Transpiration Experiment for The Water Cycle

As you probably know 90% of the moisture in the atmosphere comes from evaporation of our oceans, lakes and rivers.  Did you know that 10% of the water in our atmosphere comes from transpiration? Plants take in water through their roots and send it up to the leaves and stems.  Some of that water is released in the form of water vapor through special structures in the leaves called stomata.This process is called transpiration.  

We do not normally see this happening, but there is a simple experiment you can try that allows you to see the water being released.  

On a warm day put a clean dry baggie over a branch with leaves on it.   Seal the baggie closely to the branch.   

Just ten minutes after I placed the dry baggie over the branch I can already see water vapor in the baggie.

Two Hours Later and I can see accumulation of water at the bottom of the bag.

Three hours later by evening, I can see more water accumulation in the bag.

The next morning there appears to be less accumulation as some of that water has evaporated and condensed on the baggie.  

The whole lesson with interactive notebook folds, a CLOSE reading activity, and response pages is available in my store Transpiration Lesson Aligned with NGSS

Or buy this great lesson in my complete Water Cycle Unit 

NGSS Water Cycle Unit

Visit my store to see more great science experiments Lynda's Store