ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — In this episode of Science with Shields, Christy Shields shows you how to create the water cycle in a bag.
What you need:
- Plastic Sandwich Bag
- Sharpie
- Water
- Blue Food Coloring
- Tape
Instructions:
First you will want to draw a sun and clouds at the top of your bag. Next, draw water at the bottom. Now you want to fill your plastic bag about ¼ of the way up with water. It may be best to fill the bag with water over a sink in case there is a hole in your bag. Next, put two drops of blue food coloring into the bag to turn your water blue. After this, you will want to seal your bag up and tape it to the window. Throughout the day check out your water cycle and see what happens!
Science:
The water cycle starts with the sun heating the earth. When the sun heats the earth, the water will start to evaporate into the sky. Evaporation is when water changes from its liquid state, to a vapor state. The water will condense in the sky creating a cloud. This is when the water vapor turns back into liquid. Eventually the clouds water droplets will collect together and become to heavy to stay in the cloud. When this happens, the water droplets will fall to the ground. This process is called precipitation. After the precipitation falls, it goes back into our waterways and the cycle begins again! In your water cycle bag, you can see the water condensing making the plastic bag look foggy, and then droplets collecting together turning into precipitation falling down back into the blue water of your bag.
Check out more Science with Shields episodes on WTAJ Plus.