Kansas Grade 2 Science

Build a land-and-water model with a key that explains its symbols

Develop an original imagined-park model, distinguish land and water features, explain a key, and study a selected Kansas Grade 2 model-building expectation.

The Kansas science standards directory identifies NGSS adoption in 2013 and review in 2025. It links the disciplinary-core-idea arrangement used here. Use the Kansas-linked NGSS disciplinary-core-idea arrangement for the selected performance expectation and its complete supporting information. This activity selects a Grade 2 expectation. It is one part of a science course, not a complete curriculum.

Can someone else read the model’s land and water features?

Imagine a small park with a hill, a pond, and a stream leaving the pond. The teacher provides a clearly labeled invented description rather than claim that this is an actual Kansas park. Students build a clay model or draw a view that represents those three features. The original sketch below is one possible starting model, not a measured map. A key helps another reader distinguish a land feature from a body of water.

Explain the evidence or model

The model needs to represent the hill as raised land, the pond as a body of water, and the stream as a narrow water feature connected with it. A drawing can use a labeled hill symbol while a clay model can show height directly. The key explains what the chosen symbols mean. Blue in this particular key represents water; that is an agreed modeling choice, not a rule that every real body of water looks blue. Ask another reader to locate each named feature without relying on the creator to point at it. If the reader cannot distinguish the hill from the pond, improve the labels or shapes.

What to check in the explanation

A model selects information and leaves details out. This drawing does not show depth, measured distances, water quality, or a complete inventory of living things. Its connected stream represents the invented description, not a claim about the flow direction of an actual waterway. The Kansas-linked expectation does not require quantitative scaling for this model. Children can represent relative shapes and kinds without calculating a map scale. Likewise, a smooth blue shape does not establish that a pond’s water is clean or that swimming is permitted. Separate the model’s stated features from conclusions it cannot support.

Plan the next activity

1. Identify the land and water features named in the invented description.
2. Represent each with a shape, label, or physical form.
3. Ask a partner to use the key and suggest a clearer model.

Revise the sketch to include another invented land feature, such as a valley between two hills. Explain how the model distinguishes land height from water. Then use teacher-selected photographs or observations of a suitable actual place and record the source before making a new model. A diagram created from the imagined park should remain labeled as imagined. Compare what a flat drawing and a clay model make easy to understand. This selected Kansas Grade 2 expectation emphasizes developing a representation; reading the example alone is preparation for the student’s own modeling work.