water cycle diagram assignment

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Biology library

Course: biology library   >   unit 28.

• Intro to biogeochemical cycles
• Biogeochemical cycles overview

The water cycle

• The carbon cycle
• The nitrogen cycle
• The phosphorus cycle
• Phosphorus cycle
• Eutrophication and dead zones
• Biogeochemical cycles
• The vast majority of Earth's water is saltwater found in oceans. Only a tiny fraction is readily accessible freshwater, which is what humans need.
• Water found at the Earth's surface can cycle rapidly, but much of Earth's water lies in ice, oceans, and underground reservoirs; this water cycles slowly.
• The water cycle is complex and involves state changes in water as well as the physical movement of water through and between ecosystems.
• Groundwater is found underground between soil particles and in cracks of rocks. Aquifers are groundwater reservoirs often tapped by wells.

Water: Why does it matter?

The water cycle drives other cycles., attribution.

• " Biogeochemical cycles " by Robert Bear, David Rintoul, Bruce Snyder, Martha Smith-Caldas, Christopher Herren, and Eva Horne, CC BY 4.0 ; download the original article for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]
• " Biogeochemical cycles " by OpenStax College, Concepts of Biology, CC BY 4.0 ; download the original article for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]

Works cited

• "The World's Water," The USGS Water Science School, last modified May 2, 2016, http://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html .
• John W. Kimball, "Transpiration," last modified May 16, 2011, http://www.biology-pages.info/T/Transpiration.html .
• Sunny Datko, "What Is Plant Transpiration?" San Diego Hydro, last modfiied May 30, 2012, http://sdhydroponics.com/2012/05/30/what-is-plant-transpiration/ .

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Water Cycle

What is the water cycle.

Water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, involves a series of stages that show the continuous movement and interchange of water between its three phases – solid, liquid, and gas, in the earth’s atmosphere. The sun acts as the primary source of energy that powers   the   water cycle on earth. Bernard Palissy discovered the modern theory of the water cycle in 1580 CE.

Steps of the Water Cycle: How does it Work

1. Change from Liquid to Gaseous Phase – Evaporation and Transpiration

The heat of the sun causes water from the surface of water bodies such as oceans, streams, and lakes to evaporate into water vapor in the atmosphere. Plants also contribute to the water cycle when water gets evaporated from the aerial parts of the plant , such as leaves and stems by the process of transpiration.

2. Change from Solid to Gaseous Phase – Sublimation

Due to dry winds, low humidity, and low air pressure, snow present on the mountains change directly into water vapor, bypassing the liquid phase by a process known as sublimation.

3. Change from Gaseous to Liquid Phase – Condensation

The invisible water vapor formed through evaporation, transpiration, and sublimation rises through the atmosphere, while cool air rushes to take its place. This is the process of condensation that allows water vapor to transform back into liquid, which is then stored in the form of clouds.

Sometimes, a sudden drop in atmospheric temperature helps the water vapors to condense into tiny droplets of water that remain suspended in the air. These suspended water droplets get mixed with bits of dust in the air, resulting in fog.

4. Change from Gaseous to Liquid and Solid Phase – Precipitation and Deposition         

Wind movements cause the water-laden clouds   to collide and fall back on the earth’s surface through precipitation, simply known as rain. The water that evaporated in the first stage thus returns into different water bodies on the earth’s surface, including the ocean, rivers, ponds, and lakes. In regions with extremely cold climate with sub-zero temperatures, the water vapor changes directly into frost and snow bypassing the liquid phase, causing snowfall in high altitudes by a process known as the deposition. 

5. Return of the water back into the underground reserve – Runoff, Infiltration, Percolation, and Collection

The water that falls back on the earth’s surface moves between the layers of soil and rocks and is accumulated as the underground water reserves known as aquifers. This process is further assisted by earthquakes, which help the underground water to reach the mantle of the earth. Some amount of precipitated water flows down the sides of mountains and hills to reach the water bodies, which again evaporates into the atmosphere. During volcanic eruptions, the underground water returns to the surface of the earth, where it mixes with the surface water bodies in order to continue the cycle.

Video: Water Cycle Explained

Why is the water cycle important.

The most crucial and direct impacts of the above process on earth include:

• Making fresh water available to plants and animals, including humans, by purifying the groundwater on earth. During the water cycle, the water evaporates, leaving behind all the sediments and other dust particles. Similarly, for the sustenance of marine life, the saline range of all salt water bodies is kept within a certain permissible limit through infiltration. 
• Allowing even distribution of water on all surfaces of the earth. Water is temporarily stored as clouds in the atmosphere, whereas surface water bodies such as rivers and oceans, together with underground water, form the major permanent water reserves. 
• Causing a cooling effect on earth due to evaporation of water from surface water bodies, which help to form clouds that eventually precipitate down in the form of rain. This way water cycle affects the weather and climate of the earth.
• Ensuring some other biogeochemical cycles , including those concerning oxygen and phosphorus, to continue in nature.
• Cleaning the atmosphere by taking-away dust particles, shoot, and bacteria , thus acting as a means to purify the air we breathe.

Human Impact on Water Cycle

Human activities adversely affect the water cycle in the two following ways:

a) Deforestation : Plants play an important role in the water cycle by preventing soil erosion and thus helps to increase the groundwater level of the earth. Also, plants contribute by absorbing water from the soil, which is then released back to the atmosphere during transpiration. Deforestation adversely affects both the above processes, thus breaking the flow of the water cycle.

b) Pollution : Burning of fossil fuels acts as the major source of air pollution releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere, leading to the formation of smog and acid rain . Water from farmlands run off to the nearest water bodies carrying chemicals such as insecticides and pesticides along with them, thus causing water pollution. The presence of excessive contaminants in the atmosphere and water bodies decreases the evaporation and condensation on earth, thus adversely affecting the water cycle.

Ans. Cellular respiration is the process by which organisms take up oxygen in order to breathe and digest food. Water is utilized for breaking large molecules that release energy in the form of ATP , while in a subsequent step the water molecules are released back into the cell, which in turn returns to the atmosphere, thus affecting the water cycle.

Ans. Rivers contain more water than streams and thus contribute more to the formation of water vapor through evaporation compared to a stream.

• Water Cycle – Britannica.com
• The Water Cycle – Khanacademy.org
• Water Cycle – Noaa.gov
• What Is The Hydrologic Cycle? – Worldatlas.com
• What is the Water Cycle? – Earth.com
• The Water Cycle – Coastgis.marsci.uga.edu

Article was last reviewed on Wednesday, May 17, 2023

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One response to “Water Cycle”

The first part of the water cycle is of course evaporation and transportation, but I don’t want to focus on that, I want to focus on the 2nd step which is sublimation. Sublimation is when snow or hail, or sleet falls down on a mountain and it quickly turns into water vapor by passing the liquid phase.Now lets skip to the last phase which is RIPC

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The Water Cycle - USGS Water Science School

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• Intermediate

Interactive Water Cycle Diagram for Kids (Intermediate)

The water cycle describes how Earth's water is not only always changing forms, between liquid (rain), solid (ice), and gas (vapor), but also moving on, above, and in the Earth. This process is always happening everywhere.

The water in the air rises up high into the sky and becomes clouds, which float away looking for a picnic to rain on. The atmosphere is the superhighway in the sky that moves water everywhere over the Earth.

Condensation

Clouds are created in the same way. Why? Condensation happens because of temperature changes. As warmer air (containing water vapor, remember?) floats up into the sky, where it is cold, condensation happens and tiny liquid water particles form ... the clouds. Colder air cannot keep the water vapor as a gas as easily as warm air.

Evaporation

As usual, you can thank the sun for making evaporation work. The sun's energy breaks the bonds that hold liquid water's molecules together and turns them into water vapor gas. Thus, it makes sense that water evaporates more easily in hot conditions, such as in the desert, rather than outside on a cloudy winter day.

Fog contains very tiny liquid water particles, like a cloud, and floats, like a cloud. Actually, fog IS a cloud, but one that swirls around your feet instead of high in the sky. Fog forms when air containing invisible water vapor encounters cooler temperatures (here, next to the ground) and the water vapor condenses out into liquid water—the cloud.

In this picture, as the day warms the air next to the ground will warm, too, and the fog particles will again evaporate back into invisible water vapor.

Groundwater flow

Yes, water below your feet is moving all the time, but, no, if you have heard there are rivers flowing below ground, that is not true.

Groundwater flow. Relate to recharge a battery.

Groundwater

When you pour a glass of water on your yard, the water sinks (infiltrates) into the ground and gets back into being a vital part of the global water cycle.

Ice and snow

Ice and glaciers are part of the water cycle, even though the water moving in them changes very slowly. The amount of ice on the Earth goes up and down as the world's climate cools and warms over thousands of years.

Lucky for us we're now in a warmer phase of the Earth's history, but the last Ice Age was only 18,000 years ago. At that time, ice covered the northern part of North America .

Ice and glaciers are still around today, as this picture shows. In fact, most of the world's freshwater, about 68 percent, is locked up in ice, snow, and glaciers.

The oceans are, by far, the largest reservoir of water on earth—over 96% of all of Earth's water exists in the oceans.

Oceans are important to the water cycle because almost all the water that evaporates from liquid to water vapor (which forms clouds) comes from the oceans.

Plant uptake

Plants depend on water in the ground for their needs. Even when you sprinkle your garden with water to give it a drink, the plants want the water that soaks into the ground next to them, not from the water that lands on their leaves. Roots in the ground pull the water up into the plant to keep it healthy.

Precipitation

The amount of precipitation that falls is different all around the world. In deserts, such as in Chile, it may only rain one inch per year, while on some mountains in Hawaii and in India, it can rain more than 600 inches per year. That is almost 2 inches every day!

Precipitation is the "exit ramp" back to earth from the water-cycle superhighway in the sky that is moving clouds all around the globe.

Of course, plants, animals, and people interact with rivers, as all kinds of life seems to thrive around rivers. If you look at a map of the world, you see how people naturally build their cities next to rivers .

And, as this satellite picture of the Nile River in Egypt, you can often pick out the rivers because of the green growth growing along them.

Even though some rainfall soaks into the ground, most of it flows over the land surface, going downhill. This runoff water reaches creeks, rivers, lakes, and the oceans, keeping the water cycle going.

With the water cycle, seepage occurs when precipitation falls on the landscape and starts to soak into the ground. The "Why?" this happens is simply gravity. But, seepage doesn't just happen downward! Water seeps upwards and sideways, too, from the ground into the bottom of rivers, lakes, and the oceans. Some of the water you see flowing in a river has come up from the ground.

Just like the flowers waiting for springtime to bloom, this snow is waiting for warmer temperatures so it can melt and get back into the ever-moving water cycle. If a lot of snowmelt happens in the spring, watch out downstream, because flooding can occur from the melting of months of accumulated snow.

The sun's heat allows liquid water to evaporate into water vapor, which in the main way water gets from the land surface back into the sky.

The sun also participates in moving water around the Earth by being the reason winds exist. The winds move clouds and the weather all over the place; all of this mixing up and moving is an important part of the water cycle.

Evapotranspiration (Evaporation and transpiration)

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The Water Cycle

• English version (8.39 MB pdf)
• Spanish version (9.84 MB pdf)
• Project Site: The Water Cycle (html)
• Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core

Suggested Citation

Corson-Dosch, H.R., Nell, C.S., Volentine, R.E., Archer, A.A., Bechtel, E., Bruce, J.L., Felts, N., Gross, T.A., Lopez-Trujillo, D., Riggs, C.E., and Read, E.K., 2023, The water cycle: U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product 221, 1 sheet, https://doi.org/10.3133/gip221.

ISSN: 2332-354X (online)

ISSN: 2332-3531 (print)

Water Cycle

Water Cycle introduces students to the continuous process water follows from evaporation to precipitation. Students will learn many terms related to the water cycle and be able to explain the process to others correctly. They will be able to recognize the different steps and put them in order.

In the “Options for Lesson” section of the worksheet, you will see some suggestions for additional or alternative things to do for the lesson. One suggestion is to have students work in pairs throughout the lesson as they learn about the water cycle. You could also have students present their 2D water cycle models to the class.

Description

Additional information, what our water cycle lesson plan includes.

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Water Cycle teaches students how water flows through a continuous process from evaporation to precipitation. Students will learn and be able to define the terms that relate to the steps of this process. By the end of the lesson, they will be able to explain the process to others correctly. This lesson is for students in 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. For this lesson, you will need to supply plastic cups, water, ice cubes, paper towels, construction paper, markers, glue, and other supplies that students may need to make a 2D model of the water cycle. Before giving the lesson, you will also need to gather the plastic cups and fill them with water about 3/4 of the way.

Options for Lesson

There are several suggestions in the “Options for Lesson” section that you could incorporate into the lesson if you have time or want to extend or adjust parts of the lesson. Several of these options relate specifically to the task of creating a 2D model. You may want students to work in pairs throughout the lesson, or just for the 2D model portion. Another idea is to let students present their models to the class. As an alternative idea, students could use PowerPoint or another slide deck software to present models of the water cycle.

Teacher Notes

The paragraph on the teacher notes page provides a little extra information for the lesson as you prepare. It suggests including hands-on activities whenever possible, such as showing a how a plant transpires over a period of time. You can use the blank lines on this page to write down ideas or thoughts you have as you read through the lesson document.

WATER CYCLE LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

The water cycle.

The Water Cycle lesson plan contains two pages of content. The first page describes how the water people drink today could be millions of years old. The reason for this phenomenon is that the water on the Earth that everyone and everything uses has existed since the beginning of time. For instance, the rain falling from the sky may one day be the water we drink a few weeks later. This is possible because of the water cycle, which basically recycles water in a continuous cycle.

The lesson provides a diagram that roughly shows the different steps of the cycle. It shows clouds with falling rain and snow over some mountains. Rivers flow down from the mountain tops and into a lake or ocean. It also displays how water on the ground seeps through the Earth’s surface and eventually deposits into surface water sources, such as the ocean.

To illustrate evaporation, the diagram shows white circles in the air with arrows and a label signifying the upward direction. It does not outline the cycle exactly. Instead, it provides arrows to represent that snow and rain fall down, groundwater flows into a water source, and water vapor rises into the atmosphere.

Steps of the Cycle

Below the diagram, the lesson explains the four steps of the water cycle in detail. The first step is evaporation. Evaporation occurs when the sun heats up the waters of oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water. The heat turns the water into a gas, also called water vapor. The vapor then rises into the air (evaporates). This process doesn’t just happen for large bodies of water. Students will learn that even an open container of water inside a house will eventually evaporate.

Transpiration is the next step. It is the process by which plants lose water in the form of water vapor. It is similar to evaporation because it also moves water vapor into the air, except that the source is plants instead of water bodies. Transpiration occurs continuously as plants grow and use up the water that passes through the roots, later releasing it into the air again.

Students will then learn about condensation, the third step of the cycle. Condensation occurs when water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into a liquid. Clouds actually form during condensation, and when they fill up too much with the moisture in the atmosphere, it rains. One example of how condensation works is what happens to a bathroom mirror after a hot shower. The steam (water vapor) from the shower is hot, but when it touches the cool mirror, it becomes liquid again. As a result, the mirror looks hazy from the moisture.

The last step is precipitation, which involves rain, snow, sleet, or hail falling to the ground from the clouds. It occurs when the air can no longer hold the water that has evaporated. The clouds are too heavy with moisture, so the evaporated water falls back to the Earth as precipitation.

After Precipitation

After it rains or water returns to Earth in another form during precipitation, it becomes ground water. Ground water is what plants and animals use for drinking. It can also be stored in aquifers, which are underground layers of rock that get saturated with water. That water can return to the surface through natural springs. In addition, people can pump the water to the surface.

When there is a large amount of precipitation, it runs over the soil and collects in oceans, lakes, or rivers. This excess water from storms, meltwater, or other sources is called runoff. In other words, runoff is the water that remains on the Earth’s surface rather than absorbing into the soil. The water from runoff evaporates, starting the whole cycle over again.

A fun fact that students will also learn is that sweating is an example of condensation in action. When the moisture drips off the skin, it is essentially like precipitation. The sweat begins to dry due to evaporation. However, since people aren’t plants, the body does not transpire. Instead, they perspire, which occurs when moisture escapes into the air. That means that the water a person sweats could some day become the water they drink!

The lesson provides another diagram that shows how plants transpire. The roots of the plant absorb water from the soil and into the root hairs. The water then travels through the plant’s stem and leaves. After it begins to transpire, the water starts to evaporate from the surface of the leaves and into the atmosphere once more.

Here is a list of the vocabulary words students will learn in this lesson plan:

• Evaporation: the process by which water returns to the atmosphere
• Transpiration: the process by which plants lose water in the form of water vapor
• Condensation: the process by which water vapor in the air becomes cold and changes back to a liquid
• Precipitation: the process by which water falls to the ground in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail
• Ground water: the water that soaks into the surface of the Earth after it rains, snows, or hails
• Aquifer: an underground layer of rock that saturates with water that can reach the surface again through natural springs or by pumping
• Runoff: the flow of excess water from storms, meltwater, or other sources that remains on the Earth’s surface

WATER CYCLE LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Water Cycle lesson plan includes three worksheets: a journal page, a rubric, and a homework assignment. The guidelines on the classroom procedure page describe when to hand out each assignment to the class.

OBJECT LESSON JOURNAL PAGE

You will use the journal pages before you distribute any of the content pages. The classroom procedure lists the steps to follow for an object lesson. The journal page is for students to answer questions that relate to the things they observe as you go through the object lesson. The classroom procedure page also provides you with the list of questions to ask. Students will write the questions you ask them in the boxes on the worksheet and write in their answers. There are a total of 10 questions.

2D MODEL RUBRIC PAGE

As part of the classroom procedure, students will create a 2D model of the water cycle. They will need to include labels, arrows, and other information so that it is clear for viewers to understand. The rubric page shows students what you will assess them on. For instance, does their model show all the steps of the cycle? Did students label the model correctly? Does the model clearly show multiple types of perspiration? There is space near the bottom of the rubric for you to provide comments.

WATER CYCLE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For the homework assignment, students will complete a crossword puzzle. There are a total of 20 terms and clues for them to figure out.

Worksheet Answer Keys

The last page of this document is an answer key for the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits this page. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep this as reference for yourself when grading assignments.

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Water Cycle

What is the Water Cycle? Water Cycle Diagram Stages of Water Cycle Implications of Water Cycle Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Water Cycle?

The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth.

Water Cycle Diagram

During this process, water changes its state from one phase to another, but the total number of water particles remains the same. In other words, if it were possible to collect and boil 100 gms of water, it will still retain a mass of 100 gms as steam. Likewise, if 100 gms of steam is collected and condensed, the resultant water would still weight 100 gms.

Water changes its state through a variety of processes from evaporation, melting and freezing, to sublimation, condensation, and deposition. All these changes require the application of energy.

Stages of Water Cycle

There are many processes involved in the movement of water apart from the major steps given in the above water cycle diagram. Listed below are different stages of the water cycle.

1. Evaporation

The sun is the ultimate source of energy, and it powers most of the evaporation that occurs on earth. Evaporation generally happens when water molecules at the surface of water bodies become excited and rise into the air. These molecules with the highest kinetic energy accumulate into water vapour clouds. Evaporation usually takes place below the boiling point of water. Another process called evapotranspiration occurs when evaporation occurs through the leaves of plants. This process contributes to a large percentage of water in the atmosphere.

2. Sublimation

Sublimation occurs when snow or ice changes directly into water vapour without becoming water. It usually occurs as a result of dry winds and low humidity. Sublimation can be observed on mountain peaks, where the air pressure is quite low. The low air pressure helps to sublimate the snow into water vapour as less energy is utilised in the process. Another example of sublimation is the phase where fog bellows from dry ice. On earth, the primary source of sublimation is from the ice sheets covering the poles of the earth.

3. Condensation

The water vapour that accumulated in the atmosphere eventually cools down due to the low temperatures found at high altitudes. These vapours become tiny droplets of water and ice, eventually coming together to form clouds.

4. Precipitation

Above 0 degrees centigrade, the vapours will condense into water droplets. However, it cannot condense without dust or other impurities. Hence, water vapours attach itself on to the particle’s surface. When enough droplets merge, it falls out of the clouds and on to the ground below. This process is called precipitation (or rainfall). In particularly cold weather or extremely low air pressure, the water droplets freeze and fall as snow or hail.

5. Infiltration

Rainwater gets absorbed into the ground through the process of infiltration. The level of absorption varies based on the material the water has seeped into. For instance, rocks will retain comparatively less water than soil. Groundwater can either follows streams or rivers. But sometimes, it might just sink deeper, forming aquifers.

If the water from rainfall does not form aquifers, it follows gravity, often flowing down the sides of mountains and hills; eventually forming rivers. This process is called runoff. In colder regions, icecaps form when the amount of snowfall is faster than the rate of evaporation or sublimation. The biggest icecaps on earth are found at the poles.

All the steps mentioned above occur cyclically with neither a fixed beginning nor an end.

Also Read:  Back to the Oceans

Implications of Water Cycle

• The water cycle has a tremendous impact on the climate. For instance, the greenhouse effect will cause a rise in temperature. Without the evaporative cooling effect of the water cycle, the temperature on earth would rise drastically.
• The water cycle is also an integral part of other biogeochemical cycles.
• Water cycle affects all life processes on earth.
• The water cycle is also known the clean the air. For instance, during the process of precipitation, water vapours have to attach themselves on to particles of dust. In polluted cities, the raindrops, apart from picking up dust, also pick up water-soluble gas and pollutants as they fall from the clouds. Raindrops are also known to pick up biological agents such as bacteria and industrial soot particles and smoke.

Read more about the water cycle with diagram by registering @  BYJU’S Biology

• Biogeochemical cycles
• Oxygen Cycle
• Carbon Cycle
• Nitrogen Cycle

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the major 4 steps in the water cycle.

The major 4 steps are evaporation of water, then condensation, precipitation and collection. The sun evaporates water sources and contributes to the formation of water vapor. These water vapour accumulate in the atmosphere as clouds. The vapours condense into water droplets and when enough droplets merge, it falls out of the clouds as rain.

What is the difference between evaporation and condensation?

Evaporation is a process by which water changes into water vapour. Condensation is an opposite process by which water vapour is converted into tiny droplets of water.

Why is water cycle important?

Water cycle has a huge impact on determining the global climate. It is also an integral part of other biogeochemical cycles. It affects all life processes on Earth either directly or indirectly.

Put your understanding of this concept to test by answering a few MCQs. Click ‘Start Quiz’ to begin!

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Education Standards

North carolina essential standards for science.

Learning Domain: Earth Systems, Structures & Processes

Standard: Explain how the cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere and atmospheric conditions relate to the weather patterns on Earth.

Water Cycle Lesson Google Slides presentation

Water cycle lessons & project (nces7e1.2).

This water cycle lesson includes a 3-day module on the water cycle with formative assessments (warm-ups & exit tickets), flashcards, and a project. The project helps students recognize local water cycle stages that happen in/around their home, community, or state. The project also challenges students to collaboratively create their own water cycle diagram. The  Google Slides format  allows educators to copy and modify the materials to fit their needs and can be accessed here:  http://bit.ly/localwatercycle .

This water cycle lesson includes a 3-day module on the water cycle with formative assessments (warm-ups & exit tickets), flashcards, and a project. The project helps students recognize local water cycle stages that happen in/around their home, community, or state. The project also challenges students to collaboratively create their own water cycle diagram. The Google Slides format allows educators to copy and modify the materials to fit their needs and can be accessed here:  http://bit.ly/localwatercycle .

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The water cycle diagram is a visual representation of the continuous pathway of water through its various phases. It illustrates the key processes like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection of water. The water cycle diagram drawing provides a clear and concise overview of the natural phenomenon and helps to understand how the water is recycled in the environment. In this article, we will learn about the steps of the water cycle with the help of a diagram and its importance.

Table of Content

What is the Water Cycle?

Water cycle diagram, stages of water cycle, importance of water cycle, conclusion – water cycle diagram for kids, faqs on diagram of water cycle.

The water cycle also called the hydrological cycle , is a fundamental process of nature that ensures that water keeps on moving and circulating within the Earth’s environment. It can be defined as the continuous movement of water from the surface to the cloud and from clouds to the surface. In this process, the water changes its state without changing the total number of water molecules present in it at any state it converts into. 

Understand the water cycle diagram easy way with all the stages:

The process of the water cycle includes the four main stages, which are; evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration. 

Evaporation

• Evaporation marks the beginning of the water cycle, converting liquid water into water vapor due to heat.
• The sun provides the primary heat energy, warming water bodies like oceans, rivers, and lakes.
• This warmth causes liquid water to transition into a gaseous state (vapor) and ascend into the atmosphere .

Condensation

• After the water evaporates it undergoes condensation .
• When the moist air carrying water rises higher into the atmosphere, it cools due to the 0℃ temperature in that condition.
• This cooling leads to the formation of tiny water droplets that combine to form clouds.

Precipitation

• Precipitation is the process of the release of water from clouds back to the Earth’s surface.
• The water droplets in clouds become heavy to fall under the influence of gravity in various forms like rain, snow, etc. depending on the atmospheric conditions and temperature.
• After precipitation falls, the water moves across the surface of Earth which is called runoff.
• This flow of water follows the natural geography of the land, forming streams and rivers that eventually flow into lakes and oceans. 

Infiltration

• It is the process by which water soaks into the ground becoming part of the sub-surface water system recharging the groundwater.

The importance of the water cycle can be understood through its crucial role in sustaining life and environment. Some of the points are:

• It ensures a continuous supply of freshwater.
• The water cycle provides water for plants and animals, thus supporting the ecosystem.
• The movement of water through the different phases of the water cycle influences the weather pattern.
• It constantly replenishes and redistributes water throughout nature.
• It ensures water is available for agriculture and for  hydroelectric  power generation.

The water cycle diagram with explanation provides a complete idea of the continuous journey of water through its various stages. It serves as a visual help in understanding this essential natural process and its impact on our environment. The article covers the stages of the water cycle with useful water cycle diagram for class 3 and class 6, highlighting the significance of each step in sustaining life on Earth.

Also Read: Difference Between Evaporation and Consensation Difference Between Deforestation and Aforestation Water Pollution Sources of Water

Where to Find the Water Cycle Diagram for Class 8?

The water cycle diagram shows the continuous movement of water on Earth following various steps. The diagram of water cycle for class 8 is clearly shown here.

What are the 7 Steps of the Water Cycle?

The 7 steps of the water cycle are evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, transpiration, and sublimation.

What are the 4 Steps of the Water Cycle Diagram?

The 4 main steps of the water cycle diagram are evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection.

What does the Diagram of Water Cycle Class 7 Depict?

The Water Cycle Diagram Class 7 depicts the journey of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff, offering a visual guide to its natural distribution process.

What does the Students Learn from the Water Cycle Diagram Class 9?

Class 9 students learn about the stages of water cycle from the diagram. They understand how water moves through various forms and phases in the environment, gaining insight into this essential natural process.

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