The Water Cycle

Discover the amazing water cycle! Learn about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation with fun activities.

The Great Aqua Adventure: The Water Cycle Watch this video about the water cycle. Listen and watch carefully. Be sure to understand the following terms: evaporation, condensation, water vapor, precipitation, Water Cycle Diagram Label the diagram using the following tags: precipitation, sun, evaporation, clouds, condensation, water The driving force behind the water cycle is the energy from the sun.The sun heatsup water on land and in the oceans, lakes, and seas. The water changes from liquid to vapor in a process called evaporation.The water vapor cools and in a process called condensationforms droplets in the atmosphere. These droplets become clouds.The droplets (or ice crystals if it’s cold enough) gather and then fall from the sky in a process called precipitation.This precipitation gathers in streams and rivers and flows and becomes run off, flowing back down to the oceans, seas, and lakes. Match the terms with their definitions. condensation Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. evaporation When the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam. precipitation Water that falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow. What happens to water vapor as it rises higher in the atmosphere? it heats up and evaporates it cools down and precipitates it cools down and condenses Why are warm fronts responsible for gray, drizzly weather? in a warm front, cold air rises and causes thunderstorms to form in a warm front, warm air rises into the air creating stratus clouds and light rain in a warm front, cold air and warm air mix together which causes severe weather Which best explains why it doesn't rain in the desert? the desert is really cold, causing water to freeze before it turns to rain the desert is extremely hot, making it hard for water vapor to condense and form clouds the desert is a temperate zone, so there is never really much rain