Which jar is the most transparent?
Which jar is the least transparent?
What does this tell you about how pollution affects water quality?
After you finish this activity, you should be able to answer the questions above. If you are struggling, be sure to review the video, or continue reading below for a brief review.
When water is transparent/clear, more sunlight is able to travel through the water. This sunlight allows tiny plants called phytoplankton to grow. These plants are at the basis of many aquatic food chains. Small creatures eat these plants, and become food for larger fish. This is a very basic food chain, which we learned about a few weeks ago! This food chain is very important, because it ensures a healthy aquatic system and often is the basis for food chains that end with people on top (meaning we eat the fish that depend on these small phytoplankton).
When pollution enters our hydrosphere, whether it’s in the form of chemical pollution or physical pollution, it can get trapped in our water systems. This pollution makes water dark, murky, and cloudy. When water is dark and cloudy, less sunlight is able to enter the water and help plants grow. Where there is no sunlight, there is often no plant life!
Activity 2: An in Depth Look at the Water Cycle
This part of today’s lesson is a deeper dive into the topics covered in the video, best suited for 5th+.
In the video we just watched, we learned how water condenses into cloud formations, gets heavy and then falls as precipitation. That precipitation falls on water or land, and what happens next depends on where the precipitation falls.
Oceans, lakes, rivers: Water falling over other will become our surface water and eventually evaporate.
Plants and trees: Some water will transpire, but some water will enter the soil and water the roots.
Hard surfaces (pavement, cement): Water falling on hard surfaces will become surface run-off, and travel to a nearby body of water, collecting lots of pollution with it.
Soil: Water falling on dirt/soil will infiltrate the soil, meaning sink below the surface. This water will enter a body of water called our groundwater. Groundwater is water stored beneath our ground!
Ice: When rain falls over ice caps or glaciers, it will freeze. However, ice can evaporate, and turn from a solid to a water vapor/gas without ever becoming a liquid! This process is called sublimation.
Test your knowledge!
You just added some new terms tot he ones we talked about in the earlier part of the lesson. Here’s a list of the important ones we just mentioned along with some from earlier:
Surface water Ground water Sublimation Transpiration
Precipitation Condensation Evaporation
Look at this image and match each letter to one of the terms above. The answer key is below, so try not to look before you’ve matched every letter!
