Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________
Student Exploration: Water Cycle
Vocabulary: 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? Through pipes and various filtering systems, or through
the water cycle.
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? 97.25%
2. Click Atmosphere. How does the Sun cause water to move from the oceans to the
atmosphere? Heated by sun, causing the water to evaporate to the atmosphere.
3. Click Clouds. How do clouds form? Through condensation from tiny droplets.
4. Click Precip (rain). (“Precip” is short for precipitation, or water falling to Earth’s surface.)
What causes it to rain? If the water droplets in clouds grow heavy enough, they fall as rain.
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
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Activity: Get the Gizmo ready:
The water cycle 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: Oceans->Atmosphere->Clouds->Precipitation (rain)->Ocean
Cycle 2: Reservoir-> Agriculture->Soil->Atmosphere->Clouds->Precipitation (Rain)->Reservoir
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% of Earth’s Water
B. What percentage of Earth’s water is stored in ice and snow? 1.9% of Earth’s
freshwater.
C. What percentage of Earth’s freshwater is stored in ice and snow? 68.7% of Earth’s
freshwater.
D. What percentage of Earth’s water is found in lakes? 0.009% of the Water
E. What is transpiration? (Hint: Click the Vegetation button)- The absorption of water
from the soil and the release of water vapor from their leaves in the process of
transpiration.
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
I. What is an aquifer? a body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit
groundwater.
J. What is a reservoir? a large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply.
K. In what ways can runoff be a problem? - Runoffs can cause serious flooding and
erosion, and can carry contaminants into rivers, lakes, and oceans.
(Activity continued on next page)
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.
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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 Evaportation
B. Atmosphere Clouds Condensation
C. Cloud Snow Freezing
D. Glacier (river of ice) River Melting
E. Cloud Soil Precipitation
5. Practice: Fill in the two processes that cause each of the following transitions.
A. Ocean Cloud Evaporation - Condensation
B. Cloud Glacier Precipitation - 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?
Due to the limited amount of drinking water available, only because there’s much water in
our earth does not signify that we could consume the water without making it go
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