The Water Cycle

This week we did a really good little science unit about the water cycle.
In our first lab, we fooled around with ice, water, and steam--we thought we knew it all, until it came time to figure out how to get the water vapor back into liquid form. We had ice cubes in a Pyrex pitcher, holding it over the steaming tea kettle, and water droplets formed on the outside of the pitcher. "How do they get there?" asked the wise science teacher (that would be me). (Hey, somebody get the baby's hand out of the steam!)

"I don't know," said MRD. "Do they get through the glass somehow from the melting ice?" I wish you could have seen the look on her face when she realized it was the water vapor in the air, condensing as it cooled. It was one of those moments that make homeschooling all worthwhile, for sure. Later we noticed the frozen condensed water vapor on the outside of our windows, and also determined, of course, just why it is that the mirror gets foggy from a hot shower. Pretty exciting, no?

For our second lab, we created this little structure involving a bowl of blue-tinted salt water with a small empty cup inside, plastic wrap on top, and a pebble on the wrap over the cup. Overnight, the water condensed on the plastic wrap, and dripped--just a tiny bit--into the cup. But the water in the cup was neither blue nor salty. Hmmmm....Have you ever thought about the fact that all the water on the earth is, and has always been, the same water, since the days of the dinosaurs, just getting recycled over and over? Kinda gross, of course, but also kinda scary, since it really makes you think about how important it is to take care of our water and air.

JPD liked this science lab a lot, especially eating the ice cubes. And he ventured out into the sub-zero outdoors in search of more ice to melt. Seriously, though, he's quite a little scientist, and especially loves the Magic School Bus books and movies. In the water cycle book, we saw the kids shrink and ride along through the water cycle in little raindrops, and he hasn't stopped talking about that. I know he's trying to figure out how to get into one of those raindrops himself!