Maine Grade 6 Science

Show different water pathways, including their driving forces

Build a water-cycle model with alternative routes, distinguish the roles of sunlight and gravity, and check Maine’s Grades 6–8 science band.

The Maine science standards directory identifies the standards adopted in 2019 as current. It states that the proposed later revision was not authorized. The linked PDF used here presents that 2019 Learning Results framework; its 2026 file date does not establish a new adoption. Use the Maine Science, Technology, and Engineering Standards (2019 Learning Results) for the selected performance expectation and its complete supporting information. Maine’s early-adolescence science expectations use a Grades 6–8 band. The activity here is a suggested study focus; consult the school’s plan for its local grade placement.

Water does not have to follow one fixed circle

A student draws a loop that sends all pond water straight to a cloud, then straight back to the same pond. A partner asks where water in soil, streams, and groundwater would fit. Revise the model to show at least two routes after precipitation: water can flow over land toward a stream, or enter soil and join stored underground water. Add a route from surface water to water vapor in the atmosphere. The table organizes possible pathways; it does not report the movement of a measured water sample or claim that every route occurs at the same rate.

Explain the evidence or model

Energy from sunlight supports evaporation from exposed water and land surfaces. Water vapor can be transported in the atmosphere and condense as conditions change; clouds do not have to remain above the original pond. Gravity helps drive precipitation downward and water movement downhill or through the ground. The model therefore needs labeled processes and driving forces, not just arrows in a circle. After precipitation, a route through a stream differs from a route into groundwater, and stored water may remain in one part of the system for different lengths of time. A useful explanation identifies both possible movement and where water is held.

What to check in the explanation

Cloud droplets are liquid water or ice, whereas water vapor is a gas that is not directly visible as a white cloud. Condensation is a change of state; precipitation is the falling of water or ice from clouds. The table’s paired wording does not mean those are the same process. An infiltration arrow also does not prove that all rain reaches groundwater: some remains in soil, returns to the atmosphere, or runs off. The model omits many details, including plants and frozen storage. Name that simplification and add it when relevant. Maine places this expectation within Grades 6–8, so the Grade 6 page offers a study focus rather than a state-prescribed year assignment.

Plan the next activity

1. Include surface, atmospheric, and underground water stores.
2. Label an evaporation route and two possible routes after precipitation.
3. Explain the roles of sunlight and gravity without assigning every step to both.

Choose one route and explain where a change of state occurs and where water changes location without changing state. Then add snow or ice storage and discuss why the route can take a different length of time. For a real local question, use teacher-selected observations or published water information and identify the evidence available; the conceptual table cannot establish a town’s actual groundwater supply. Review the water lesson and develop the model further in the school’s middle-school sequence. The complete expectation asks for a model of cycling, not merely naming four vocabulary words.