Supercooling Water

Matter: Can water remain a liquid below its normal freezing point 0°C (32°F), then crystallize on command (solid)?! Click here for the scientific explanation behind supercooling and snap freezing! Weather: Learn about supercooled water droplets in clouds here and how this experiment relates to freezing rain!



Turn this experiment into a delicious treat! Check out Grant Thompson's video tutorial: Self Freezing Soda!

Watercycle Red Light Green Light

Switch up Red Light Green Light by incorporating the water cycle!
Precipitation = Green (Kids run and wiggle their fingers like rain)
Evaporation = Yellow (Kids walk slowwwly and lift their arms up to the sky)
Condensation = Red (Kids stop and create a cluster. They place their arms around each others' shoulders - hug!)

Mr. Evaporation

Have kids construct an Evaporation Cup Man or Lady! Check out Miss Klipfel's first grade evaporation project! Kids decorate a cup, add water, cover the top with a material (punch holes or not), and wait till it evaporates! They measure their "friend" and keep track of any changes. Does material affect how fast or slow water will evaporate? If you don't punch holes in your material, will it evaporate?! Have kids make a prediction. As a class, create a graph showing their predictions. See the experiment in action here!

Kid Meteorologist

Become a weather watcher by making your own weather instruments!

Rain Gauge - Measure rainfall - Jameson's Lab

Visit Scholastic for a printable to go along with your rain gauge!

Wind Vane - Measure wind direction - Weather Studies

Anemometer (paper cup) - Measure wind speed - Instructables

Anemometer (different design) - Science Fair Projects

Barometer - Measure atmospheric pressure - HowCast

Balloon Barometer - Sci-Experiments and Zoom (simple version)

Thermometer - Check the temp! - JumpStart

A variety of weather experiment videos - DIY: Meteorologist

Solar Water

Investigate renewable energy, while exploring the water cycle, with this fun experiment from Agoosa! Kids magically turn salt water into fresh water with the help of solar energy!

how to:
Pour 2 cups of water into a large bowl.
Mix 3 tsp of salt into the water. Taste the water, it's super salty!
Place a small empty bowl or cup inside of the larger bowl. 
Cover with plastic wrap and place outside in the sun.
Either place a rock on top of the bowl or secure the wrap with a rubber band (to keep plastic wrap tightly secured on the bowl).
Keep the bowl outside for 1 to 3 days (until you get enough purified water into your small bowl to taste).
Compare the water in the larger bowl to the water in the smaller bowl. Do you taste the difference?!

what's happening?!
The sun's rays will heat the water, causing it to evaporate!
Salt is too heavy to evaporate; so, it stays in the larger bowl.
Condensation will occur, creating water droplets on the plastic wrap.
Gravity makes the large droplets drip into the "collection container" (your small bowl) - creating fresh water!

Which Evaporates Faster?

3 containers:

A. soil with grass, weeds, or plants (fill with water to top of soil - don't drown plants)

B. soil - same amount of water as A

C. water

Weigh your containers. Then, place your containers in a sunny spot. Weigh each container once a day and examine any changes. Use a ruler and measure the water line along the side of each container. Use tape or a marker to show where the water line is and to compare day to day changes. Watch for at least one week. Visit Teach Engineering more details!

Cloud Pets

A cloud in your pocket from the Girl Scouts - SWAPS! Kids create their very own cotton ball cloud pet. Then, they race them!

Water Cycle Dominoes

Water Cycle Dominoes: Kids rotate paper dominoes, matching terms to the correct definition.

Balloon Geography

How far will your balloon go? Check out the Helium Balloon Experiment here!

Instructions: Tag each balloon with your school address and the student's name, along with a note for the receiver to write back. Then, send them off! Kids mark off on a map where their balloon ended up. Whose balloon travelled the farthest?!

Cloud Racing

Integrate science and math with cloud racing! Lay a large, long sheet of blue paper down. Kids blow (wind) cotton balls (clouds) across the race track (sky) using straws. 

Try making other types of cotton ball clouds (cirrus and stratus by pulling the cotton ball). Click here for an example. Have kids predict which cloud they think will go the fastest. If cirrus went up against a cumulus cloud, which one would win?!

Next, have each kid predict which cloud will go the farthest: Go out into a large hall way. Blow each type of cotton ball cloud using a straw. Measure the distance each cloud traveled. Which cloud traveled the farthest distance?

Fresh Drop of the Water Cycle

Water Cycle Rap that goes to the beat of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air from Missy B! (I changed around a few of the lyrics). Click here for the original.

Now this is a story all about how the water on our earth goes round and round. And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I'll tell you all about the water cycle’s ups and downs

The surface of the sea gets heated with the sun, the vapor rises up and the cycles begun

Water to gas, this stage is called Evaporation! 

Vapor rises high, squeezes together to form a cloud, also known as Condensation!

Vapor back to water - Dark clouds always form in this way...

You can be sure there’s a chance of rain!

Fog, rain, hail, snow flurries and sleet: Precipitations the word – Uh-oh, I got wet feet!

Now the water on the ground has got several choices

It can Run Off to the river and back to the sea: Accumulation! 

Or hang around as snow and ice you see...

Some of it gets taken right back as Evaporation, or comes out from plants and trees, aka Transpiration! 

The rest of the water infiltrates in the soil, as long as there’s no impermeable surface to spoil!

We come to the end of the story now and we yell to the teacher “two thirds of our world is water!” 

I look at my kingdom and I finally understand, the water cycle keeps going round and round

Also, check out Bill Nye's classic Criss Cross version (to the beat of JUMP!)

Catch a Raindrop!

raindrops via alamy

Are all raindrops the same size? NASA has an awesome hands on activity for a water cycle unit! On a rainy day, give kids a light colored piece of cardstock. Have them hold their cardstock out the window to collect a few drops. Then, tell them to trace around the drops with a colored pencil before their drops dry. Now, grab a ruler and measure your drops, take note of their shape. Are raindrops symmetrical? Are they all the same size? Compare your raindrop samples with your classmates. What was the smallest and largest measurement taken of a raindrop?

3D drops - Spread a thin layer of flour in a shallow pan and hold it outside for a few seconds to catch raindrop samples. The flour will create 3 dimensional drops. Carefully separate the lumps from the flour using a sieve. Have kids examine the shapes of the droplets.

Click here to download the raindrop unit from NASA!

Flying Hot Air Balloon

Construct a tissue paper hot air ballon to demonstrate thermal energy and convection currents - hot air rises and cold air sinks. This is a fun art / science activity to go along with a weather unit. Kids can get super creative with their balloon design. After you make your balloon, test it out with cool air and hot air from a blow dryer. Hold the nozzle in the opening of your balloon to fill it up. You will notice that hot air makes the balloon rise because hot air is not as dense. 

Below is a simple video tutorial, great for kids by Gordon Dipple. You can also find a rad photo tutorial at the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. Visit the activity page of this site for more science fun!  Click here and here to check out two super cool hot air balloon projects by kids!

Cloud Viewer

Everyone has seen the classic weather window: cloud identification. This is a fantastic hands on activity for kids! I created one and kids had a blast using it! The viewer really helped kids retain the different cloud types. Click here for the printable!

Water Cycle Comic

Have fun with the water cycle and create a comic strip! Create events around Little Blue (a raindrop) as he travels through the water cycle. Blue could end up in the ocean and confront a shark! He could land in NYC and become a puddle! Will Blue get eaten, stepped on, or run over by a car? Will he survive the water cycle? Kids draw and write about Blue's crazy adventures through: precipitation, surface run off, accumulation, transpiration, evaporation, and condensation.

Water Cycle Wheel

Playful water cycle wheel created by Rachel Saffold! Visit her flickr stream to get a copy of disc 1 and 2 for a water cycle unit!

Colorful Convection Currents

Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement or flow of a substance from one position to another.

"Convection currents in the atmosphere are responsible for the formation of thunderstorms as the warm and cold air masses collide. They are also responsible for warm water currents that occur in oceans." With this experiment, you are going to show what happens when warm and cold water collide!" -  Steve Spangler

explanation: Warm water is lighter and less dense than cold water. 

Below is another take on the convection current experiment.
Red water = warm air mass.
Blue water = cold air mass.

"A thunderstorm is caused by unstable air. A body of warm air is forced to rise by an approaching cold front. A strong, persistent updraft of warm moist air is formed. The approaching cold front helps build the updraft into a cumulus cloud. When the warm air rises and meets the cold air, it condenses. The heat helps fuel the thunderstorm. The next stage is when the cumulus cloud has grown into a cumulonimbus cloud rising above 30,000 feet. Then a downdraft forms, bringing cold air and precipitation down to the Earth's surface." - Web Weather for Kids (Click here for written instructions from Web Weather for Kids!)

Ice Cube Rope

Can you pick up an ice cube with a string? This experiment demonstrates how salt affects ice. The rope won't stick to the ice cube until you add salt to melt it. The ice refreezes around the string, when suspended in the glass of water. via Steve Spangler

Crystal Clear Cube Experiment

Have you ever wondered why icicles look sparkly and clear and ice cubes from your freezer just don't have that same glimmer?

Try this fun experiment with kids: see what process creates a clearer cube, boiling filter water or taking it straight from the tap. Have kids make a hypothesis and a prediction stating what process will create a crystal clear cube.

Visit  Instructables for the full tutorial!

Precipitation, Evaporation, Transpiration, Condensation

Precipitation - Make it Rain!

Raining Rainbows (shaving cream and food coloring) -  A Bit of This and a Bit of That!

Rain in a Jar - Guest Hollow

Transpiration - Collect Plant Sweat!

Learn about transpiration through this hands on experiment from Weird Science Kids. By tying a large baggie around a plant's leaves on a super hot, sunny day, you will demonstrate how transpiration is part of the water cycle. Pour the water from the plant into a measuring cup. Kids use their measuring skills to figure out how much water the plant produced. Click here for full instructions! Save your water for the puddle experiment below!
Also, check out Parents.com to see how to conduct this experiment with a patch of grass and a jar!

Evaporation - Watch a Puddle!

Science With Me conducted a puddle experiment to teach kids about evaporation! Pour water on the pavement in a sunny spot. Then, draw a line around it with sidewalk chalk. Let it sit, then check up on it later. What happened? The water evaporated! 

Condensation - Create a cloud!