The Water Cycle Bret Medlin EDT 365 Objectives

The Water Cycle Bret Medlin EDT 365

Objectives • Students will learn about the Water Cycle and will be able to identify the different stages of the cycle. • Students will complete an activity at the end of the lesson that shows a clear understanding of the cycle.

Facts: • Earth's water is always in movement. • This natural water cycle is also known as the hydrologic cycle and describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth.

• The majority of the Earth’s water is found in oceans, seas and bays. • Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice. • These processes happen in the blink of an eye and have been for millions of years.

Evaporation • Water changes from a liquid to a gas • Evaporation occurs more rapidly at warmer temperatures than at colder temperatures. Atmosphere • The atmosphere is made up of gases that surround the Earth. *Click me to see Evaporation and Atmosphere in The Water Cycle!

Condensation • Water changes from a gas to a liquid. • This occurs when water vapor gets cold. *Click me to see Condensation in The Water Cycle!

What types of water fall out of the sky? • Liquids: rain • Solids: sleet, hail and snow

Precipitation • Water falls to the Earth in the form of rain, hail, mist, sleet, or snow. • Large amounts of precipitation *Click me to see Precipitation in The Water Cycle!

• Rain falls when growing water droplets become too heavy to remain in clouds, and fall toward the earth’s surface. • Rain can also begin as ice crystals that come together to form large snowflakes. – As the falling snow comes into contact with warmer air, the flakes melt and collapse into raindrops.

• Hail is a large frozen raindrop produced by intense thunderstorms where snow and rain can both exist. • As the snowflakes fall, liquid water freezes onto them forming ice pellets that will continue to grow as more and more droplets are accumulated. The hailstone reaches the ground as ice because it is not in contact with the warm air below the thunderstorm long enough to melt before reaching the ground.

• Sleet is frozen raindrops that bounce when they hit the ground or hit something else. • Sleet begins as snow high in the atmosphere and then partially melts in warmer layers of air but then refreezes in colder areas of air as it falls.

Sleet Hail

• Snow is ice crystals that form into flakes. • Snow forms at temperatures below freezing. • For snow to reach the earth's surface the temperature in the troposphere needs to be at or below freezing. It can be slightly above freezing in some layers if the layer is not warm or deep enough to melt the snowflakes too much.

Collection • Water that falls as precipitation comes together in bodies of water. • Oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams, or underground storage make up these bodies of water.

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Activity • Imagine that you are a droplet of water in the water cycle. Write a story about your journey from one point in the water cycle through the entire cycle, using appropriate vocabulary. Draw and color in a diagram demonstrating the path that the water droplet takes.