeled pathways and explain where sunlight and gravity act.
Before you begin
- Know that water can change state.
Gather your materials
- Paper or notebook
- Pencil and the passage, model directions or data printed in this lesson
Language to know
- evaporation
- Liquid water becoming water vapor.
- condensation
- Water vapor becoming liquid droplets.
- infiltration
- Water entering spaces in soil or rock.
Understand the concept
Water-pathway briefing: Sunlight supplies energy that can evaporate water from oceans, lakes and soil. Water vapor can cool and condense into cloud droplets; precipitation returns water to the surface. Gravity pulls falling precipitation and moves water downhill through streams or below ground. Some water enters soil, some is stored in ice or lakes, and some moves through plants. A water cycle is a network with different routes and storage times, not a single four-step race.
Teach it step by step
- Read the briefing and list places where water is stored separately from processes that move it.
- Sketch atmosphere, hillside, stream, soil, ocean and a plant; draw arrows for at least five pathways.
- Label an evaporation arrow with sunlight and a downhill or precipitation arrow with gravity.
- Tell two different stories for a water particle starting in the ocean and revise any model that forces all water through one route.
Make the thinking visible
Worked example or model response
Route A: ocean → evaporation → atmosphere → precipitation → ocean. Route B: ocean → evaporation → cloud → precipitation on land → infiltration → groundwater flow → stream → ocean. Sunlight supports evaporation; gravity drives the downward and downhill movements.
Guided practice
Together trace rainfall that enters soil instead of flowing immediately into a river. Use a dashed boundary to show where the model includes underground water.
Independent practice
Draw a third route passing through a plant and explain two different drivers. Write a summary of why a circular diagram can oversimplify water’s movement.
Quick assessment
What would be missing from an explanation that says gravity alone drives the whole water cycle?
Answer key & assessment criteria
Answers and teaching guidance
- Guided: Rain can infiltrate soil, be stored underground and later move toward a stream; not all rain becomes immediate surface runoff.
- Independent: An acceptable route includes water entering a plant and returning to air through transpiration. Sunlight supplies energy for evaporation; gravity pulls precipitation and downhill flow.
- Quick check: Gravity does not supply the energy needed to move liquid water into vapor; solar energy is a major driver.
Look for: Look for a claim that answers this lesson’s question, accurate use of the supplied evidence and an explanation of a limit or alternative. Ask the learner to point to the detail supporting each inference.
Make it work for your learner
More support
Provide labeled storage boxes and ask the learner to connect them with arrows before adding process names.
Extension challenge
Compare two routes’ possible storage times and explain why a groundwater path might be slower than direct runoff.
Selected contributions · Official sources
Standards connections
Selected NGSS band contribution; not complete performance expectation coverage.
Contributes to NGSS performance expectation
MS-ESS2-4NGSS · Grades 6–8 band
Model water pathways driven by sunlight and gravity.
Read the official performance expectation ↗This starter model includes multiple reservoirs, phase changes, sunlight and gravity. It samples pathways rather than fully representing every terrestrial, atmospheric and biological water process.
Source and mapping checked 2026-11-04. This mini-lesson contributes selected skills; it does not claim full attainment.
Supporting Common Core literacy connection
RST.6-8.7Common Core · Grades 6–8
Connect scientific prose with a diagram, model or table.
Read the official standard ↗The provided scientific passage/model is explicitly analyzed in the activity. This selected literacy practice does not establish subject-content alignment or complete coverage of the standard.
Source and mapping checked 2026-11-04. This mini-lesson contributes selected skills; it does not claim full attainment.