Water Cycle Lesson 1-

Hey everyone. Nice to meet you.

Thank you to your teacher for allowing me to come into your classroom today.

My name is mrs Valez and I work for the city of riverside public utilities.

We are your local utility company.

That means that we provide water and electricity to your homes and to your schools.

My job here at the utility is to teach

students and the community all about water and conservation,

so conservation means to save.

Um So again,

thank you to your teacher for allowing me to come to your classroom today.

We're gonna talk about the water cycle and then our second lesson,

we're gonna talk about, where do we get our water here in the city of riverside?

So how do we get water to your house?

And then our third lesson, we're going to talk about water conservation.

That means how can we conserve or save water

while we're using it at home and our school.

But today, like I said we're gonna talk about the water cycle.

And before we get into the different aspects of the water cycle,

I want to talk about the atomic structure of water. So what is water made out of?

Well, water is made out of two hydrogen

atoms and one oxygen.

So it kind of looks like mickey mouse, so two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen.

And so there are three different phases of water.

There is water in a solid form, there is water in a liquid form and water and gas form.

So water in a solid form

is when water molecules they slow down and they huddle together as they freeze,

they link with four other molecules and they lock into a hexagonal ice crystal

as solid water is less dense, which is why it floats

like an ice cube

water in a liquid form, which is what we use it as mostly

is when ice melts the molecules and ice crystals, they collapse,

they move together and they're attracted by the

positive and negative forces that hold them together.

They are loosely connected and they're free to move around

as liquid water flows and takes on the shape of its container,

like a glass of water.

And water in a gas form

is when molecules in the liquid, they always move

when they're heated molecules have even more energy and they move really fast,

prolonged exposure to heat energy causes them to move really fast.

So molecules they break free from each other and they burst into the air

to become an invisible guy gas called water vapor.

And we see it all the time when your parents are cooking um and they're

boiling a pot of water to put maybe some pasta or rice in it.

Um So we see it a lot when that water is being heated um

And so water vapor comes up. So those are three different types of water

or the three phases of water.

There is water in solid form water in a liquid form and water in a gas form.

Alright so we learned about the three phases of water.

Now we can move on to what is the water cycle.

Okay,

so there are different phases also in the water cycle and the reason

we talk about the water cycle here at the utility is because the city

of riverside heavily relies on the water cycle and I'll get into that

in our next lesson when we talk about where we get our water.

So today we're gonna go through the different phases of the water cycle.

Our first phase is going to be evaporation.

So we have lakes and ponds all around us, We have the pacific ocean really close to us.

And so that southern California heat is really hot

and so remember evaporation happens when water is heated.

Those water molecules are

are very hot and so they become evaporation. So evaporation happens.

I have these little hand signals that help me remember what these phases are.

And you are more than welcome to do them with me.

Okay, so evaporation that is water that is being heated from the sun.

Um and so those water molecules are up in the air. Okay, evaporation happens.

And so there's another type of evaporation that I like to talk

about and that's called transpiration is very similar to evaporation but this

comes from our plants and our trees when there is water inside

the trees or on our plants and it's very hot outside.

Um the sun tends to really um

heat them up like it's very very hot outside and so if

they already have some water and then they start to transfer three,

it's kind of like they start to sweat.

And so that transpiration

and that also evaporates into the air.

Okay so I like to talk about that because it's a

different type of evaporation that happens and it's a natural process.

The water cycle is a natural process.

So all of this happens naturally every day all around us.

So transpiration is the same thing as evaporation. Okay

and then once those water molecules are up in the air they kind of cool down,

they're not hot anymore, they're floating up there and so they don't like to be cold.

And so they start to look for other water molecules up there

and so they create a cloud and that is called condensation.

They start to huddle together because they don't like to be um warm and so

they like to be cold and so they huddle all the way up there.

And so a cloud form so that is condensation alright

then that cloud becomes really really heavy so

these water molecules are up in the air

and so that cloud becomes so heavy that it starts to fall and precipitation happens,

okay, precipitation happens, precipitation can be in different forms,

it can fall in snow form sleep which is like icy, like like an icy

um hail and then rain we don't really see

these here in southern California because it's really hot.

But we do see our mountains are full of snow during the wintertime.

So we do know that the elevation um that is surrounding us.

Um They do have some snow on them, so precipitation happens okay,

You guys are doing great.

And then once that precipitation happens um runoff runoff happens so that

snow starts to melt from the mountains and so it runs down the

mountain if we're not in a mountain area um Like we're down

here and then we have a lot of rain or it floods,

it still runs off.

So it runs off down the street and into to um

are santa ana river area and back into our oceans.

So it kind of runs off and erosion happens.

So if the snow that's melting off the mountain and it runs off,

it kind of takes everything with it, so it takes sediment,

it takes um anything that is in the way it rocks, soil,

anything that you can actually um

find in the way.

And if it's down here it actually takes all the plastics in

the streets and everything that it kind of finds in the way.

So runoff happens. Okay, runoff.

Yeah.

And then another way is percolation.

So after that water um runs off,

sometimes it goes right into the santa ana river and back into our oceans.

Or sometimes it stops and it settles into a random settling pond.

And so what happens with those settling ponds

is that that water starts to percolate,

It goes underground.

Let me show you how it works.

So this is our underground.

Let's make pretend this is our underground, it has different layers underground.

And so that water,

you know, that's running off

becomes a little pond

on the top.

And so that water

becomes a pond on the top and so that water starts to percolate,

it trickles down into the underground.

Now you're probably wondering, well,

okay, it's trickling down,

but where else does it go?

Well, it goes into what is called an aquifer.

So the underground is called an aquifer and water stays there.

And

so we call that groundwater.

And so I'm gonna leave you kind of hanging because in our next lesson,

we're going to talk about why this groundwater and why

an aquifer in general is really important to us,

the city of riverside.

So percolation is happening and it goes into the aquifer and it stays down there.

Okay.

And so we'll talk about what happens with

that water that is in the underground tomorrow.

In our next lesson.

All right,

so we've talked all about the water cycle and let's review them a little bit again.

So our first step is let's do those hand motions evaporation.

Okay, water heated

and a pond during a lake and it goes and evaporates into

the air ST everything happens through plants and that is called transpiration,

Those water molecules are up in the air.

They're cooled.

And so they huddle together and they become a cloud. So condensation happens.

And so that cloud becomes super heavy and so it falls, precipitation hap

rain, Snowfall

falls from the from the sky. Okay?

And then that snow that melts or water from the rain, it runs off,

it either runs off the mountain or it runs

through the streets and back into our oceans,

or

it goes into a settling pond and percolation happens.

All right, You guys did really good, good job.

So today we've talked about the water cycle and we left off on percolation

and the underground which the water stays in what is called an aquifer.

And so like I mentioned in our next lesson,

we will talk about why is it so important that I

talk about or that I teach you guys about an aquifer,

because we will talk about where we get our water from here in the city of riverside.

So it's really important.

So I have provided your teacher a paper plate for you to draw the water cycle on it.

So once this lesson is over, your teacher will pass out um

an empty paper plate and I want you to draw out the water cycle here.

Okay, I have given him directions or them directions. Um

So thank you so much for having me in your classroom again.

Thank you to your teacher for allowing me to come in.

Um and I will see you guys in our next lesson. We'll see you. Bye bye.

Water Cycle Lesson 1-

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated