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Water Cycle and Weather

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Water Cycle and Weather

Read the water-cycle story and weather table. Answer each question using evidence and your science knowledge.

A droplet's journey

On a sunny morning, the Sun warms water in a lake. Some liquid water changes into invisible water vapour and rises into the air. Higher up, the air is cooler. The vapour cools and changes into tiny liquid droplets, forming clouds. Wind moves the clouds over land. When the droplets join and grow heavy, water falls as rain. It flows into streams and rivers, then back to lakes and the sea. The cycle can begin again.

1.In the story, what provides the energy that changes some lake water into water vapour?

2.Choose the process that happens when water vapour cools and changes into tiny liquid droplets.

Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation
Runoff

3.Complete the sequence with the correct water-cycle words: liquid water warms and ; water vapour cools and ; water falls from clouds as .

4.Match each water-cycle process to what it means.

Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation
Collection

Water vapour cools and forms liquid droplets.
Water gathers in places such as lakes, rivers and the sea.
Water falls from clouds as rain, snow or hail.
Liquid water changes into water vapour.

5.True or false: Water disappears forever when it evaporates from a lake.

TrueFalse

A rainy week in Aotearoa

A weather station recorded rainfall in two places. The West Coast site is near the Southern Alps; the Canterbury site is on the eastern side of the mountains.

Place

Monday

Tuesday

West Coast

18 mm

22 mm

Place

Wednesday

Thursday

Canterbury

4 mm

2 mm

6.Add the rainfall amounts listed for each place. Which place had the greater total rainfall?

7.Give one reason why the West Coast of the South Island can receive more rain than Canterbury.

8.On a cool morning, you see tiny water droplets on the outside of a glass. The droplets came from water vapour in the air. Which water-cycle process is this, and why did it happen?

9.After a heavy shower, rainwater runs from a hillside into a stream and then a lake. What water-cycle stage does this show, and where could the water go next?

10.Imagine you are a droplet in the lake from the story. Describe a possible journey through at least three stages of the water cycle, in the correct order.