Geography: Mountains, Rivers and Coasts
Summer 1, week 5
Aquamarine 1, 2, 3
Vocabulary
Learning Focus:
The water cycle, including evaporation and condensation
We will create labelled, annotated drawings to explain the water cycle
condensation
Water cycle
Vapour
Recap
Last week we learnt the names of the features of a river. Can you label the diagram below with the names of its features, there is also some new vocabulary. (See the next page for the answers.)
Weblinks
http://www.kidzone.ws/water
The Water Cycle
Now watch this clip:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/z8qtfg8
Can you answer these questions?
Where do rain clouds come from?
What does evaporate mean?
Investigation
Do you remember the investigation we did in school where we left water with salt in it in different places?
Do you remember what happened to the water and what happened to the salt?
If not, you could try this again. Just put out two saucers of water, one containing salt and one without salt and leave them in a warm place. A window ledge is good.
What happens to the water? What happens to the salt?
What does this show us happens to water in both the seas and rivers? (Which saucer represents the sea and why?)
Have a look up at the sky the next time you are out.
Did you know there are names for all the different types of clouds?
Why don’t you see if you can identify any of them?
Complete the diagram below to show the water cycle. Use the labels below to help you. Can you add any of your own?
Underneath the diagram write a few sentences to describe what happens in the water cycle.
DIY: Water Cycle in a Bag!
You can create a miniature model of the water cycle at home if you would like to extend this learning!
For this experiment you will need the following:
Plastic sealable sandwich bag
Permanent marker pen (to draw clouds and waves)
¼ mug of water
Blue food colouring (if you have it, it still works without this!)
Masking tape (sticky tape works but can be hard to get off the window) 1. Begin your experiment by drawing clouds around the top and water around the bottom of your plastic bag. This will serve as a visual aid of the water cycle and how it works.
2. Next, fill your plastic bag with ¼ mug of water, and add about 4 drops of food colouring.
3. Seal your bag shut, and hang it in a window (we recommend using masking tape since it is easy to remove once your experiment is over.)
4. Now it’s time to let nature run its course! Check on your bag each day and observe how much condensation your bag collects over time.
What’s the science?
As you have learnt in today’s home learning, the sun’s heat causes water to evaporate from streams, lakes, rivers, and oceans. As the water vapour rises, it condenses to form clouds when it reaches cooler air. When the clouds are full of water, or saturated, they release some of the water as rain. Then the cycle starts all over again.
The same principle can be applied to your experiment. Over the next few days, you will see that the water has warmed in the sunlight and evaporated into vapour. As that vapour cooled it began changing back into liquid, just like a cloud. When enough water condensed, the air couldn’t hold it anymore and the water fell down in the form of precipitation.
Remember, it is important to note that an experiment uses a variable (something that changes) to answer a question. To turn this demonstration into an experiment, you have to change something! Check out these questions to get you started:
Does the location (North facing, South facing, partial shade, full sun, etc.) of the window have any impact on the cycle?
Does the amount of food colouring used have any impact?
How does the outside temperature impact the experiment?
