A. Form groups of three students: materials manager, observer, and recorder.

B. The materials managers should go to the equipment station and pick up the following: a plate, a sponge, a piece of construction paper, a styrofoam cup which they half fill with soil, a jar with a lid and a small glass which they fill one half full of water.

C. While the group’s materials manager is getting the equipment the other members should make a matrix with six boxes on a piece of paper. The boxes should be labeled as follows: plate, sponge, construction paper, cup with soil, jar with lid, and small glass with water.

D. Ask the materials managers to go to the ice cube station and put nine ice cubes in a container. When they return to their group the other students should place the ice cubes as follows: put one ice cube on a plate, a second on a sponge, a third on a piece of construction paper, a fourth on top of potting soil in a styrofoam cup, a fifth in a jar with a lid, and four cubes in a small glass of water.

E. Ask each student group to illustrate and describe their observations as they respond to the following questions on the matrix sheet. What is happening to each of the ice cubes? What happens to the water dripping from the ice cubes? Where did the water go? Is Energy involved?

F. Ask the students to examine their ice cubes one hour later and to respond to each of the questions again.

A. Ask the students to report the results of their exploration activity to the whole class. During the reports highlight statements made by students that relate to evaporation and condensation. Introduce and define the terms at this time using concrete examples from the students’ observations. Demonstrate condensation by blowing across a cold mirror and noticing the haze. Give the students cold mirrors and challenge them to do this also.

B. Discuss the three states of matter that water is found in: solid, liquid, and gas. Water can change from one form to another. While in any one form it can be moved to another location.

C. Have students return to their groups. To illustrate the forms of water and the water cycle, give each group a styrofoam cup of hot water. Meanwhile, ask the materials manager to obtain a paper cup of very cold water with an ice cube in it from a materials station. Ask the observers in each group to hold the glass of cold water above the hot water and make observations. Ask students to discuss what they see and to record and illustrate their observations.

D. Select a few groups to report their observations to the whole class. They should be able to report the effects of water condensing on the cold glass and dripping back into the glass of cold water. Tell the students that the dripping water is similar to rain. As a result of condensation in nature, precipitation occurs. Precipitation can be in the form of rain (liquid), snow, sleet, or hail (solid). Condensation in nature can be in the form of dew, frost, or fog. Evaporation can occur from rain when it hits the ground and "dries up", fog when it "disappears" or evaporates, dew when it "disappears", and from lakes, streams and oceans.

E. Challenge the students to observe all three forms of water: gas, liquid, and solid. They should not be able to observe the gas because water vapor is invisible. We can tell its presence, however, because it condenses on cold glass or metal when the gas brushes against it. Sometimes, we see fog or "steam" around our cup or outside (e.g. in clouds). These are not examples of water as a gas. But, they are examples of water vapor condensing into liquid droplets so that you can see it.

F. Ask the students to illustrate how water turns from one form or phase to another using the hot cup of water and the cold glass of water they observed. They should use arrows to show the various stages of the water cycle. Ask one group to discuss their drawings with the class. Bring out the cyclic nature of the water cycle: that water rises, evaporates from the cup, travels to the glass, condenses on the glass, and drops back into the hot water where it can evaporate again. Although this can happen repeatedly, energy must be present to cause water to evaporate (hot water). Show the students Figure 1 in a transparency.

G. Provide every group with a sheet of paper and marking pens and ask them to illustrate a water cycle that answers this question: Where does rain that falls on the land come from? Ask the students to include in their drawings a large lake and a flat land area. When they have finished, ask two of the groups to present their illustration to the class. Then, give a copy of Figure 2 to each group. Have them compare this drawing with their drawing. Finally, ask one of the groups to explain Figure 2. See also Figure 3 providing sample answers.

H. Closure: The discussion should lead the students to draw the conclusions that the water cycle is a never-ending sequence of events, that water is never used up nor does it disappear, and that water changes form and perhaps moves to another location where it changes form again, possibly into rain.

A. Ask each group to cut out one-inch strips of colored construction paper. There should be three strips per student in each group. Have each student in the group write one term "evaporation," "condensation," and "precipitation" on each strip. Have each student glue the strips together to make a paper chain illustrating the water cycle. All students in the group should connect their separate chains to form a continuous, circular chain of water cycles. This should help illustrate the idea that water cycles have no beginning nor end but recur over and over again. Ask the students to describe what their chain means.

B. In front of the class have a student prepare one pound of potting soil by adding two cups of water with blue food dye in it. Have the materials manager from each group come up and collect a small styrofoam cup of soil and a one gallon sized zip-closing baggie. The other members of the group should put the soil in the baggie and zip it tightly closed. Ask the students to predict what might happen if their baggie were left in the sun or on their desk overnight. Students should put their baggies near a window with sunshine, if possible. Periodically during the day and on the next day they should check their predictions by making observations of the baggie. When they make observations, ask them to answer the following questions. What do they observe? What happened to the water in the soil? Where did the water go? How did the water get from the soil to the top or roof of the bag? What color is the water that is condensed on the top of the bag?

C. Briefly summarize the main points and sequence of activities during the lesson.