Exploring the Water Cycle
NGSS MS-ESS2-4
Read the standard: MS-ESS2-4
Light up each of ten water-cycle steps in a 3D landscape, then use sun, temperature, lake size and tree cover to change how many gallons move each week.
About This Interactive
What do students do?
A whole watershed in one scene, from ocean to mountain glacier. Students tap each of the ten water cycle steps to light up that water, see whether the Sun or gravity powers the step, and read how many millions of gallons move each week, with liters riding along in parentheses. Then they take over the weather: more sun, warmer air, a bigger lake, more trees, and every rate responds. Chilling the valley below freezing turns mountain rain to snow, grows the glacier, and starves the river to a trickle. The full lesson is a mystery about a town well that ran dry, and students use the sliders to test the suspects and convict one with measured rates as evidence. A year-long graph shows the water going up always balancing the water coming down.
What does it cover?
NGSS MS-ESS2-4: develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth's systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity. Every step wears its energy source on its sleeve, which is exactly the standard's point. Key vocabulary: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, infiltration, water table, aquifer.
How long does it take?
20 to 30 minutes for the quick version, or one 50 minute middle school lesson.
What does it run on?
Every SciMinis interactive runs free in the browser with nothing to install and no accounts, on Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, and phones. It's fully bilingual: one tap switches the whole interactive, worksheet included, between English and Spanish.
What do teachers get?
Each interactive ships with vocabulary flashcards, a ten-question worksheet students can export as a PDF, and complete NGSS-aligned lesson plans: a 20 to 30 minute quick version and a full timed 5E lesson. The lesson plans and answer key stay behind a free teacher password, so students can't peek.