Student Exploration: Water Cycle

Name: Date: Format responses in blue bold font. Student Exploration: Water Cycle Vocabulary (refer to vocab file located on the Gizmo site for definitions): aquifer, condensation, evaporation, freezing, glacier, melting, phase change, precipitation, reservoir, runoff, transpiration, water cycle Prior Knowledge Question (Do this BEFORE using the Gizmo.) The water that comes out of your faucet at home used to be in the ocean. How did water get from the ocean to your water faucet? From water sources that clean and filter it Gizmo Warm-up Water on Earth is always in motion. These motions form a repeating circuit called the water cycle. The Water Cycle Gizmo™ allows you to explore the different paths water takes as it moves from Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back. 1. Click Oceans. What percentage of Earth’s water is found in the oceans? Around 95 2. Click Atmosphere. How does the Sun cause water to move from the oceans to the atmosphere? The sun evaporates into the clouds. 3. Click Clouds. How do clouds form? From rain. 4. Click Precip (rain). (“Precip” is short for precipitation, or water falling to Earth’s surface.) What causes it to rain? When the droplets get large enough to fall 5. Click Oceans again, and then choose the PATH tab. Because it has the same beginning and end, the path is a complete cycle. How many steps does this cycle have? 5 steps. Activity: The water cycle Get the Gizmo ready: ● Select the SIMULATION tab, and click Reset. Question: What are the parts of the water cycle? 1. Collect data: Create two water cycles using the Gizmo. Each cycle should have at least four steps and should begin and end at the same location. Choose any starting point from the list on the right. When the cycle is complete, choose the PATH tab and write the steps below. Cycle 1: atmosphere, clouds, precip,rain, atmosphere Cycle 2: agriculture, atmosphere, clouds, precip, agriculture 2. Analyze: Use the information presented in the Gizmo to answer the following questions. A. What percentage of Earth’s water can be found in soil? 0.005% B. What percentage of Earth’s water is stored in ice and snow? 1.9% C. What percentage of Earth’s fresh water is stored in ice and snow? 68.7% D. What percentage of Earth’s water is found in lakes? 0.009% E. What is transpiration? (Hint: Click the Vegetation button.) transpiration is when plants absorb water through soil then release it to the atmosphere. F. What human activity uses the most water worldwide? Agriculture G. What human activity uses the most water in the United States? industry H. What organisms break down chemical wastes in a treatment plant? Bacteria found in ponds I. What is an aquifer? Underground layer of rocks and sand that contains water. J. What is a reservoir? Storage for water for household and industrial use. K. In what ways can runoff be a problem? It can cause flooding and contamination Activity (continued from previous page) 3. Define: A phase change is a change from one state to another, such as from a liquid to a gas. Based on what you have read in the Gizmo, fill in the blanks with the words “liquid,” “gas,” or “solid” to define each change. Evaporation: Change from a liquid to a gas Condensation: Change from a gas to a liquid Melting: Change from a solid to a liquid Freezing: Change from a liquid to a solid 4. Practice: Fill in the process that causes each transition. Your choices are evaporation, condensation, precipitation, melting, and freezing. A. Ocean Atmosphere B. Atmosphere C. Cloud Clouds Snow D. Glacier (river of ice) E. Cloud evaporation Soil condensation freezing River Melting precipitation (???) 5. Practice: Fill in the two processes that cause each of the following transitions. A. Ocean Cloud B. Cloud Glacier evaporation and condensation precipitation and freezing 6. Think and discuss: Water covers over two-thirds of Earth’s surface. Yet water shortages are a major problem for many people around the world. Why do you think this is the case? Because of how much of this water is salt water, and the fact we can only drink fresh water. Complete the five-question quiz for this activity located under the Gizmo screen on the ExploreLearning website. Paste a screenshot of your quiz results below. Your score will be a part of your final grade for this assignment.