How Clouds Form

Lab Brief #7

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

The slowest changes are the biggest ones.

What you'll learn

Clouds form when water vapor rises, cools, and condenses on tiny particles in the atmosphere. Different cloud types—cumulus, stratus, cirrus—indicate different weather conditions.

Key words

water cycle
The way water moves from clouds to rain to rivers and back.
weathering
When rocks slowly break apart from wind, water, and weather.
atmosphere
The layer of air and gases surrounding a planet.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: which will erode faster?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

rocks
water
plastic tray

⚠️ Safety first

Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards and keep the material away from your face.
Mop up spills straight away so nobody slips, and keep liquids away from sockets.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Model erosion: tilt a tray of soil and pour water from a cup at the top. Observe how channels form. Try adding plants or rocks to slow the erosion.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Use your senses (except taste) to describe what you notice.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a summary of your findings in 3-5 sentences.

Question 1 of 3

What type of rock forms from cooled magma?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

How do fossils form?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What forms when tectonic plates collide?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🪨 Every grain of sand on every beach used to be a mountain.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: Why Some Places Are Wetter All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Today's weather, tomorrow's beach, next century's coastline — all this.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Look at the sky for 5 minutes and try to predict tomorrow's weather.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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How Clouds Form

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