Water Cycle Worksheet
for Middle School

Illustrative scenario: An impermeable shallow tray contains less visible water the next day. No water spilled or leaked. Explain where water could have gone, and suggest one observation that would help check your explanation.

Some liquid water may have evaporated into invisible water vapor in the surrounding air. The water still exists. Comparing water amounts over time and checking the container for leaks can help investigate this explanation. This scenario is illustrative, not a measured experiment.

Predict what could happen outside a cold, sealed container. Sketch an initial explanation with surrounding air, invisible water vapor, and possible liquid droplets. Describe a room-temperature comparison and explain the direction of energy transfer.

Water vapor in the surrounding air can cool and condense into liquid droplets on a cold surface. Energy transfers from the warmer surroundings and vapor toward the cooler surface. Compare otherwise similar sealed cold and room-temperature containers and check for leaks. Observe what happens before deciding whether the prediction is supported.

Water appears outside a sealed cold lunch container. Explain a possible source of this water. Use your comparison or the illustrative scenario to support your explanation, and state what the evidence does not establish.

Vapor from the surrounding air can cool and condense on the container. A colder surface may collect droplets while a similar room-temperature surface does not, if that is actually observed. This supports condensation but does not prove that the exact water from the earlier tray reached this container.

Illustrative scenario: Rain enters soil near a tree. Trace a possible route by which some water can return to the air. Explain a different fate for water that remains underground. Which statements are explanations, rather than direct observations?

Roots can take up soil water, and leaves release water vapor through transpiration. Other water can infiltrate and remain in soil or groundwater storage. These are possible explanations. A diagram alone does not prove that a particular parcel took this route or establish its travel time.

Use evidence to support, extend, or revise your earlier model. Show two possible water routes. Explain one energy transfer and one role of gravity, then state a limitation of your model.

A sound model can include evaporation and condensation on one route, and root uptake and transpiration on another. Evaporation requires energy; condensation transfers energy away. Gravity contributes to precipitation and downhill runoff. An initially correct model may be supported or extended. The schematic does not establish amounts, rates, or all possible routes.

Correct two problems in this claim: Water follows one fixed circle, and the Sun pulls rain down.

Water has multiple pathways. The Sun supplies energy supporting processes such as evaporation; gravity contributes to rainfall moving downward.