Mini Water Worlds

This week we have been learning all about evaporation and condensation.  We did some experiments to demonstrate these processes.  Boiling a kettle near a cold window is a great way to show evaporation and condensation – the water evaporates when it boils at 100 degrees and then when it touches the cold window it condenses and turns back into water!  We were quite amazed at this.  

We then learned about how evaporation and condensation are part of the water cycle - a very important part of life on our planet.  We know that rain falls as precipitation then the sun heats it up and it evaporates and turns into water vapour.  When it rises in the air it gets cold and turns into a rain cloud.  When the droplets get too heavy they fall as rain and the cycle starts all over again!  We’ve made our own mini ‘water worlds’ to show this.  We planted cress seeds in compost in a plastic cup.  We then added some water and then covered the cups with cling film.  We’re hoping that when the water evaporates from the compost it will rise and then the cling film will act like a cloud and catch the vapour which will condense and turn back into water!  We’ve left them over the weekend and we hope to see some good results by Monday!