Objective:

Students will discover the ratio of land to water on the Earth's surface.

Materials:

• Beach ball globe
• Surf n' Sand Toss worksheets (1 per student)

Procedure:

1. Tell the class that they will conduct a probability experiment to calculate the ratio of land to water on the Earth's surface. What percent of the Earth do they think is covered by water? By land?
2. Have the students toss and catch the globe 50 times. Be sure that the ball is spun as it is tossed. Each time the ball is caught, have the catcher call out the location of their right index finger (land or water). Keep a tally of the results on the board.
3. At the end of the first trial, have the students record the results on the attached AIMS worksheet. Complete two more trials.
4. The average percentages of land and water for the beach ball experiment should roughly equal the actual percentages of land and water on the Earth. Over 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water!

This activity is available as an Adobe PDF.

Introduction

• Why Water
• Personal Water Use Survey
• Sand and Surf
• All the Water in the World
• What's Water Made Of?
• Water Cycle Game
• Water Use Internet Sites
• Common Water
• Water Works
• Water Video
• Vocabulary List