School › Water cycle
The water cycle
How the same water travels from the sea to the sky and back again: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and the energy that drives it all. Three ages, each with a text, an experiment, a game, a quiz, a printable worksheet and a teacher sheet.
Ages 6–7Where does the rain come from?Follow a drop of water from a puddle up into a cloud and back down as rain. Then make a tiny water cycle in a bag.Ages 10–11The water cycle: evaporation, condensation and precipitationThe key steps of the water cycle, where Earth's water is stored, and the role of the Sun and gravity. With a fair test on what makes water evaporate faster.Ages 15–16The water cycle: reservoirs, fluxes and latent heatWhere Earth's water is stored, how it moves between stores, and the energy involved in evaporation and condensation. Calculations with Q = m·L and an evaporative-cooling experiment.