ICPE – Water Cycle Lab



-Water Cycle Lab- Name:

Colorado Science Standard 6 Period:

The water cycle is a series of transitions than move water through the physical environment. This cycle can be used to predict where water will most likely travel when it is in one of the stages, and where water spends most of its time. In this lab we will be exploring the many transitions that can occur in this cycle and predict where most of the earth’s water is located at any given time.

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The water cycle has no starting point. But, we'll begin in the oceans, since that is where most of Earth's water exists. The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in the oceans. Some of it evaporates as vapor into the air. Ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapor. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere, along with water from evapotranspiration, which is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil. The vapor rises into the air where cooler temperatures cause it to condense into clouds. Air currents move clouds around the globe, cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the sky as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for thousands of years. Snowpacks in warmer climates often thaw and melt when spring arrives, and the melted water flows overland as snowmelt. Most precipitation falls back into the oceans or onto land, where, due to gravity, the precipitation flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, with streamflow moving water towards the oceans. Runoff, and ground-water seepage, accumulate and are stored as freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers, though. Much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some water infiltrates deep into the ground and replenishes aquifers (saturated subsurface rock), which store huge amounts of freshwater for long periods of time. Some infiltration stays close to the land surface and can seep back into surface-water bodies (and the ocean) as ground-water discharge, and some ground water finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs. Over time, though, all of this water keeps moving, some to reenter the ocean, where the water cycle "ends" ... oops - I mean, where it "begins."

Lab Procedure:

1) You are now a water molecule, H2O, and you are going to flow through the water cycle by moving to one of the nine stations throughout the room. Starting at your table, roll the dice, consult the station card then move to the station that corresponds to the number on the sheet. (Sometimes you will stay at the same station.)

2) Keep track of how many times you are at each station in the chart below, as well as the physical states you have been in.

3) Repeat these steps until you and a partner have recorded the results of thirty rolls.

|Station |Times at station |Physical State (solid, liquid or gas) |

|Soil | | |

|Plant | | |

|River | | |

|Cloud | | |

|Ocean | | |

|Lake | | |

|Animal | | |

|Ground water | | |

|Glacier | | |

From the chart above….

Total number of times as liquid: _______

Total number of times as solid: _______

Total number of times as gas: _______

4) Once you have collected your data write it on the board in the chart provided by your teacher. A student will compile it into total times at each station for the entire class.

5) Consulting the board with the totals for the entire class, complete a bar graph for the total number of times at each station. Include labels and data on the graph.

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Questions: Answer each question using complete sentences.

1) From the chart, where does the Earth’s water spend most of its time? Why?

2) What is the most prevalent physical state of water on Earth?

3) Why does most of the Earth’s water contain salts?

4) What are the driving forces, the energy, behind the water cycle, what will cause water to move? Explain your answer.

5) Give one possible pathway, that includes at least 5 moving transformations, for water to get from the ocean into you and back to the ocean again

Station card

Soil - Liquid

1 = Plant Liquid

2 = River Liquid

3 = Ground water Liquid

4 = Cloud Gas

5 = Cloud Gas

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

Plant - Liquid

1 = Cloud Gas

2 = Cloud Gas

3 = Cloud Gas

4 = Cloud Gas

5 = Stay Liquid

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

River - Liquid

1 = Lake Liquid

2 = Ground water Liquid

3 = Ocean Liquid

4 = Animal Liquid

5 = Cloud Gas

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

Cloud - Gas

1 = Soil Liquid

2 = Glacier Solid

3 = Lake Liquid

4 = Ocean Liquid

5 = Ocean Liquid

6 = Stay Gas

Station card

Ocean - Liquid

1 = Cloud Gas

2 = Cloud Gas

3 = Stay Liquid

4 = Stay Liquid

5 = Stay Liquid

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

Lake - Liquid

1 = Ground water Liquid

2 = Animal Liquid

3 = River Liquid

4 = Cloud Gas

5 = Stay Liquid

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

Animal - Liquid

1 = Soil Liquid

2 = Soil Liquid

3 = Cloud Gas

4 = Cloud Gas

5 = Cloud Gas

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

Ground water - Liquid

1 = River Liquid

2 = Lake Liquid

3 = Lake Liquid

4 = Stay Liquid

5 = Stay Liquid

6 = Stay Liquid

Station card

Glacier - Solid

1 = Ground water Liquid

2 = Cloud Gas

3 = River Liquid

4 = Stay Solid

5 = Stay Solid

6 = Stay Solid

For this lab…

Planetary States of water

Soil –liquid

Plant –liquid

River –liquid

Cloud –gas

Ocean –liquid

Lake –liquid

Animal –liquid

Ground water –liquid

Glacier –solid ice

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