A quick summary of the water cycle that includes a diagram of the cycle, with links to in-depth explanations of each component of the cycle. Click "water-cycle home" to access water-cycle resources in a variety of languages.

Despite seventy percent of the world's surface being covered with water, there is a potential shortage of this natural resource. Only a small percentage is fresh water and much of that is inaccessible or threatened. Learn about fresh...

The USGS gives an overview of the amount of water on Earth and where it is located. It gives a few interesting facts about the Earth's supply of water. Click Home to access the site in Spanish.

This tutorial provides some insight to the study of human impacts on water supplies.

For young scholars that have already been introduced to the water cycle, this lesson plan is intended as a logical follow-up. Students will learn about human impacts on the water cycle that create a pathway for pollutants beginning with...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] In this learning module, students will investigate the chemical and physical properties of the unique and important substance, water.

In this lesson, students collected and tested well water from various locations to determine the quality of surface water used as drinking water throughout their town. Students prepared a general report for the town as well as specific...

The distribution of water on the Earth's surface is extremely uneven. Only 3% of water on the surface is fresh; the remaining 97% resides in the ocean. Of freshwater, 69% resides in glaciers, 30% underground, and less than 1% is located...

Explore the chemical properties involved in surface tension.

This site provides a comprehensive introduction to the water cycle. Students construct a model to simulate parts of the water cycle. Includes background information, links to standards, lesson plans, and assessment ideas.

The USGS reviews the differences between lakes and reservoirs. They discuss the history of freshwater and salt water lakes. Click Home to access the site in Spanish.

This unit contains a series of lessons that allow students to explore the effect of sunlight on Earth's natural surfaces of sand, soil, rock, and water. In addition, students explore how the color and material of a surface affects how...

The career of hydrologist could become more and more important as the use of water increases. Find out about the education needed to become a hydrologist and read the Science Buddies profile about the many areas hydrologists use their...

This hands-on lesson focuses on the land and its many different types of landforms and bodies of water. Included are a minute-by-minute lesson plan, activities, and teacher discussion points and questions.

Drinking water comes from many different sources, including surface water and groundwater. Environmental engineers analyze the physical properties of groundwater to predict how and where surface contaminants will travel. In this lesson...

This site gives background information to ocean water and its contents. It has a link to an detailed chart showing the minerals and their content amount in ocean water. It also has links to activities.

In this environmental science fair project, students will build models of fields prepared by plow-based and no-till methods, and see which ones are best at retaining soil moisture and preventing surface runoff.

From ABC News in Science, Irene Klotz's article examines a network of canyons and riverbeds on Mars's surface which, according to scientists, may have been home to certain "microbial life."

This lesson introduces and describes the main types of erosion (i.e., chemical, water, wind, glacier and temperature). Young scholars learn examples of each type of erosion and discuss how erosion changes the surface of the Earth....

This physics tutorial features text and animations explaining the particle motion of a medium through which transverse, longitudinal, or surface waves move.

As part of the General Chemistry Virtual Textbook, this site examines a variety of topics related to the hydrosphere and the oceans. Topics covered include where the water came from, the hydrologic cycle, Oceanic circulation, atmospheric...

Capillary is described and explained. It is related to surface tension. Examples in botany and human physiology are given.

A hydrogeologist is a person who studies the ways that groundwater (hydro) moves through the soil and rock of the earth (geology). A similar profession, a hydrologist, is someone who studies surface water. Find out what this career is like.

Learners investigate coral bleaching using water temperature data from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center. Then they learn about the habitat of corals, the stresses on coral populations, and the impact of increased sea surface...