| Introduction: Water Cycle consists of various actions that are being carried out in nature. Among these are the 3 main factors: Evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Though students witness these processes in their daily life quite often but are not able to comprehend the movement of water happening in nature. By following Heuristic methodology to teach water cycle will develop self-learning ability, helping students discover pre-existing knowledge in them. |
Heuristic method of teaching allows students to be an independent discoverer. While applying this technique, the role of the teacher is to give direction to students by guiding their prior knowledge to the path of the topic to be discussed in the class.
Following the heuristic approach, teachers can go along with the 3 C’s to teach the processes involved in water cycle by presenting the lesson in the form of enquiry/investigation to the students.
The activities should be described with as much detail as possible, and the continuity between them should be apparent.
Present the video in the class.
What next?
- Ask students to contemplate the process shown in the video. Describe the course of action taking place in each scenario and encourage them to predict the results obtained.
- Next, students have to match the process shown to its scientific name. Teachers can make flash cards of a bunch of scientific terminologies and allow them to work in pairs to discover the meaning of each by using sources such as a dictionary to come up with the definitions to connect the correct name to the action as in the video.
- As the students have identified each process, it is now time to construct the different stages of the water cycle. Teachers should serve as guides by posing questions that will assist students. Avoid the temptation to tell the answer without giving much time to the student. The objective is to encourage students to explore scientific and logical thinking on their own.
After what stage do clouds form?
Condensation of water vapor results in _________?
Precipitation is followed by collection of water, which stage comes after this?
Does temperature change during the course of the water cycle?
What is the main source of energy that initiates the process of water cycle?
Does water vapor move around or remain at a particular place?
How does water vapor move around?
What do you think will be the order of the above processes in the water cycle?
Such guiding questions will help students to figure out the pattern of different stages that occur in nature to understand the water cycle.
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