The water cycle, powered by the Sun and pulled by gravity

Grade 6 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   Water-cycle diagram with one drop's path drawn: ocean, cloud, snowy mountain; the next arrow from the melting snow is blank. A drop evaporates from the ocean, condenses in a cloud, falls as snow on a mountain, and melts in spring. Where can it go next, by Esme's trace?

   • Straight back to the cloud it came from
   • Up the mountain, since the Sun pulls it uphill
   • Down a stream, or into the ground
   • Nowhere; melted snow disappears
2. 2.

   Rainwater soaks into the soil, a tree's roots take it up, and it leaves through the leaves as vapor. Which two processes does Jun name, in order?

   • Evaporation, then infiltration
   • Infiltration, then transpiration
   • Infiltration, then condensation
   • Runoff, then precipitation
3. 3.

   Vapor from a lake rises, cools into a cloud, and the drops grow until they fall back as rain. What moved the water up, then down, as Kira explains?

   • Nothing; clouds are just vapor that floats
   • The Sun's energy, then gravity
   • Gravity, then the Sun's energy
   • The Sun's energy both ways
4. 4.

   Luz's friend says clouds are made of water vapor. Which response is best?

   • Agree: clouds are the vapor we can see
   • Disagree: clouds are made of smoke and dust from the ground
   • Disagree: clouds are tiny drops; vapor is invisible
   • Agree: vapor evaporates into clouds
5. 5.

   A post says water that evaporates is gone for good. Milo checks the claim. Which response is best?

   • Disagree: it becomes vapor and can fall again as rain
   • Agree: evaporation destroys the water that it takes
   • Disagree: it condenses straight into the ground
   • Agree: it turns into air, not water
6. 6.

   Noah's cousin says a cold can of juice sweats because juice leaks through tiny holes in the metal. Which response is best?

   • Disagree: the cold metal makes new water from nothing
   • Agree: the drops come from inside the can
   • Agree: the juice evaporates out through the metal
   • Disagree: vapor in the air condenses on the cold can

7. Read this first

   Table (example data, read about), Two cups (example data)

   Covered cup, 100 mL at the start, 99 mL after 3 days; open cup, 100 mL at the start, 70 mL after 3 days.

8. 7.

   Two cups each held 100 mL of water in a sunny window for 3 days. The covered cup kept 99 mL; the open cup kept 70 mL. Why, by Ren's reasoning?

   • Vapor escaped into the air from the open cup
   • Rain fell into the covered cup
   • Gravity pulled water out of the open cup
   • The open cup's water was destroyed by the sunlight
9. 8.

   Tala's teacher holds a tray of ice over a bowl of warm water. Drops form under the tray and drip down. What does each part model?

   • Warm water: cloud; tray: ocean; drips: evaporation
   • Warm water: ocean; cold tray: cool air; drips: rain
   • Tray: the Sun; drips: going up by gravity
   • Drips: water leaking through the tray
10. 9.

    If the ocean surface gets warmer, what does Ari predict happens to evaporation there?

    • More condensation at the surface instead
    • No change, since gravity sets evaporation
    • Less evaporation, since warm water holds on to its vapor
    • More evaporation, since warmer water evaporates faster
11. 10.

    a forest with vapor arrows rising from the leaves, then bare ground with the arrows blank. A forest is cut down. What happens to the water vapor that its trees used to add to the air, by Bo's prediction?

    • More vapor, since the trees were blocking the Sun's heat
    • Less vapor goes up, since transpiration drops
    • The same, since water takes one fixed path
    • The vapor disappears from the cycle