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💧 The Water Cycle

How water moves from oceans to clouds to rain and back again.

lessons

~14 min

to learn

🔬 Science

subject

Ages 6–12

level

Start the course →

What you’ll learn

Water on the MoveExplain that water is continually recycled, exists in three states, and is driven by the Sun.The water cycle continuously recycles Earth's water among solid, liquid and gas states. The Sun's heat is the engine that warms surface water and sets the cycle in motion, so the same water is reused indefinitely.
Up Into the SkyDescribe evaporation, transpiration, and condensation into clouds.Solar heating evaporates surface water (and plants release vapor via transpiration) into the air. Higher up, cooler temperatures cause condensation, turning vapor into the droplets that form clouds.
Back to EarthExplain precipitation, collection, and the repeating nature of the cycle.When clouds hold enough droplets, water returns as precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail) and collects in oceans, lakes, rivers and the ground. The Sun then re-evaporates it, repeating the cycle forever.

Questions this course answers

The never-ending journey of Earth's water is called the:

The water cycle moves the same water around Earth over and over.

Which is NOT one of water's three forms?

Water exists as solid, liquid and gas; it is never a metal.

What powers the water cycle?

The Sun's heat warms water and drives the whole cycle.

Water turning into vapor and rising into the air is called:

Evaporation is liquid water becoming vapor when heated, mostly from the oceans.

Water vapor cooling and forming clouds is called:

Condensation is vapor cooling back into tiny droplets that form clouds.

Rain, snow, sleet and hail are all types of:

Precipitation is water falling from clouds in any form.

Grounded in trusted sources

NOAA & USGS Water Science School
USGS — U.S. Geological Survey
National Geographic Kids

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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