Warm the water
Heating can move some water into the air as water vapor.
Water Cycle Journey
Move water among a reservoir, the air, clouds, and land through a complete water cycle.
Grades 3–5 · Earth Science
Your goal
Follow 2 water transfers in cycle order, starting with evaporation and ending with condensation.
Reduced motion is on. The controls still update the scene.
0 transfers in cycle order. The next process is evaporation. Water total stays at 12 units.
Sunlight supplies energy for evaporation. Cooling changes vapor to liquid cloud droplets. Rain falls to land, and runoff returns water to the lake. The dots are water units, not real molecules.
This is a small process model, not a weather forecast. Water can follow many paths in nature, including groundwater and plants. A different order restarts the ordered journey count.
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Learn with Water Cycle Journey
Water Cycle Journey lets children move a fixed amount of water between a lake, water vapor, cloud droplets, and land. Choose processes such as evaporation, condensation, rain, and runoff, then follow the changing amounts in each part of the scene. The total water stays the same even as its location and state change. Elementary students can explore connected water-cycle pathways and explain why visible cloud droplets are different from the invisible water vapor in the air.
What to look for
Cool the air
Water vapor can condense into tiny liquid droplets that form clouds.
Return the water
Rainfall and runoff can bring water back to a reservoir. Track the total throughout the cycle.
For teachers and curious learners
Follow water as it changes location and state. Ask students to predict what will happen, change one setting, and explain what they observe. Learn gives a starting point. Practice and Challenge offer new goals with the same scene.
Reservoirs and transfers illustrate water-cycle processes with conserved model water. They do not predict real weather, rainfall timing, or geographic water quantities.
Continue with Weather & Water Cycle Explorer .