Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
UNIT: Water
LESSON # 3
TITLE: Clouds
Summary: Children learn some basic ideas about
what clouds are and how they form,
drawing from what they learned in the
previous two lessons (on evaporation
and condensation). The lesson starts
with everyone watching the first 2
minutes of a NASA video on clouds. Then
each group does an experiment, assisted
by the facilitator, where they make a
cloud in a bottle.
NASA Source: Adapted from the NASA activities ”Cloud
in a bottle” from the El Nino – Making
Sense of Weather series at
http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/nino/
cloud.html and S'COOL Lesson Plan 86:
Cloud in a Bottle (Hands-on Version)
<http://scool.larc.nasa.gov/cgibin/view_lessonplan.cgi?id=86>
Grade level: 3-5
Time: Total time: 70 minutes
Snack & introduction: 15 minutes
Cloud in bottle:
40 minutes
Summary and cleanup: 15 minutes
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Materials:
for cloud in a bottle activity
Item
2-liter clear
plastic bottle
with cap
Bicycle or foot
pump with
rubber stopper
attached
Warm water
Rubbing
alcohol
Safety glasses
Quantity
per group
of 12–15
2
2
1/2 cup
1/4 cup
2
Take-home KIT per child:
Each child will receive:
1 half sheet of paper with the
Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
Children Children will learn that:
Learning  Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of
water.
Outcomes:
 Reduced air pressure and cooling can
form clouds.
Children will engage in and thereby
strengthen a number of scientific
practices such as:
 Observing condensation.
 Comparing volume measurements.
 Verbally communicating ideas about
air and living things.
Children will be able to (cultural goals):
 Relate overall science learning goals to
the context of their schools, families,
and community.
 Communicate ideas, collaborate with
other children, and learn in a
personally meaningful way.
Big Questions:  What do you think a cloud is?
 Where does the water in clouds come
from?
Lesson format:
National
Standards
Addressed:
Hands-on activity and discussion.
This activity relates to the following
standards from the Next Generation
Science Standards:
K-PS3-1. Make observations to
determine the effect of sunlight on
Earth’s surface.
K-ESS2-1. Use and share observations of
local weather conditions to describe
patterns over time.
2-PS1-1. Plan and conduct an
investigation to describe and classify
different kinds of materials by their
observable properties.
2-ESS2-3. Obtain information to identify
where water is found on Earth and that
it can be solid or liquid.
4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide
evidence that energy can be
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following directions for thinking
about water in vegetables at
home:
 This experiment helps you see
that water is what makes
vegetables crisp.
 With the help of a family
member, put a small amount
of water in each of the two
bowls. To one bowl, add a
spoonful of salt (stir the water
till the salt disappears).
 Put a slice of a crisp vegetable
(like celery, cucumber, radish,
jicama, pepper, or carrot) in
each bowl.
 Wait at least 10 minutes. Take
the vegetable out of each bowl.
Feel it, try to bend it, even
taste it!
 Can you explain what
happened?
 Talk with your family member
about what happened. Water
can move into and out of
plants like vegetables. The
water moved out of the
vegetable in the salty water.
The water moved into the
vegetable in the plain water.
 Please remember to bring in a
show and tell object that
makes you think about water
or a drawing related to water
for next week.
Word Wall:
Include following words in
discussion (in both English and
Spanish), orally defined in
understandable terms, and
visibly displayed. If possible,
project a large image of the
Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
transferred from place to place by
sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
5-PS1-1. Develop a model to describe
that matter is made of particles too
small to be seen.
5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an
example to describe ways the
geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere,
and/or atmosphere interact.
5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the
amounts and percentages of water and
fresh water in various reservoirs to
provide evidence about the distribution
of water on Earth.
words (and associated pictures)
on the wall of the teaching area.
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Cloud
• Nubarrón
Water vapor • Vapor de agua
Condensation • Condensación
Moisture
• Humedad
Air pressure • Presión de aire
DIRECTIONS:
Overview: This session involves two parts and one take-home activity:
1) Give children an opportunity to share show and tell object that makes them think
about water or their drawing related to water in their homes. Then start with a brief
multimedia presentation and introduce the topic of clouds.
2) Children then experience making a cloud in a bottle.
3) Instruction for Take-home Kit/activity.
Steps:
LESSON INTRODUCTION (15 minutes)
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Give children an opportunity to briefly share their show and tell object that makes
them think about water or their drawing related to water that was part of last
week’s take home.
Shift to the introduction of today’s lesson.
At the beginning of the session (during snack , if provided), show a multimedia
presentation to introduce today’s lesson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SHC27S5L9M
Tell children that today they are going to be looking at something where two
components, air and water, combine. Ask them if they can think of something in our
environment where we experience air and water together. Tell them that today, they
will think about clouds.
Discussion questions:
o Ask children what they think clouds are? Be open to all ideas that they
generate. Ask children to explain why they have the ideas about clouds they do,
and ask them to give evidence for their ideas. What happens when we have
clouds? What makes clouds appear?
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Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
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Tell the children that today, they will hear what scientists have learned about
clouds, and they will be able to make their own cloud in a bottle.
Show the first 2 minutes of the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNjESP1CKSg&feature=related
LESSON LEARNING TASKS (40 minutes)
Procedures
Cloud in a bottle
Review the concepts of evaporation and condensation. Ask: What happens to the
water puddle on the road? Where does the water go?
(It evaporates into the air. It turns into invisible water vapor.)
Where does the water come from on the outside of a cold glass or bottle?
(It condenses out of the air. The invisible water vapor in the air turns into liquid
water.)
Ask children where they think the water comes from that makes clouds? Tell them
they will do and experiment to make a cloud in a bottle.
Let the children pump. Make sure they are wearing safety glasses. An adult should
demonstrate how to handle the stopper and valve and then monitor child’s use
closely.
1. Start by pouring just enough warm water in the bottle to cover the bottom.
2. Swirl the water around and then put the rubber stopper in the bottle.
3. Start by pumping the pump five times. You will notice that as you start to
pump, the rubber stopper will want to pop right out. Hold it in the bottle
tightly, being very careful not to let it fly out of the bottle.
4. After five pumps, pull the stopper out of the bottle. You will likely see a very
faint "poof" of a cloud. There was not enough pressure in the bottle to make a
good cloud, but now you are starting to get the feel of the pump.
5. Repeat the experiment again, but instead of five pumps, pump the pump ten
times. You will notice that the more you pump, the harder it is to keep the
stopper in the bottle. Hold it in there tightly. When you are done pumping,
pull out the stopper. You should see a slightly more visible cloud this time.
6. Now fill the bottom of the bottle again and pump the pump 15–20 times. You
want to put about 9 kg (20 lbs) of pressure in the bottle.
7. When you remove the rubber stopper, you should see a good cloud.
8. For an even better cloud, place just a few drops of rubbing alcohol in the
bottom of the 2-liter bottle. Swirl the alcohol around in the bottle, making
sure to coat the sides. Then put the rubber stopper in the bottle. Follow steps
3–7 above to make a more visible (and more impressive) cloud.
9. Make sure that all children get to do some of the pumping. Record your
observations.
LESSON DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY (15 minutes)
Discuss what is going on here. See the background information above.
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Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
Ask children:
1. What do you think the white stuff inside the bottle is? (They may say it is a cloud?
Make sure that they understand that the white stuff is actually a collection of very tiny
droplets of water.)
2. Where do you think that the water that makes these little drops comes from? (Refer
back to their evaporation activity. Make sure that they know that the water in the
drops come from the water vapor in the air. Refer back to their condensation activity.
Let them know that, as some of them noticed, when you removed the stopper from the
bottle, the pressure was released, and it cooled the air. Some of the water vapor in the
air condensed into the tiny liquid droplets in our cloud.)
Review word wall words while discussing observations children had about their activities.
Finish recording observations, collecting samples, and making drawings in journals.
Clean up and put materials away.
TAKE HOME
Children will take home a sheet of paper for drawing and with suggested discussion
questions to ask family and friends (in both English and Spanish). Introduce the Take-home
activity with a short discussion on “Where do you see cloudlike things in or around your
home? (Visible steam from boiling water in a pot, or from a hot shower are both examples of
small droplets of water in the air. Fog is also a cloud on the ground level.)
Give children directions for thinking about water in vegetables at home.
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In our lesson today, we learned that water is important in plants. Water is what
helps vegetables be “crisp”.
With the help of a family member, put a small amount of water in each of the two
bowls. To one bowl, add a spoonful of salt (stir the water till the salt disappears).
Put a slice of a crisp vegetable (like celery, cucumber, radish, jicama, pepper, or
carrot) in each bowl.
Wait at least 10 minutes. Take the vegetable out of each bowl. Feel it, try to bend it,
even taste it!
Can you explain what happened?
Talk with your family member about what happened. Water can move into and out
of plants like vegetables. The water moved out of the vegetable in the salty water.
The water moved into the vegetable in the plain water.
Please remember to bring in a show and tell object that makes you think about
water or a drawing related to water for next week.
From this lesson, children should have learned:
 Liquid water can evaporate and become water vapor in the air.
 A variety of things can affect the rate of evaporation.
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Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
ASSESSMENT:
 Ongoing, through the discussion and activities: monitor children’s usage and
understanding of words and ideas related to today’s lesson. Ask supporting questions
to encourage children to make connections. Clarify misconceptions.
 Demonstrations of understanding: do any drawings, writing, theater, etc., display
sophisticated, accurate understanding of today’s lesson? Were children able to make
personal connections to the ideas? Were children able to make connections to prior
lessons?
 Take- home work (assessed following week): did children follow through and discuss
the lesson with their families, bring a related show and tell object, and/or make a
drawing/other art project related to today’s lesson? Did discussion around these things
show continuing understanding of the ideas, including making connections to prior
lessons and to community?
 Do children’s understandings, as displayed by their demonstrations of understanding,
questions, and discussion show connections between today’s topic, and the big picture
of the unit topic?
 Photograph objects and save drawings brought in for sharing in individual child’s
portfolio. Do the artifacts in the portfolio demonstrate an increasing trajectory of
understanding about the elements of the Earth System over time? Do children show
understanding of climate change? Do children show personal connections, including
self, school, family, and community, to their understandings of climate change?
RELATED NASA ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES:
ISCCP: Cloud Climatology
http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov/role.html
Detailed information about clouds and climate.
Earth Observatory: Every Cloud Has a Filthy Lining
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ShipTracks/
Earth Observatory: At the Core of Cloud Formation
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ShipTracks/ship_tracks_2.php
These two sites talk about the role of aerosols in cloud formation and relate them to NASA
tracking of oceangoing ships.
NASA Education: Learning About Clouds and How They Are Formed
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Learning_Abo
ut_Clouds.html
Portal to a Quicktime video on clouds and how clouds form.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
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Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
Water molecules are all around us, in the air, an invisible gas just like other air molecules.
This gaseous form of water is called water vapor. In the air, the water molecules are flying
all around, bouncing off other molecules of air (like oxygen and nitrogen) and of other
water molecules. Normally, these molecules hit each other too hard to stick together.
In our activity, we pump air into a bottle, increasing the pressure, air molecules closer
together since there are more molecules in the same space. When we pop the cork off, we
release the pressure and the air expands creating more space between molecules. This
expansion cools the air. In the cooler air, water molecules are moving slower, on average,
when they hit each other. They are more likely to be moving slow enough to stick together
and can form tiny drops of liquid water. This is condensation. In clouds, the tiny droplets of
water are like dust. Clouds are bunches of “water dust” just floating together like a “cloud of
dust”.
In our activity, we can use rubbing alcohol to form a more dense cloud than water because
alcohol evaporates more easily than water. Alcohol molecules bond together more weakly
than water molecules. Alcohol molecules can escape from the liquid more often at a
particular temperature. Therefore, there are more alcohol vapor molecules in the bottle
that are able to condense into a cloud when the pressure is released.
Clouds on Earth form when vapor rises in the atmosphere. As the air containing the vapor
rises, it expands and cools. Tiny drops form just like in our bottle. Tiny particles in the air
in the form of smoke, dust or even very small particles of dirt help form a nucleus on which
the water molecules can attach. These particles provide cool surfaces like the mirror or
plastic glass in the condensation activity from the last lesson.
CULTURAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Water is one of the natural resources present in all aspects of human civilization.
Historically, the need and demand for water has been one of the driving forces for social
organization, economic prosperity, culture, development and health.
Then and now, the efficient use of this resource largely determines how one perceives,
assesses and manages it. Its effective use represents individual and collective well-being of
communities.
Historically, communities of the world honored and worshiped this important natural
resource. In its unique way, they created stories, gods, symbolisms and characters that
highlighted its importance:
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To most Native American tribes, water was used as a clan symbol. To the Hopi,
Navajo, and Pueblo tribes the water clan named is Piikyasngyam.
To Peruvians, the god of water was Naylamp. It was believed that Naylamp came
from the sea, and brought civilization to the lands of Lambayeque.
To Hindus, Ganga was the goddess of the Ganges river and is represented ridding a
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Developed by CLACE- PI Marina La Grave, Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell and Kristine Johnson
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sea monster.
In Norse mythology, Ægir is the king of the sea, and is a personificates of the power
of the ocean.
To Greeks, Neptune governed all waters and seas.
To Mayas, Tlaloc (sometimes called Nuhualpilli) was the Nahuatl name of the God of
water and fertility in Teotihuacan and Nahuatl religions.
For the Egyptians, Sobek - was the water God. They believed that the Nile water
came from the sweat of Sobek and he was the god of all surface water.
To Japanese, Kappa is a mythological creature that lives in lakes, rivers and
wetlands.
The list goes on! Make sure to encourage your students to do a little research on a culture
of their choosing.
LESSON CONNECTIONS
This lesson is tied to ideas in other lessons:
In Lesson 1 (Evaporation), children are introduced some basic ideas about evaporation and
water vapor.
In Lesson 2 (Condensation and the Water Cycle), children learn some basic ideas about
condensation and how water vapor changes to liquid water. This is followed by using this
understanding of condensation and what children learned about evaporation in the last
session to introduce the water cycle.
In Lesson 4 (Water and Life), children answer the question, “Why do living things need
water?” It has two active parts and a discussion. Children start with looking at how plants
take up water by doing the classical celery in colored water activity. This will require
saving materials to view in the next session. Next, children will do a simple activity to get
across the idea that many chemical reactions (particularly biochemistry) need water to
happen.
In Lesson 5 (Precipitation, Collection, and the Water Cycle)—grades 3-5 only—children
delve deeper into the water cycle in a three-part experience. The first part is a
demonstration/observation activity that models precipitation. The second is a discussion
of what happens to the water after it hits the ground. In the third part, children build closed
system terrariums that show the whole water cycle in miniature.
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