The Water Cycle Notes
Name: ___________________________________________________ period: ___ Assignment associated with: _______
Purpose: To understand how water cycles through the different reservoirs on Earth and to understand the disruption of
water in each of those reservoirs.
Earth’s Reservoirs
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What do you think of when you hear the word reservoir?
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Definition of reservoir:
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Name as many natural (not man-made) reservoirs:
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Hypothesis Water Reservoir Pie Graph
Key
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Actual Water Reservoir Pie Graph
Key
Instructions: Answers the following
questions using your graphs and the
table provided
Reservoirs
Percentages Fraction
Oceans
97%
97/100
Icecaps/Glaciers
2%
2/100
2. What percentage of the world’s
water is in ice caps or glaciers?
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Groundwater
.7%
.7/100 or 7/1000
Atmosphere
.01%
.01/100 or 1/10,000
3. What percent does that leave
for fresh water?
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Freshwater Lakes
.3%
.3/100 or 3/1,000
Saline lakes and inland seas
.01%
.01/100 or 1/10,000
1. What percentage of the world’s
water is salt water?
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4. With so much water in the
Rivers
.001%
.001/100 or 1/100,000
world, why do we worry about
water shortages?
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5. Why would salt water have limited use to humans?
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6. What surprised you about your hypothesis and the actual data?
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7. Compare the two pie charts that you created. What about your hypothesis chart was correct?
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Utah Reservoirs:
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Earth’s Water distribution
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Predict: If the water in this 5 gallon bucket represents the water on Earth, how much do you think is in a form that is
available to humans? _____________________________________________________________________________
o 97.5 % of Earth’s Water is ___________________________________________________________________
o 2.5 % of Earth’s water is ____________________________________________________________________
o 98.7% of fresh water is _____________________________________________________________________
o 1.3 % of fresh water is ______________________________________________________________________
o Less than 1 % of Earth’s water is _____________________________________________________________
Why is Earth’s nickname “the water planet” both accurate and misleading?
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List at least 5 things you learned:
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The Water Cycle
1. _______________________
2. _______________________
3
1
3. ______________________
4. _______________________
6
4
5
2
5. _______________________
6. _______________________
7
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7. _______________________
8
8. _______________________
Video clip: “Based upon what we just viewed, why is it important to study and
understand the water cycle?”
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The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Satellite will collect ___________________________ data from
around the world.
Knowing where and how much rain or snow falls globally is vital to understanding how ____________________ and
_____________________________ impact both our environment and Earth’s water and energy cycles. Precipitation
patterns have effects on _____________________________, fresh water ______________________________, and
responses to natural _____________________________________.
What stages require solar radiation (heat energy)?
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What stages require water to give of heat (cool down)? _________________________________________________
Which parts of the water cycle are driven by the force of gravity?
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Instructions: as we watch the video clips fill in the blanks in the following statements below.
The Water Cycle
Water is found almost everywhere on Earth, from high mountain snowcaps and glaciers to oceans to freshwater on land
and underground. Energy from the sun and the force of gravity drive the continual cycling of water. Gravity causes
precipitation to fall from clouds, and causes water on land to flow downward through watersheds.
I. Teacher Demonstrations:
Evaporation:
1. ____________________________ is the source of energy that drives Earth's water cycle.
2. As heat energy was added to the water, it changed state from a_______________________ to a
______________________. This ________gas __________is also called ___________________________.
3. As more energy is added to the water, the water molecules move _________________________ and farther apart.
4. When water vapor is warmer and less dense than the surrounding air, it ______________.
Transpiration:
1. The sealed, plastic bag around the plant had __________________ in it.
2. This happened because during the process of transpiration, a plant takes in water through its roots. Unused water is
given off as _____________________________________.
Condensation:
1. As water vapor cools it ________________________. This process changes water’s state from ___________________
to _______________.
2. The water vapor in the bottle condensed onto the _______________________nuclei. (The smoke particles.)
3. Millions of these tiny little droplets form a _____________________.
Infiltration:
1. Infiltration occurs when water seeps into Earth's land surface. The water fills pockets of ________ in the soil and rock.
Water infiltrates because of the force of _______________________.
2. When the water reaches an ____________________ layer, it creates an _______________________.
Precipitation:
1. When a cloud’s droplets join together and get too big to overcome _____________________, they fall from the cloud
as ________________________________. (Rain, snow, sleet or hail)
2. Excess precipitation will create _____________________. This occurs because _____________________ causes water
to flow downhill.
Freshwater from Saltwater Demo:
1. Look at the “Ocean” container in which the teacher evaporated the water. What do you observe?
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2. Using what you just observed, explain why clouds and precipitation contain freshwater even though much of the
water vapor comes from oceans and seas.
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