Anita Yasuda - Explore Water!: 25 Great Projects, Activities, Experiments

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Introduction
EXPLORE WATER

Chapter 1
W IS FOR WATER

Chapter 2
WATER CYCLE

Chapter 3
WATER AND WEATHER

Chapter 4
WATER WORKS

Chapter 5
POLLUTION DECODER

Chapter 6
WATER WISE

Chapter 7
WATER INSPIRED

CAN YOU GUESS WHO I AM? I have been here since Earth began. I splash and spill. I drip and drop. You use me, play in me, and drink me. I can run through your fingers, be hard as a rock, and turn invisible. I flow through your body and history. I guided explorers and helped the first settlers. Can you guess who I am? Water!

Water is amazing. More than half of the worlds animals and plants live in it. There would be no past, present, or future people without water. In fact, you would not be here. You surely would not be reading this book. And yet, we often take water for granted. But this is a mistake. We are lucky to have water. Earth is the only planet in our solar system with liquid water.

WORDS to know

HYDROLOGIST: a person who studies water.

Put on your HYDROLOGIST hat! A hydrologist is a person who studies water. In the following pages, youll read about the water cycle, rain harvesting, water power, water technology, and how to use water wisely. Youll also discover how much water there is on Earth and why it falls from the sky.

Along the way youre going to do lots of fun projects, play games, do experiments, and hear some silly jokes. Be warned though, youre going to get very wet as you drip, drop, splish, and splash around.

Ready? Lets Explore Water!

OUR BLUE PLANET

What if you were an astronaut in a spaceship high above Earth? From space, Earth looks like a bright blue gumball!

Looking closer, you can spot the five Great Lakes of North America, the dark lines of the Amazon River, and the bright blue of the oceans. No matter where you look, you see water. This is not surprising, because water covers 70 percent of Earth. It is in the puddles on your street and in the streams near your home. It is even in the air.

JOIN THE TIME WARP TOUR

Imagine travelling through time to the beginning of Earth. Hop on, our tour bus is leaving now for the very distant past. Take a look around. This is Earth 4 billion years ago. Of course, its very different. Earth begins as a hot swirling mass of gas, rock, and dust.

WORDS to know

COMET: a ball of ice and dust that ORBITS the sun.

ORBIT: circle around something.

METEOR: a rock that orbits the sun.

WATER VAPOR: water as a gas, like steam or mist.

EROSION: the wearing down of the earths surface.

METEOROLOGIST: a scientist who studies weather patterns.

Later, these parts come together to form a huge glowing ball. Look out for the COMETS and METEORS falling from the sky above!

There is water trapped inside the earth. As the earths center heats up, WATER VAPOR rises to the surface. Get out your umbrellas! When the earth starts to cool, that water vapor turns into liquid, or rain. For millions of years it rains.

Meanwhile, huge land masses smash together like bumper carscraaaash!and then split apart. The falling rain collects in the empty, low-lying areas. This is how oceans begin.

The amount of water on Earth will remain the same. As Earth cools and warms, water will freeze, thaw, and carve the surface. This is EROSION. Eventually, the earths land and water forms will begin to look familiar to you.

What kind of meteor can tell the weather?
A METEOROLOGIST.