Explain the water cycle to your kid with this simple and fun DIY experiment
Science can get a little mundane for kids when taught and studied only through a textbook. Explaining scientific concepts to your budding scientist through the medium of experimentation is not only fun, but also enables him to have a clearer, practical understanding. The water cycle, also referred to as the hydrologic cycle, is one of the fundamental concepts when it comes to the science of weather. It includes the processes of evaporation and condensation. Here is a simple DIY experiment that you can assist your kid with in order to get a deeper understanding the cycle. What’s more is that it can be done at home using easily available materials!
What you will need
- Transparent zip lock bag
- Permanent marker
- Water
- Cup
- Food colouring (preferably blue to represent water)
- Clear tape
How to perform the water cycle experiment
- Using the permanent marker, create a drawing of the sky on the upper half of the transparent zip lock bag. Include a couple of clouds and the sun.
- Take the cup and fill it with water. In order for the water to be more visible, add a few drops of blue food colouring to it till it reaches a striking blue shade.
- Next, pour this water into the zip lock bag. Make sure that it is sealed properly and that there are no holes in it. This will ensure no spills and leakages.
- Hang/ place the water-filled zip lock bag against a window in your house that receives plenty of sunlight. Ensure that it stays upright the entire time. For this, use the clear tape to attach it to the window.
- Check the bag after 2-3 hours of it being in the sun. Then, check again the following day at around the same time you checked it the preceding day.
What exactly happened to the water in the bag?
When you check the bag the following day, you will notice that some droplets of water sticking to the side of the bag. A few of these will be stuck against the clouds which were drawn, while the others will be trickling down the bag, thus resembling rain. When placed by the window in direct sunlight, the heat of the sun consequently heats up the water inside the bag. Through the process of evaporation, the water turns into a gaseous state. The exact same thing happens in the atmosphere- the sun’s heat causes water from water bodies to evaporate. Since in this experiment the water is trapped in the zip lock bag, it has nowhere to go. Hence, it sticks to the side of the bag in liquid form. This points to the fact that it has turned back into liquid through the process of condensation. Therefore, we can see the sun’s ability to transform water into different states- which is exactly what happens in the water cycle.