Scooby & the Gang are in the library doing research on the WATER CYCLE.
Let's see what they have learned.
Let's see what they have learned.
First off, study the diagram of the WATER CYCLE/HYDROLOGIC CYCLE. Read the facts below. Add all blue Vocabulary Terms on 3 x 5 cards. Click on the highlighted links below.
The Water Cycle (also known as the hydrologic cycle) is the journey water takes as it circulates from the land to the sky and back again.
The Sun's heat provides energy to evaporate water from the Earth's surface (oceans, lakes, etc.).
Plants also lose water to the air (this is called transpiration). The water vapor eventually condenses, forming tiny droplets in clouds. When the clouds meet cool air over land, precipitation (rain, sleet, or snow) is triggered, and water returns to the land (or sea).
Some of the precipitation soaks into the ground. Some of the underground water is trapped between rock or clay layers; this is called groundwater. But most of the water flows downhill as runoff (above ground or underground), eventually returning to the seas as slightly salty water.
WATER CYCLE VIDEO
REVIEW:
The Water Cycle
Water on Earth is always changing. Its repeating changes make a cycle. As water goes through its cycle, it can be a solid (ice), a liquid (water), or a gas (water vapor). Ice can change to become water or water vapor. Water can change to become ice or water vapor. Water vapor can change to become ice or water.
How do these changes happen? Adding or subtracting heat makes the cycle work. If heat is added to ice, it melts. If heat is added to water, it evaporates. Evaporation turns liquid water into a gas called water vapor.
If heat is taken away from water vapor, it condenses. Condensation turns water vapor into a liquid. If heat is taken away from liquid water, it freezes to become ice.
The water cycle is called the hydrologic cycle. In the hydrologic cycle, water from oceans, lakes, swamps, rivers, plants, and even you, can turn into water vapor. Water vapor condenses into millions of tiny droplets that form clouds. Clouds lose their water as rain or snow, which is called precipitation. Precipitation is either absorbed into the ground or runs off into rivers. Water that was absorbed into the ground is taken up by plants. Plants lose water from their surfaces as vapor back into the atmosphere. Water that runs off into rivers flows into ponds, lakes, or oceans where it evaporates back into the atmosphere.
The cycle continues.
Did You Know?
- A fixed amount of water recirculates around the Earth.
- Water moves in certain directions from place-to-place (reservoir-to-reservoir) by only certain processes and pathways.
- Some processes of transfer are rapid while others are much slower.
- A conceptual "reservoir" of water is not quite the same thing as a reservoir in which water is stored.
- When land-based glacial ice melts and runs off into the sea, sea level rises.
- When land-based glacial ice forms, sea level drops.
- When floating icebergs melt into the sea, sea level doesn't change.
- Glacial ice is made up of freshwater that had previously fallen as snow.
- Evaporation of seawater requires an input of energy; condensation of clouds releases energy.
Accumulation - the process in which water pools in large bodies (like oceans, seas and lakes).
Condensation - the process in which water vapor (a gas) in the air turns into liquid water. Condensing water forms clouds in the sky. Water drops that form on the outside of a glass of icy water are condensed water.
Evaporation - the process in which liquid water becomes water vapor (a gas). Water vaporizes from the surfaces of oceans and lakes, from the surface of the land, and from melts in snow fields.
Precipitation - the process in which water (in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail) falls from clouds in the sky.
Subsurface Runoff - rain, snow melt, or other water that flows in underground streams, drains, or sewers.
Surface Runoff - rain, snow melt, or other water that flows in surface streams, rivers, or canals.
Transpiration - the process in which some water within plants evaporates into the atmosphere. Water is first absorbed by the plant's roots, then later exits by evaporating through pores in the plant.
WATER CYCLE - STUDY JAMS
WATER CYCLE - ACTIVITY #1
WATER CYCLE - ACTIVITY #2
WATER CYCLE - ACTIVITY #3
WATER CYCLE - QUIZ
