Investigating the water cycle in Room 16

In term 3, room 16 has been learning about the water cycle as part of our inquiry on climate change.

On the windows we have put small ziplock bags with coloured water and clouds for an experiment. Our experiment was to see the water cycle happen in front of our eyes, we saw evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. This has worked and our experiments were a big success!

We put blue food colouring in the water and the water droplets (from condensation) on the side of the bag weren’t blue. Hmmmmmm??? Our theory for this is that the food colouring is heavier than the water, like evaporation from the oceans separates salt from water giving us fresh water.

In one of our last weeks on this topic we went to the science lab, we were all very excited because we’d never been there before. We got into pairs, got a sponge, a dropper and a see-through cup. Then one person from each group sucked up water into their dropper and dropped a water droplet, one-by-one on to the sponge which was on top of the cup. We had to observe and record the number of droplets we squeezed on the sponge some pairs got past a thousand! 

 It was interesting to see the different results, discuss why we thought there were differences and discuss the variables at play that could have an effect on the experiment.

Understanding about the water cycle helps us to value the water supply we have and ensure we’re looking after the environment for future generations. Environmental awareness will help us beat the threat of climate change.

By Danielle Burtt