Digital Inquiry - Water Cycle

Last updated 9 months ago

10 questions

ANIMATION: WATER CYCLE

EXPLORE
Click the link to view an animated diagram of the water cycle.

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Digital Inquiry - Water Cycle

Last updated 9 months ago

10 questions

VIDEO: HOW DOES EARTH'S WATER CHANGE FORM?

This lighthearted animation takes us beneath the surface to see groundwater in action.  Watch anthropomorphized drops of groundwater travel through this system. A smiling character with a shovel digs us down to the water table, allowing us to flow through the water cycle and thus making the process much easier to understand.

What is groundwater?

What is the top of an aquafer called?

How do aquafers help farmers in years of drought?

TEXT: HOW CLOUDS FORM

Water in your dog’s bowl can become a cloud.

Ok, it would take a lot of dog bowls of water to make a cloud. However, all the surface water – oceans, lakes, rivers, neighborhood pool, and, yes, even water in your yard dog’s bowl – can evaporate and become a cloud.

This is how it works: There is a lot of available water in liquid form on the Earth, mostly in the oceans. That water is heated by the solar energy of the light from the Sun. The heated water to turns into gas form, water vapor. Water vapor rises into the atmosphere where it is cooler than at the surface.

Cool air cannot hold as much water as warm air, so water vapor condenses (turns back into liquid form). The liquid droplets collect around bits of dust and cling together, which forms clouds. You can see clouds up close when the air at the surface cools and fog is formed in the same way as clouds form.

What is evaporation?

What is condensation?

ANIMATION: WATER CYCLE

EXPLORE
Click the link to view an animated diagram of the water cycle.

What might happen to water droplets after evaporation, condensation, and precipitation?

INFOGRAPHIC: CHANGING PHYSICAL STATE

Where can you find liquid water?

Where can you find solid water?

Where can you find water vapor?

The ________________  is the movement of water on, beneath, and above Earth’s surface. Water changes physical state due to changes in temperature.

Water changes from a liquid to a gas during ________________ . Water evaporates when the sun heats liquid water, changing it into ________________ .

_________  air causes water vapor to go through the process of condensation. Condensation occurs when water changes from a gas to a ___________ . Clouds form.

Water falls to Earth as __________________ . It can be snow, hail, rain, or sleet. Some precipitation is in liquid form, while other precipitation is in __________  form.

Water in its liquid form can be found underground, in ___________ , in ___________ , and in __________ .  Water in its gas form is found in the _______________ .

Water in solid form can be found on mountaintops as snow and in _____________  as ice.