---
title: "The Water Cycle in Detail"
description: "Describe the water cycle, tracing water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and transpiration in plants, explaining how the sun drives the cycle"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-water-cycle-in-detail-mt_V2lNzEex_a
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-water-cycle-in-detail-mt_V2lNzEex_a.md
retrieved: 2026-09-02
---

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# The Water Cycle in Detail

Describe the water cycle, tracing water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and transpiration in plants, explaining how the sun drives the cycle

Subject: Science · Area: Ecosystems & Habitats · Ages 11 to 12
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-water-cycle-in-detail-mt_V2lNzEex_a

## Ready when they can

- Labels a water cycle diagram correctly
- Explains what drives each stage of the water cycle (e.g. solar energy drives evaporation)
- Explains the role of transpiration (plants releasing water vapour) in the water cycle
- Discusses how human activities (deforestation, paving) affect the water cycle

## Lesson: Tracing the Water Cycle

Water never disappears. It just changes shape and place, moving through a loop called the water cycle. Five stages carry it around: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and transpiration. One thing powers the whole loop: heat from the sun. That heat does not vanish at sunset, because the oceans and the air hold on to it, so the cycle keeps turning at night.

*(drawing: Water evaporates, condenses into clouds, falls as rain, runs off the land, and returns from plant leaves too.)*

Two paths add extra water to the loop. Surface runoff is rain that flows over the ground into rivers, lakes, and the sea instead of soaking in. Transpiration is water vapour escaping through tiny pores in plant leaves, joining the vapour already rising from oceans and lakes.

**Example.** A raindrop lands on a forest hillside. Some of it sinks into the soil. The rest becomes surface runoff, trickling downhill into a stream. Nearby, a tree pulls water up through its roots and releases some back into the air through its leaves: transpiration. Both paths send water back toward the sky or the sea, ready to evaporate again.

*(drawing: Out of every 10 buckets of rain, only about 2 run off a grassy field. About 8 run straight off a paved car park.)*

Human activity changes the cycle. Cutting down forests removes trees that would have released water vapour through transpiration. Paving ground with roads and car parks stops rain soaking in, so more of it runs off fast instead of slowly returning to rivers and the water table.

**Recap.** The sun powers a nonstop loop: water evaporates, condenses, falls as rain, runs off the land, and returns from plant leaves through transpiration.

## Practice

8 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [The Water Cycle](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/the-water-cycle-mt_fhqVdj4BYr)
- [Evaporation & the Water Cycle](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/evaporation-and-the-water-cycle-mt_Qkewo5M3_c)