Have you ever thought about the journey a raindrop takes? This mini spark shows you that path through the United States that a raindrop will follow to get to the sea.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page #46: A Raindrop’s Journey
2. Read these 3 paragraphs. Write a summary of a raindrop’s journey using 5 bullet points.

You may think every drop of rain falling from the sky, or each glass of water you drink, is brand new, but it has always been here, and is a part of the water cycle.  At its most basic, the water cycle is how water continuously moves from the ground to the atmosphere and back again.  As it moves through this cycle, it changes forms.  Water is the only substance that naturally exists in three states on Earth – solid, liquid, and gas.

Over 96% of total global water is in the ocean, so let’s start there.  Energy from the sun causes water on the surface to evaporate into water vapor – a gas.  This invisible vapor rises into the atmosphere, where the air is colder, and condenses into clouds.  Air currents move these clouds all around the earth.

Water drops form in clouds, and the drops then return to the ocean or land as precipitation, often rainfall.   When it rains, the raindrops fall to the ground, and run off into a lake or river, which flows back into the ocean, where it starts the process again.

3. This website allows for you to click anywhere on the map to drop a raindrop and follow its journey to the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans! Once you click, you’ll get a bird’s eye view of the path the raindrop takes!

Try it out! Set your timer for three minutes and spend time exploring the site. At the end of the three minutes, write two sentences about what you noticed about the raindrop’s journey.

4. In the top right corner of your search, you are able to see the actual distances that the raindrop is traveling, and along what path.   Choose a location to drop your raindrop, look at the data in the top right corner, and record all of the waterways and the distances on your recording sheet.

5. Find 3 spots on the map where the raindrop makes a journey to different ending point: Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans. Record these three starting locations on your recording page.

6. Share your social studies mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.