Practical work represents an essential part in Science courses in Elementary schools. It is used especially when explaining natural processes and concepts. One of the most challenging concepts to grasp for students in Science courses, is the process of evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration consist of two processes: evaporation and transpiration and it represents an important part in Earth's hydrological cycle. Understanding evapotranspiration is difficult for students because it cannot be seen, which leads to incomprehension and false beliefs. Students also have a problem with understanding the process of evaporation and transpiration, because they occur simultaneously and it's hard to seperate them. For explaining and illustrating complexed processes as evapotranspiration, it is recommended for teachers to use active methods of work.
In our thesis, we wanted to present an experiment, that would serve for better understanding of the process of evapotranspiration. We also prepared a didactic material for teachers and students on the subject of transpiration and evapotranspiration.
The experiment was divided into two parts. In the first part of our experiment, we measured the impact of different types of landscape patterns, a.k.a. matrices, on the rate of evapotranspiration. In the second part of our experiment, we measured the impact of wind on the rate of evapotranspiration. The results, which we obtained by weighing and measuring with Vernier measuring system LabQuest 2, have shown us that various landscape patterns affect the rate of evapotranspiration. We also proved that the wind is one of the more important factors that accelerates the process of evapotranspiration.
We think that our experiment, which was done in empirical part of the diploma thesis, is suitable to illustrate the proces of evapotranspiration in the course Science in the 6th grade of Elementary school
