Education & Outreach

COMET: Snowpack and Its Assessment Snowpack and Its Assessment: This two- to three-hour tutorial. Registration required.

CUAHSI Database of Education and Outreach Programs [1]

CUAHSI Short Films About Water [2]

Data Services for Education

DELESE: Digital Library for Earth System Educators [3]

Earth Science Teaching Lesson Plans (Water) [4]

Educational Resources (Topics include: Land, Ocean, Atmosphere, Applications, NASA Satellite Missions, and The Water Cycle)

How NASA Studies Water [5]

Laboratory Earth I: Concepts and Applications [6]

Lesson Planet The Search Engine for Teachers (Water Cycle) [7]

NASA Earth Observatory [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/]

NASA Science Learning [8]

NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum [9]

NOAA Climate Project Office Education Resources [10]

Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) [11]

Science on a Sphere [12]

The GLOBE Program [13]

Water Science Glossary of Terms [14]

THE WATER CYCLE Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation are terms that might sound familiar, yet may not mean much to you. They are all part of the hydrologic or water cycle which involves five major processes: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, groundwater flow and surface runoff. On Earth, this water in motion not only gives us water to drink, fish to eat, but it also creates weather patterns that help our crops grow.

Water is always changing and moving in part of the water cycle. The sun is an energy source, which heats up the water in lakes, on the plants and trees and in the oceans. The heated water turns into vapor, which is like steam, and rises. This process is called evaporation. You have probably seen the effects of evaporation on puddles on the ground. After the rain, when the sun comes back out, the puddle disappears. The water has evaporated, just like water from the ocean evaporates. Evapotranspiration is the term used when the water that evaporates is from the plants and trees.

As this invisible vapor rises through the sky, it cools down and small droplets form to make clouds. Condensation has occurred. We see condensation on the outside of a cold glass of water as it comes in contact with the warmer air. When enough water or ice collects in a cloud, it rains. If the temperature is cold enough, it snows. This is precipitation. Most precipitation falls back to the oceans but a small percentage falls over land. When the water runs down the hills, collects in lakes, and flows through rivers and streams it is called surface water runoff. Other water seeps into the ground through the many layers as groundwater flow. Water we use comes from our watershed, an area of land where all the water that falls on it drains either under the ground or on its surface.

All living things need water to survive. Our bodies, just like the earth, are made up of about 70% water, yet people can only live about three days without it. Leaders in the world worry about the quality and quantity of water. Too much water can cause flooding and too little droughts. Ninety-seven percent (97%) of all water is in the oceans, but it is salty and unsuitable for drinking. Some of the salty water can be processed to use for drinking, however this is expensive and would not be practical in large amounts. Two percent (2%) of fresh water can be found in ice caps and glaciers, frozen solid, which is un-usable for people or plants. This leaves only 1% of all fresh water useable for people, plants, and animals.

Here are some interesting facts about our water on earth. If you live in The United States, there are about 40 trillion gallons of water above your head on an average day. Each day, about 4 trillion gallons of this water fall to Earth as precipitation in some form. More than 2.5 trillion gallons returns to the atmosphere through evaporation. In the atmosphere, rivers, oceans groundwater and elsewhere on Earth there are a total of more than 326,000,000 trillion gallons of water.

The water cycle is a worldwide process of water circulating from oceans to clouds, to the land, and back to the oceans. It is the same water weve always had here on Earth. This is how nature recycles its water again and again and is why water is considered our renewable resource

Text by C.A. Schlosser, formerly UMBC GEST, currently MIT, and D. R. Belvedere, UMBC GEST.

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The education and outreach component of WaterNet will identify and coordinate NASA water cycle related education information and activites through networking and convergence.

View slide: Image:WaterNet Education & Outreach 04 2007.pdf

Last Updated: 12 January 2010