Watery Earth Lesson 5 - Learning About Groundwater

Questions

1. Where did all the water that you poured into your cup go?
2. How does this model simulate what really happens to groundwater in the world? (How does water get underground? Where is water stored underground?)
3. Based on this experiment, what can happen to a drop of water after it falls on the ground?
4. Do you think humans use groundwater? If so, what do we use groundwater for?
5. How do humans get groundwater to the surface?  Is this easy to do?
6. Do you think groundwater can move anywhere else? Where? How does it move?
7. How have your ideas about what happens to a drop of water changed since you started learning more about groundwater?
8. How have your ideas about what happens to a drop of water changed since you started learning more about groundwater?

Answers

1. The water started going really slow downwards, and eventually fell all the way to the bottom.
   
2. It shows that when it rains the water absorbs into the ground and eventually sinks deeper and deeper until it reaches a hard surface that water can't really get into like a big rock. Water gets underground when it rains and it absorbs in to it. 
3. The water will soak into a surface like dirt or sand, and then it will continue going into the ground until it gets to a big solid rock.
4. I don't think that humans use groundwater because it is underground and we use surface water like rivers, oceans, and lakes.
5. When humans want to get ground water, they usually drill underground, because it is fresh water.
6. Groundwater can't really move anywhere else but down. It can do this because as it absorbs it continues moving down until it reaches a rock.
7. At the beginning I really didn't think about ground water, but now I realize that there is a lot of groundwater and that it can be used because it is fresh water.