Materials for Activities:
Ice
Salt
Plastic Cups
Drinking Water

Literature Resources*:
A Drop Around the World
A Drop in the Ocean: The Story of Water (Science Works)
The Magic School Bus Wet All Over: A Book About The Water Cycle
Water Dance
The Science of Water: Projects With Experiments With Water And Power (Tabletop Scientist)
This Is the Rain
The Story of Salt
Water (EYE KNOW)
Tell Me Why Rain Is Wet (Lower Elementary)
* a quick note about literature resources – unfortunately the majority of science books out there are not based on Creation.  So, inevitably you’re bound to run into references of “millions of years” and such.  I am very picky about the books I recommend and will not recommend them if they are too evolutionary in content.  However it is hard to avoid completely.  So I have had a serious talk with my children explaining that our beliefs are different and why; and we “eat the peanuts and throw out the shells” so to speak.

Key Words:
water cycle
evaporate
transpiration
water vapor
condensation
precipitation
infiltration
expand
molecule
density
ice
liquid
hydroelectricity
irrigation
erosion

Internet Resources:

http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html

http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/diagrams/watercycle/index.html

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/earth/groundwater/watercycle.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question58.htm

Class Starter:
Give each student a small cup with a little drinking water in it. Have them drink the water. Ask them if they know where I got that water. Do they know how long it’s been around? The water they just drank has been around since God created the earth! The water that is on the earth today has been in a continual rotation since the beginning of time. We call this rotation “the water cycle”. There is about the same amount of water on the earth now as there was in the beginning.

Questions to be answered: – What is water? What is the water cycle? What happens when water freezes? What effects does salt have on ice?

1) What is Water?
Everybody knows that water is a building block of life, without it everything would cease to exist. Most of the planet and most of our bodies are water. We can survive for a few weeks with no food, but we can only survive a few days without water. Water is the single most essential thing we need in our lives. Water is also the only natural element found on earth that can exist in all three states of being: a liquid (water), a solid (ice and snow) and a gas (vapor). Water is the most versatile substance in the universe. God uses it as part of creating life and sustaining (keeping) life. Water is more than the stuff that comes out of your faucet-it literally keeps you alive! Water is made up of tiny molecules, smaller than our eyes can see, that are in constant motion.

2) What is the Water Cycle?
The water on earth moves continuously in a rotation called the water cycle. Let’s go through the parts of the water cycle, starting with precipitation.

Precipitation – any type of water that falls to the earth. What are some types of precipitation: rain, snow, ice, hail, sleet, mist Infiltration – soaking up of the precipitation.

Infiltration – happens when water soaks into the soil from the ground level. It moves underground and moves between the soil and rocks. Some of the water will be soaked up by roots to help plants grow. The plant’s leaves eventually release the water into the air through the plant’s pores. Some of the water keeps moving down into the soil to a level that is filled with water, called ground water.

Evaporation – when water is changed from it’s liquid form into water vapor. Warmth from the sun causes water from lakes, streams, ice, and soil to turn into water vapor in the air. Almost all of the precipitated water (80 percent) goes right back into the air because of evaporation.

Transpiration – type of evaporation. It happens when plants give off water vapor through tiny pores in their leaves. This is the plant’s way of getting rid of waste, just like people and animals sweat when they’re hot!

Formation of Clouds – All this water vapor is going back up into the sky. Sometimes on a hot humid day you can feel the water vapor, you know when it’s sticky outside in the summer – that’s just water held in the air. The water can change into fine droplets by “condensing” in the air, and we get clouds. When the droplets get big enough, they are pulled to back the earth by gravity as precipitation. And then the cycle starts all over again!

3) What About Ice?
Now that we’ve learned about the water cycle, let’s talk about one form of precipitation that we see very often in the winter…ice. So, what happens when water gets cold, really cold? It goes into one of those three forms (liquid, solid, gas) – solid. When the temperature of water reaches 32 degrees F it freezes, turns into a solid. The molecules inside the liquid slow down their movement and become more solid. The molecules are still moving, just not as much. The colder the temperatures are the less the molecules are moving and the harder the ice is. If the temperature is only around 32 degrees the ice will be quite slippery because of this continued movement of molecules on the surface. The colder it gets the stickier and less slippery the ice will become.

4) What is salt? What are its effects on ice?
Now, let’s talk about something that has an interesting effect on ice…salt. Salt is a mineral found in the earth and in our oceans. What do we most commonly use it for? – food (to enhance), put on streets in winter to melt ice making them safer. How does salt melt ice? Salt helps lower the melting point. For water, as we discussed, it has to be 32 degrees F to freeze; however salt will not freeze until the temperature reaches -22 degrees F. When you add salt to ice the salt dissolves into the top layer of ice, mixing with it and dropping the “melting temperature”, making it so the ice returns to its liquid (water) form. In a moment we’re going to see this process in action. But first let’s talk for a moment about how water and salt speak of God, because remember ALL creation speaks of Him and shows Him.

4) Bible Lessons –
Story of the Samaritan Woman (John 4:1-26)
In verse 13-14 it says: “Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus is the Living Water – The water we drink does not keep up hydrated for long, we have to continually drink more and more to keep alive. In the Bible we are taught that Jesus is like “Living Water” to us, never running dry, never running out, always keeping us full through eternity.
Three States of Water
Three in One – God, Jesus, Holy Spirit
(John 17:20-23)
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

As we spoke of before, water is most essential element to our basic survival; and water is the only natural element that can be in three forms. While the three different forms of water look different from one another, they are all still water. Just the same while God manifests Himself in three different ways, they are all still God.

Salt of the Earth
Matthew 5:13 – “You (Christians) are the salt of the earth.”

Salt is a compound produced when sodium, a metal so unstable that it easily bursts into flames, combines with chlorine, a deadly poisonous gas. This natural occurrence is known as a chemical reaction – think of it as two people who misbehave a LOT on their own, but play well when they are together. The two elements stabilize each other, and the resulting compound, sodium chloride (salt), is neither explosive nor poisonous.

What is one of our purposes as Christians on this earth? To help “stabilize” and “neutralize” evil, to bring peace, to enhance other’s lives, just as the creation of salt has a stabilizing effect and the use of it enhances our food.

5) Melting Ice with Salt – Activity

Give each of the students a clear plastic cup with a couple of ice cubes in it.  Pour 1/2 t. salt onto ice.  Observe.  What is happening?  The salt is dissolving into the ice cube and the ice is melting, returning to liquid form.

6) Notebook Entries

Have students fills out “Water Cycle Vocabulary” Page; cut out along with Water Cycle Graphic and paste in notebook.  Label with date and “The Water Cycle”.

Water Cycle Vocabulary Sheet

Water Cycle Graphics

6) Nature Challenge
With your parent’s permission, do one or all of the following activities:

Indoor Challenge: Do you remember how we talked about that the molecules in water slow down, harden and expand when they are cooled to the freezing point? Because the molecules expand this takes up more space. Let’s prove this. Pour some water into a plastic container with a lid. Place the lid on and leave some air in the container. With a felt pen or a piece of masking tape, mark the water level on the container. Place the container in the freezer for a few hours. Look at the container once the water has turned to ice. Is the ice at the same level as the water was? Write down your observations perhaps using a picture or photo to illustrate what you proved.

Outdoor Challenge: Listen to or look at the weather forecast. If it is supposed to rain, place a large glass container with a large opening outside on a level surface where the rain can fall freely on it. Rain will collect in the container. After one day, measure the amount of water inside the container. This is the amount of rainfall in your area for that day. Record your observations perhaps using a drawing or photo to illustrate what you did. If you’re adventurous record it daily and line graph it (of course this is optional)!!!

RESEARCH BONUS: There are many people who work with water each and every day. If you are interested pick one of the careers below to research. Share with me a little of what you found out and why or why not you’d like to do something like this one day.

Deep Sea Diver

Lifeguard

Meteorologist

Plumber

Hydrologist