Water gets around. It flows in the river and drops on your umbrella. Water fills your glass on a hot day in summer, and falls as snow on a good sledding hill in winter. Water also keeps the salamanders slimy, trees shady and the catfish swimming.
But the water we’ve got on Earth right now is all the water we’ll ever have. So as the climate continues to change and the cities continue grow, we’ve got to make sure we’re taking good care of that water so it remains useful, clean, and renewable.
The first step in that process is learning more about where water comes from and where it goes.
Watch this animation to brush up on water cycle basics before digging into to the REAL water cycle.
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This water molecule may not look like much, but it has been around the world and back again in a process called the water cycle.
The water cycle had two main parts--water goes up, water comes down. But it happens in ways slightly more complicated than that.
First, the up part: Heat from the sun causes the liquid water in our ponds, lakes, oceans, glasses of lemonade and even sweat to turn into a gas and rise into the atmosphere through a process called evaporation. Plants play a part too. Water released through tiny holes in their leaves, a process called transpiration, also evaporates into the atmosphere.
Once up in Earth's atmosphere, gaseous water eventually loses energy and condenses (condensation) back together as clouds.
Then comes the down part: When this water gets heavy enough, gravity takes charge and it falls back down into our lakes, oceans, and puddles as snow, sleet, rain, or fog (precipitation). And the cycle begins again.
So next time you have that glass of lemonade, just imagine where that water has been.
In this lesson you will watch four animations (the animation on this page serves as a basic review) that will give you lots of information about the REAL water cycle. After completing some activities where you can show off your water cycle knowledge, you will return to the 5E portion of the Keeping Water Renewable lesson, and brainstorm, with classmates, ways to ensure that our water supply remains clean and sustainable.
The animation on this page reviews a lot of information about the water cycle that you probably learned a few years back, but might not have remembered. After you've viewed it, list 3 questions you have about the water cycle.