The Water Cycle

Mr. Ellis

6th Grade Science

Do Now

• Can anyone guess just how old the water in the water fountain is?

Let’s Review

• As we already know water is constantly being recycled, but it is the process that makes it interesting.

• The Water Cycle* is the process of water being recycled.

Step One: Evaporation• Evaporation* is when a liquid turns into a gas.

When water evaporates, it turns into a gas.

• The sun heats up the water in the rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans. This heated water evaporates or turns into steam.

Evaporation Continued

• Have you ever seen steam rise from the Navesink river? This is an example of Evaporation.

• The evaporated water then goes into the atmosphere.

Question 1:

• What does water need in order to evaporate?

Navesink River Evaporation

Step Two: Condensation*

• Following evaporation, the vapor from the water is now rising in the air. When the water vapor in the air gets cool enough, it changes back into the liquid state.

• Often times, you can see this process when you see clouds.

Question 2:

• What does water need to condense?

Step Three: Precipitation*

• Now that the water vapor has turned back into a liquid, it needs to go somewhere.

• Water comes back to the earth as rain, sleet, snow, and hail. This process transports the liquid water back to Earth.

Precipitation

Collection*

• After precipitation, the water collects.

• The water collects in lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and even in the ground.

• This is where the water is stored before it will eventually evaporate.

• Which starts the whole cycle over again.

Crater Lake: Collection

Conclusion

• The Water Cycle is the process of water being recycled.

• There are three states to water: solid, liquid, gas.

• There are four stages to the water cycle, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection.

Task: The Water Cycle Journey

• Working in small groups, you will write a short story about a drop of water during its journey.

• You should explain how you (the water) feels during your journey. Are you cold, hot, happy, sad, etc?

• Remember to write about the events. What types of challenges did you encounter? Did you hit a bump in your journey, or was it really easy, etc?

• Describe something exciting on your journey.

Groups

• Remember this is group WORK.

• Everyone is to participate. While you will be graded as a group, I will also be grading you on your ability to work as a group.