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?

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

   • Infiltration, then condensation
   • Evaporation, then infiltration
   • Runoff, then precipitation
   • Infiltration, then transpiration
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?

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

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

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

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

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

6. Read this first

   Use this

   Drawing of a clear bag tied around a leafy branch at the stem, with drops inside the bag after 3 hours.

7. 6.

   Pia's class tied a clear plastic bag around a leafy branch on a sunny day. After 3 hours, drops lined the inside of the bag. What do the drops show?

   • The leaves made brand-new water out of the sunlight
   • Water leaked in through the plastic
   • Plants give off water vapor through their leaves
   • Rain got inside the bag

8. 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.

9. 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
   • The open cup's water was destroyed by the sunlight
   • Rain fell into the covered cup
   • Gravity pulled water out of the open cup
10. 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?

    • Drips: water leaking through the tray
    • Warm water: ocean; cold tray: cool air; drips: rain
    • Tray: the Sun; drips: going up by gravity
    • Warm water: cloud; tray: ocean; drips: evaporation
11. 9.

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

    • No change, since gravity sets evaporation
    • More evaporation, since warmer water evaporates faster
    • Less evaporation, since warm water holds on to its vapor
    • More condensation at the surface instead
12. 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
    • The same, since water takes one fixed path
    • The vapor disappears from the cycle
    • Less vapor goes up, since transpiration drops