Water Cycle Game
Materials: Water Cycle Score Card, one per student, station
markers, station scenario strips.
Background:
Water covers 71 percent of the Earth. Plants, animals
and humans are made up of 50-70 percent water. Water
consists of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen and
consist in forms liquid, vapor or solid (ice).
Water is constantly moving. It evaporates from oceans into
clouds, falls as precipitation and eventually returns to
the ocean via rivers or streams. This cycle is called the
Water Cycle.
Energy from the sun and gravity are the driving forces
forces that power the cycle. In cold regions water is
stored as ice in forms of hard-packed snow. This hardpacked snow is known as glaciers. Glaciers are constantly
moving and break off in to ice bergs. These ice bergs then
melt as they float in the ocean.
Living organisms are also part of the water cycle. All
living things need water in order to survive. Plants and
animals take in water and return it to the atmosphere in
the form of vapor or soil in the form of liquid
(excreting).
As precipitation falls to the earth it is either
absorbed by tree roots and then transpired as vapor through
the leaves, pooled in to puddles and then evaporated as
vapor or seeped through the soil and in to rivers on the
way to the ocean.
Lesson:
Draw a picture, or show a slide, of the water cycle. Walk
the students through the water cycle so students understand
evaporation, transpiration, and condensation.
Pose these questions:
If every living thing needs so much water, how come water
isn’t used up?
Where does the water go when a puddle dries up?
Why don’t oceans and lakes dry up like puddles do?
Where does rain come from?
Do you think water always follows the same path as show in
the water cycle?
Divide students in to 7 groups. Each group will go to the
location in the room where their number is posted next to a
picture showing their number and an envelope full of cards.
Tell the students that they are a water molecule and they
will travel through the water cycle based on information
from the cards they draw at each station. Have the students
each remove one card and write the information on their
Water Cycle Score card. The student then either moves to a
new station or stays where they are and draws another card
(depending on the first card drawn). Repeat this step 7 to
10 times until most students have cycled through the Cloud
station a couple of times.
Ask the students to go back to their seat and write a brief
story of their journey as a water molecule.
Cards: Copy and cut in to strips
Station 1 Cloud
You fall as rain
You fall as snow
You fall as rain
You fall as rain
You fall as snow
You fall as rain
onto
onto
onto
onto
onto
onto
a mountain. Go to Mountain.
a mountain. Go to Mountain.
a stream. Go to Stream.
an ocean. Go to Ocean.
an ocean. Go to Ocean.
a parking lot. Go to Stream
Station 2 Mountain
You evaporate into the air. Go to Cloud.
You soak into the ground and become part of the
groundwater. Go to Groundwater.
You soak into the ground and get absorbed by a plant’s
roots. Go to Plant.
You roll downhill and become part of a stream. Go to
Stream.
You roll downhill and become part of a stream. Go to
Stream.
You get frozen in ice and stay there. Stay at Mountain.
Station 5 Groundwater
You move slowly underground and eventually flow into an
ocean. Go to Ocean.
You move slowly underground and eventually flow into an
ocean. Go to Ocean.
You move slowly underground between grains of sediment and
eventually flow downward into a wetland and from there into
a stream. Go to Stream.
You move slowly underground between grains of sediment and
eventually flow downward into a wetland, and from there
into a strea. Go to Stream.
A plant takes you in through its roots. Go to Plant.
You are pumped out of the ground from a well to irrigate a
farm. Go to Plant.
Station 3 Ocean
You are one of the countless water molecules in an ocean
and you stay there. Stay at ocean.
You are one of the countless water molecules in an ocean
and you stay there. Stay at ocean.
You evaporate into the air. Go to Cloud.
You evaporate into the air. Go to Cloud.
A kelp plant takes you in, releases you through its leaf,
and transplants you into the air. Go to Cloud.
Go to Plant but do not draw a card. Then go directly to
Cloud.
Station 6 Animal
After using you to process food, the animal urinates and
you end up on the ground. Go to Mountain.
After using you to process food, the animal urinates and
you end up on the ground. Go to Mountain.
You are exhaled from a human’s lungs into the air as vapor.
Go to Cloud.
You are exhaled from a human’s lungs into the air as vapor.
Go to Cloud.
A person uses you for brushing his or her teeth. Go to
Stream.
Station 4 Stream
You evaporate into the air. Go to
You evaporate into the air. Go to
An animal comes to the stream and
Animal.
You continue rolling downhill and
Go to Ocean.
You continue rolling downhill and
Go to Ocean.
Station 7 Plant
Cloud.
Cloud.
licks you up. Go to
become part of an ocean.
become part of an ocean.
The plant
vapor. Go
The plant
evaporate
The plant
evaporate
The plant
The plant
transpires you through its leaves into the air as
to Cloud.
transpires you through its leaves and you
into the air. Go to Cloud.
transpires you through its leaves and you
into the air. Go to Cloud.
uses you to grow. Stay at Plant.
stores you in its edible fruit. Go to Animal.