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Evaporation is when heat from the sun turns water found in the atmosphere into a gas called water vapor. Water can evaporate from oceans, the ground, rivers, plants, soil, lakes, and streams.

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Condensation is when the water vapor rises into the air and forms clouds and fog. You can see condensation happen sometimes when the outside of a cold water bottle gets foggy or has water droplets on the outside.

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This is when too much water has condensed so the water droplets in the clouds become too big and heavy for the air to hold them. When this happens, the water droplets fall back down to earth as rain, snow, hail, or sleet.

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The water cycle is important because it is needed to continuously replenish Earth’s freshwater supply. Humans need water to drink and we wouldn't have water to swim in or shower! Animals need water to drink and bathe too! Plants need water to grow and reproduce! The water cycle also regulates weather patterns.

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The Water Cycle for Kids | Learn all about the water cycle

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Water Cycle Experiment | Easy At-Home STEM Activity!

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By Amy Cowen on August 3, 2021 9:00 AM
Use these free STEM lessons and activities to help students get hands-on building, testing, and exploring the science of the water cycle.
With more than 70% of Earth's surface covered in water, water is one of the planet's most abundant natural resources. Thanks to the natural hydrologic cycle (water cycle), water on Earth is continuously recycled. In this process, water shifts between solid, liquid, and gaseous forms, occupying all three states of matter at varying times. As water moves between land, the oceans, and the atmosphere, the distribution of water (where it is located or in what state) is always changing, but the total amount of water on Earth stays approximately the same. Amazingly, the water on Earth today is estimated to be more than a billion years old! (For more information to support introducing the water cycle, see the Teaching About the Water Cycle and the Future notes at the bottom of this resource.)

The free STEM lessons and activities below help students model and explore the water cycle, the various processes, the role landforms and water bodies play, and questions related to sustainability and the importance of water conservation.

The resources below have been grouped as follows:

Note: Science Buddies Lesson Plans contain materials to support educators leading hands-on STEM learning with students. Lesson Plans offer NGSS alignment, contain background materials to boost teacher confidence, even in areas that may be new to them, and include supplemental resources like worksheets, videos, discussion questions, and assessment materials. Activities are simplified explorations that can be used in the classroom or in informal learning environments.

Lesson Plans and Activities to Teach About the Water Cycle

The System

Evaporation & Condensation

Evaporation and condensation are important processes related to how water shifts between states of matter in the water cycle. Evaporation is the process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas (water vapor). Condensation is the process by which water changes from a gas to a liquid.

Precipitation & Melting

Precipitation and melting help move water along in the water cycle. Both represent processes in which the state of water changes to a liquid form. Precipitation is a critical step in the water cycle as it involves liquid or frozen water falling to the Earth. It can be observed in weather events like snow, hail, and rain. The melting of frozen water (ice) also puts water back in motion in the water cycle.

Note: The Climate Change and Sea Level Rise lesson provides a related lesson that is NGSS-aligned for grades 5-8. In this lesson, students create and use a model to investigate what will happen to sea levels because of global warming.

Collection & Storage

As precipitation occurs, water is collected and stored in various natural and manmade reservoirs. More water on Earth is in storage than is actively moving through the water cycle at any one time. Approximately 96.5% of the Earth's water is in the oceans, but water is also stored in other surface-water reservoirs. Natural reservoirs include things like lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, and icebergs. In addition to surface-water reservoirs where water is collected and stored, precipitation is also collected by soil, where it continues to move through the water cycle.

Note: For a shorter lesson involving the modeling of riverbeds, see the Build a River Model activity.

Sustainability

With a finite amount of water on Earth, there are concerns about water availability in the future. In the Exploring Our Growing Need for Water lesson, students explore water sustainability issues, including groundwater depletion, access to clean freshwater, and water waste. Students will also learn about agricultural water use and investigate how the water needed for growing crops compares to the water needed for raising animals on farms and ranches. Questions: What accounts for the depletion of groundwater? Does it take more water to grow crops or raise animals? What kinds of water waste might individual families and communities be able to reduce? See also: Make Environmental Sustainability Actionable for Students with These Lessons.

Teaching about Water Cycle Science in K-12

The water cycle is powered by the Sun and involves processes of melting, sublimation, evaporation, freezing, condensation, deposition, and precipitation as water moves from clouds to land to oceans and back again. While water is abundant, less than 3% of the planet's water is freshwater (which includes the kind we drink). (Close to 97% of the Earth's water is in the oceans.) Since water can't be manufactured by humans, we can't increase the amount of water on Earth, which means global access to freshwater is a sustainability issue for the future.

The water cycle is also tied to weather systems on Earth. As temperatures rise due to global warming, what changes will occur in the water cycle? Rising temperatures will, for example, speed up evaporation. Similarly, rising temperatures will have an impact on the ice caps. With the relationship between weather, climate, and the water cycle, there are many areas for discussion, research, and exploration with students at all grade levels. As a natural resource in need of conservation, and with many parts of the world facing severe drought scenarios or limited access to freshwater, students, families, and classrooms can also explore sustainability, ecological footprints, and more with lessons in the Earth Day collection. See also: Make Environmental Sustainability Actionable for Students with These Lessons.

Vocabulary

The following word bank contains words that may be covered when teaching about weather using the lessons and activities in this resource.

Thematic Collections

Collections like this help educators find themed activities in a specific subject area or discover activities and lessons that meet a curriculum need. We hope these collections make it convenient for teachers to browse related lessons and activities. For other collections, see the Teaching Science Units and Thematic Collections lists. We encourage you to browse the complete STEM Activities for Kids and Lesson Plans areas, too. Filters are available to help you narrow your search.

Development of this resource to support educators teaching K-12 STEM curriculum topics was made possible by generous support from the Donaldson Foundation.

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11 Activities to Teach Water Cycle Science | Science Buddies Blog

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By Amy Cowen on August 3, 2021 9:00 AM Use these free STEM lessons and activities to help students get hands-on building, testing, and exploring the science of the water cycle. With more than 70% of Earth's surface covered in water, water is one of the planet's most abundant natural resources.